

The story of "Videotape" by Daniel DeLillo is a story about a little girl who is catching a homicide of a highway driver on camera.  The little girl is told to be recording her family driving on a road trip, her name is withheld from the public in an attempt to protect her identity.  She focuses on a car behind her when all of a sudden he is seen to have been shot by a person known as the "Texas Highway Killer" (62).  This homicide is being broadcasted on the news and is being told from the perspective of a narrator who is watching the broadcast.  This was not his first time however seeing the murder.  In fact he's seen it so many times he knows the exact timing of when the murder occurs.  The narrator throughout the story goes into a lot more detail about the murder video that paints us a very vivid picture of exactly how the act is captured.  The narrator's thoughts and feelings are also given as well giving us perspective of not only the murder that was caught on video but how a normal family would react to it.  This use of perspective gives the story not just one meaning, but two.  DeLillo's use of perspective tells us a story of not only a homicide caught on camera, but also the changing of society due to the influence of the media. 

The first meaning or theme we see is a very obvious theme that lies on the surface of actual film about the girl videotaping the homicide.  The man who was shot was portrayed to be a balding man in his middle 40's who was smiling and playing along with the little girls game.  He seemed like a friendly and average man that was just casually going about his business.  The character choice here shows that the author was trying to show people that this could happen to anybody.  From what we know about this man he didn't seem to be doing anything wrong or looking for trouble or expect his life to end anytime soon, especially in a few short moments.  He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.  This image might be different if the victim was an angry or mean looking individual.  Or if he was someone with tattoos all over his body with ripped clothing looking like he was in a motorcycle gang.  But the averageness the man portrayed connects to the most amount of people and makes them think about how random an everyday activity like driving on the highway could be.  Because of all of this the first story provides us with a surface theme of how unpredictable and sporadic life is.  As the narrator says this is simply the "risk of existing" (62). The last thing you thought that was going to happen at the end the video was the death of what appears to be an innocent, friendly man.  It just goes to show nobody truly knows what will come with their next breath.

The second meaning of the story is found in the second perspective of the story through the comments and actions of the narrator.  This second meaning is one that isn't quite seen on the surface of the text, but still exists within the lines of the story.  DeLillo wrote this piece to not just make you think about the unpredictability of life but to also bring attention to the effect the media on society.  At first glance this meaning could seem a little farfetched because at no point in the story is there really an attack against or even talk about the media in a negative way.  Proof however that a second meaning exists can be seen with the character of the narrator himself. The story didn't need to be told by a narrator that was watching the murder film on his television set.  But the whole story is told through the viewing and thoughts of the narrator himself.  Had the murder just been explained in detail, without the comments of the narrator, the first theme would be the only one present.  But the use of a character who also explains his thoughts and comments on the video adds another storyline that contains this second meaning.  A part of the commentary from the narrator is getting his wife to watch the video with him and then continues to explain why he is making her watch the tape with him.  He comments that typically he has his own television programs and that his wife has her own separate programs.  But when it came to the video he made sure that she watched it.  This is because of how intense and real it all was.  The narrator later comments on how the video destroys the image society has molded and made over many years.  He says the video is more real than society has even made life today and claims that "The things around you have a rehearsed and layered and cosmetic look  ... . It is what lies at the scraped bottom of all the layers you have added" (60, 61).  In this case "it" is the video and it is literally scrapping away the protective layers society has made for itself.   In the author's opinion this exposure to materials like these are not good for society as a whole.  Because of this exposure, society is becoming desensitized to graphic material such as an actual murder.  We see this especially with the last remark the narrator makes in the story where he says "They show it because it exists, because they have to show it  ...  The horror freezes your soul but this doesn't mean that you want them to stop" (63).  This really shows the meaning of this story, saying that the media is doing what it is supposed to do, but that is not what is necessarily good for society.  The media might think the people need to see stuff like this simply because it exists.  But once they are exposed to it, they want to see more.  This tape pushes what most people see as reality and crave to see more once they get a taste of this reality.  More proof of the author's second meaning is seen when the narrator near the end of the story goes on to talk about how: 

This is a crime designed for random taping and immediate playing. You sit there and wonder if this kind of crime became more possible when the means of taping and playing an event -- playing it immediately after the taping -- became part of the culture  ... . He commits the crimes as if they were a form of taped-and-played event. (62)

The narrator is saying that the murder commits this crime not because of the fact that it could be taped, but because of the attention he is getting from the media.  He continues to do the crime because regardless of the crime being taped and played or not, he is getting a lot of attention for his murders.  The media jumps on stories so quickly that is can have a negative impact on many people.  Nobody knows who the girl or who the murder is, but they are both " ... famous without names without names or faces, spirits living apart from their bodies ... " (63).  The influence of media is also seen when the narrator says "This is either the tenth or eleventh homicide committed by the Texas Highway Killer. The number is uncertain because the police believe that one of the shootings may have been a copycat crime" (62).  This small paragraph is not needed for you to understand the plot of the story.  And you wouldn't have missed any details if he had just said ten people have been killed by the Texas Highway Killer.  The point of this little paragraph is to show how society is changing, in this case for the worse, with the medias influence.  Maybe only ten people would be dead, but because of how mainstream the murder became in the media it may have been copied.  All of these points combined show the author's deeper meaning of his story that the media is changing the actions and views of society in a negative way because they are being exposed to sensitive materials such as the actual murder of a real man.

The two perspectives in "Videotape" creates a setting where two separate meanings and stories exist simultaneously.  The first one is a more obvious meaning that is seen in the actual part about the videotape of the murder.  Overall the theme around this part of the story is about how random and unpredictable living life can actually be.  And even when things are looking good, they can still make a turn for the worse.  The second meaning is seen through the perspective of the narrator who adds the other storyline and meaning in the work.  Even though it is not directly being said, you can see through the use of the narrator's comments and actions that this story was written to show the negative impacts the media is having on society.  Whether it be that the media creates an environment that makes us want to see more graphic material, thus changing our thoughts on how real or even bad the material we are seeing is.  Or whether it can influence someone to act this way because they know they will get attention for it which in turn can also make other people do it because they saw it in the news.  DeLillo uses all of these parts of the story to not only make us reflect on life, but to also show the change society is experiencing because of the stories the media expose to the public.  

