According to Raymond Williams, "In a class society, all beliefs are grounded in the class position and belief systems of all classes..." (Rice and Waugh 122). His work entitled Marxism and Literature exposed the conflict between social classes to bridge the political ideals of Marxism with the implicit comments made through the text of a novel. “For the practical connections,” he states, “between 'ideas' and 'theories' and the 'production of real life' are all in this same material social process of signification” (133). Williams argues that a Marxist approach to literature introduces a cross-cultural universality, consequently adding timeless value to the text by connecting creative and artistic processes with the resulting material products. Like Williams, Don DeLillo calls attention to the economic and material relations behind universal abstractions such as aesthetics, love, and death. DeLillo's White Noise brings to the forefront of the story's plot the incessant lifestyle disparity of modern capitalist societies between active consumers and those without the means. DeLillo's setting uses a life-altering man-made disaster in the suburban town of Blacksmith to shed light on the class conflict between the middle class (bourgeoisie) and the working poor (proletariat). After a tank car is punctured, an ominous cloud begins to loom over Jack Gladney and his family. No longer a feathered plume or a billowing black cloud, but the toxic airborne event, an event that even after its conclusion Jack cannot escape the prophecy of his impending death. Through a Marxist reading of the characterization of Jack Gladney, a middle-aged suburban college professor, it is clear that the general obsession with death operates as a… paper medium… conduits are made to serve as solutions to the public's imminent problems, but instead perpetuate fears of their impending death. . What makes this fear uniquely bourgeois is that, according to Williams, only this class has the time to consider its “means of subsistence.” Work cited Barry, Peter. Early Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 2nd ed. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2002. Print. DeLillo, Don. White noise. New York: Penguin Group, 1986. Print “Marxist Literary Criticism.” Online publication, YouTube. November 4, 2008. Web. December 1, 2011. Rice, Filippo. and Patricia Waugh, eds. Modern literary theory. 4th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. Sengupta, Somini. “25 years later, toxic sludge plagues Bhopal.” nytimes.com. New York Times, July 7, 2008. Web. December 13 2011.