Style

In his essay Videotape, Don Delillo juxtaposes the themes of innocence and the unpredictability of mortal life.  His narrative features a girl who rhetorically represents purity and innocence -like a young Jeannette Wallace - esque character before her encounters with fire.  Her protagonist roles are however challenged as the narrator introduces that the girl is just some wayward video enthusiast who's video some strange man is watching.  The weird dude represents some gawking American; he is a Lone Ranger in the boundless territories of his television.   As the video progresses to the inevitable murder it captures, the narrator describes the extent of the man's encapsulation with cooloquial “Janet, hurry up”’s to his wife.  In the crucial moments leading up to the man being “shot in the head,” the author directs the audience panicked and increasingly personally- in his hysteria his style takes a new form,  he transcends the boundaries of a formal essay and strives to blatently connect with his audience and mirrors the gravity of his essays content.   His narrative becomes so personal that it's now more of a memoir out of someone's diary than his essay.  

As Delillo relays his message in the Texas Highway Killer's murders, intimacy with the reader becomes fundamental to his rhetoric usage.   His sentences become tert and contemplative;  his closeness brings the excitement of a casino into the pages of his essay. While others may say this modernistic writing Is hasty and rushes his meaningful subject,  I would say that form meets content in his essay the way that his style matches the spontaneity of life.