New technology has and will continue to dominate civilization for the rest of the foreseeable future, specifically the technology of the video camera. The video camera has allowed humans to relive moments through virtual recordings infinite amounts of times, making any modern crime almost impossible to cover up. The short story, "Videotape" by Don DeLillo is one that combines suspense, repetition and a focus on the pervasiveness of video as DeLillo exposes society's desensitized mentality towards violence. 

DeLillo does not take long to inform the reader and foreshadow a crime taking place in the narrative. A small child is introduced as a passenger in the back of her family's vehicle, carelessly playing with a video camera on the trip. DeLillo informs the reader that the child's name is being withheld, as she is, "neither the victim [nor] the perpetrator of the crime but only the means of recording it" (DeLillo, 60). The main focus of this narrative is made clear seconds into cracking the pages of the text, as a few sentences in, the reader starts to anticipate a crime later on in the text. This strategy proves to be very effective in creating suspense in the text, and grabbing the reader's attention from the start of the narrative. As if enough suspense was not already created in the first few paragraphs, DeLillo releases another key fact about the crime shortly after the first hint. DeLillo claims this crime, "is not just another video homicide" (60). The reader was already aware that a crime would be taking place, but a homicide? DeLillo is effective in his use of suspense to draw in the reader because he drops hints and details of the crime one at a time. If he indulged the reader with all the facts of the crime at once, they would not be pressed on to turn another page in the narrative. DeLillo creates suspense in the text because he wants the reader to get excited. This suspense is successful because the audience is intrigued by the potential for the death of a character in the story. DeLillo feeds off how desensitized society is to violence and creates anticipation in the rest of the text. 

 DeLillo not only loves to create suspense in the text, but also generates a great deal of repetition in the narrative. Throughout the course of the narrative DeLillo uses the words, "it is" to start a countless amount of sentences. This repetition is easily identifiable through the first few paragraphs of the text, and is used to refer to the footage of the video camera. The narrator of this text is a man who is sitting in the comfort of his own home, watching the playback of the child's video. DeLillo uses "it is" to key the reader in that the story is being told from the perspective of the narrator watching the video. DeLillo uses this strategy in order to compare the reader of this text to the narrator, or the man watching the video. The man watching the film is also feeling the same emotions of that of the reader, especially the suspense of the event. The man watching the video is in his home with the company of his wife, who keeps drifting in and out of the room in which he is watching the playback. This man feels the same suspense that the reader feels, and calls out, "Janet, hurry up, this is where it happens" (61). Unlike the reader, the man knows what the crime is that is going to take place. Similar to the reader, the man does not know the exact moment in time or exact moment in the text that the murder will take place, so he presses on and tries to get his wife Janet in the room to watch. DeLillo exposes society's obsession with violence through the actions of the man watching the tape, as he can't wait to see the action or murder scene. When the girl tapes the crime, as soon as the driver is shot, "there is a jolting movement" from the camera, "but she keeps on taping" (62). The girl clearly has a reaction to the driver being shot while behind the wheel, but is it a justified reaction? The fact that a twelve-year-old girl firsthand tapes a murder and her only reaction is a startled shake or wobble in the video shows how desensitized she is to violence. This is the meaning DeLillo wants the reader to walk away with through their exploration of the narrator's actions and reactions to the film. 

DeLillo stresses the pervasiveness of the camera as an allusion to the lack of sensitivity the audience has for violence. The Texas highway murders took place in the 1980s and 90s, a time period where modern technologies such as the video camera were just catching on. These video cameras "break every trust, spy out the undefended space  they will shoot you on the pot if they can manage a suitable vantage" (60). DeLillo sees the camera as a way of exposing humans when they are unsuspecting. This kind of exposure is intriguing to an audience and society who is desensitized to violence, because it presents more opportunities for them to view recorded violence. These viewers don't just want to see animated movie violence they desire real, live videos. The man watching the video calls his wife over to the television, "because it is real this time, not fancy movie violence" (63). Watching a real, living human lose their life is "awful and unremarkable at the same time" (63). The man watching the tape knows how horrible this tragedy is, yet he still keeps his eyes locked on the screen. In order for these kinds of recordings to be acquired, there needs to be a cameraman intruding upon the life of another. When watching the video society fails to have any real empathy for the people on the screen, for the violence doesn't disturb them. DeLillo links the pervasiveness of the camera to society's desensitized mentality towards violence to ensure that the reader understands his message.  

Don DeLillo uses the strategies of suspense, repetition, and focus on the pervasiveness of video in order to expose society's desensitized mentality towards violence. DeLillo's repeated use of these techniques ensure the reader leaves the text with his intended meaning in mind, solidifying the short story, "Videotape" as an effective piece of writing.    

