Bizarre Take# 19: Caught on Video 🎥

Hey!




This week, we read a piece titled “Videotape”, which followed the story of a peaceful family car ride quickly escalating into something much more sinister. Throughout the piece, it takes on a very suspenseful tone that quickly turns ominous as a tragedy occurs, all through the innocent eyes of a child witnessing the whole scene. It starts out as an innocent family car ride, and turns left very fast.


The piece starts out with sudden detail, and talks about the idea of family cameras used to signify calmness and peace. Delillo continues to describe the story in detail, and when he writes, “It is not just another video homicide”, the story takes a twist, switching to a gruesome tone. Delillo continues to describe the man in the story, and starts to employ a second perspective, writing, “You are looking into the mind of home video” (11). Through this, Delillo appeals to the audience, making the piece all more suspenseful. Delillo wants to emphasize the unsuspecting things that could occur throughout life, and how unpredictable it can be, shown when he says, “You keep on looking because things combine to hold you fast…a sense of the accidental, impending” (12). This goes to show the sheer unpredictability and randomness life offers, and how anything that happens. He also emphasizes this through his wife’s perspective, saying, “Janet, hurry up!”, showing the contrast between her calm shows and his unpredictable ones, and how one should always be aware of the randomness that could occur anytime. All throughout this, Delillo conveys this message to the audience in a very subtle way, all through the perspective of a young girl witnessing the whole gruesome act.

  • Videotape hater (I did not like it),

  • Prisha

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