Inn Don DeLillo's story "videotape", he uses a certain few element such as repetition, plot, setting and theme to convey the overall message of the story. These elements also help to connect the reader's feelings and emotions to the story. 

DeLillo's language and use of repetition throughout the story helps to convey the overall message to the readers. The story is told from 2nd person point of view from a man watching the video on tv. The repetition of "you" from the narrator helps to connect the reader to the situation. 

And maybe you're being a little aggressive here, practically forcing your wife to watch. Why? What are you telling her? Are you making a little statement? Like I'm going to ruin your day out of ordinary spite. Or a big statement? Like this is the risk of existing. Either way you're rubbing her face in this tape and you don't know why." 

His use of you're/you makes the narrator feel like he's not alone and that there were others who felt the same way about the video that he did. The author also repeats she/girl/child a lot in reference to the girl who was videotaping the man. 

She wandered into it. The girl got lost and wandered clear-eyed into horror. This is a children's story about straying too far from home. But it isn't the family car that serves as the instrument of the child's curiosity, her inclination to explore. It is the camera that puts her in the tale.

The repetition of references to the girls serves as a dramatic effect to connect the readers to the emotions of the story. It makes you view it in a different way when you realize that a twelve year old was the one to film this and witness it. The language and repetition used is used to give a deeper look into the narrator's views and feelings which helps the readers to view it and feel the same way. It's almost as if he does this to comfort himself and feel like he is not the only one having these feelings. 

Setting and plot both play a big role in the dramatization of the story. They are both so simple that it makes it so much more shocking and unexpected.

It shows a man in a sport shirt at the wheel of his car. There is nothing else to see. The car approaches briefly, then falls back. 

It shows something awful and unaccompanied. You want your wife to see it because it is real this time, not fancy movie violence-the realness beneath the layers of cosmetic perception. Hurry up, Janet, here it comes. He dies so fast. There is no accompaniment of any kind. It is very stripped. You want to tell her it is realer than real but then she will ask what that means. 

DeLillo uses a lot of foreshadowing which helped keep the story suspenseful. The plot was so simple that when the murder did occur, it was so sudden and unexpected. You never knew when it was going to happen so it kept you guessing. The man or narrator who is watching the video on the screen cannot seem to draw himself away from it. Even though he knows each time what is going to happen and exactly when, it still brings him the same shock each time. He tries very hard to get his wife to come and watch the video because he wants his wife to experience the same real terror and shock that he experienced when watching this video. The simple setting gives the same effect because it explains two cars driving down a highway, and then all of a sudden the man is shot. The description of how the girl continues to film after he has been shot also adds an element of surprise because you wonder how she can continue to stay filming and focused on the man after she had just witnessed such terror. 

Theme is one of the most important details of this story. He connects the story to a theme that is so real and relevant that it really helps the readers understand and connect to it. 

Seeing someone at the moment he dies, dying unexpectedly. This is a reason alone to stay fixed to the screen. It is instructional, watching a man shot dead as he drives along on a sunny day. It demonstrates an elemental truth, that every breath you take has two possible endings. And another thing. There's a joke locked away here, a note of cruel slapstick that you are completely willing to appreciate. Maybe the victim's a chump, a dope, classically unlucky. He had it coming, in a way, like an innocent fool in a silent movie. 

There's an obvious theme to be learned in this story. Life can end so unexpectedly and completely without warning. The theme helps the readers to really think about the reality of this situation and how easily it could happen to anyone. Not only does it make you think about how quickly life can be taken, but the cruelty that happens in many situations like this. It's hard to think about this happening to you or even someone you know but it's so real, which is why the author makes it so prominent; because it's so relatable to the readers.

DeLillo's purpose of this was to get the readers to feel like they were experiencing this with the narrator. He did this through many different rhetorical elements used throughout the piece. He wanted not only to connect the readers emotions to the narrator's emotions but also to their own personal ones if this had happened to them. 


