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The passage where the atheist German nun treats Jack provides the final resolution to the events in the motel. This passage is especially notable in communicating modernisms

attempts to capture the bewilderment of modern life and the view that the 20th Century is a jumble of conflicting ideas. It also emphasizes the postmodern ideals that sharp classifications such as male versus female do not exist; realities are held to be plural and relative. The passage ultimately reveals Jack as a modern man floundering in the sea of a postmodern world where irony triumphs everything. Don DeLillo wastes no time in showing the reader the first piece of irony. The fact that the German nun does not actually believe in God draws parallels to the modernist view that the 20th Century is a jumble of conflicting ideas. Jack, as a man struggling with these modern ideals, refuses to believe that the nun is atheist. He keeps stubbornly adhering to his belief that youre a nun. Nun believes these things. As a man with a stable job and family, Jack keeps insisting to the nun that you must believe in tradition. His frustration with the nun stems from his want for the nun to conform to his set of ideals of what a nun should behave like and believe in. He cannot realize that in the postmodern world, there is no such thing as stability. The postmodern ideals that the sharp classifications do not exist and that realities are held to be plural and relative are also held within this passage. The German nun, practical to an extreme, has no comfort or answer for Jack except to tell him that appearances and illusions are necessary. Even though her faith is false, it still ironically serves a purpose for the others who spend their lives believe that we still believe. When the nun refers to the others who spend their lives believe that we still believe, she is also referring to Jack. Jacks viewpoints represent the postmodern society at large, where as belief shrinks from the world, people find it more necessary than ever that someone believe. This is especially true for Jack, whose belief in

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the world is rapidly shrinking. His job is in danger because he put up a faade that he could speak German. His marriage is in danger because his wife cheated on him in order to obtain a pill that blocks her fear of death. As Jacks life starts to collapse around him, he needs

something to believe in. His insistence on a firm foundation for a belief explains why he was so angry when the nun did not conform to his standards of what a nun should be like. To prove her point that her false faith serves a purpose, the nun utters something in German that Jack cant understand. Strangely enough, Jack finds something beautiful in her This is the point where irony triumphs

incomprehensible speech and guttural language.

everything. Even though what the nun recited could have been anything, Jake still sticks with his belief that she was reciting something; litanies, hymns, catechisms. He still cannot accept the randomness and disorder of a postmodern society, and is stuck with his beliefs from the past. All in all, the passage ultimately reveals Jack as a modern man floundering in the sea of a postmodern world where irony triumphs everything. No easy answers or resolutions are possible. Death remains inevitable, but life need not be terrible as a result.

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