John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio” can be considered gothic because of its excessive dwelling in negativity. This is shown in the story when Irene Westcott keeps on listening to the radio throughout the day and learning about people’s secrets. The radio exposes a lot of people’s problems and abuse of others which was disturbing to Irene. These secrets were shocking to her but she keeps on listening even though it was upsetting and ruining her relationship with her husband (Jim Westcott). At the end of the story, Irene was in denial of her own wrongdoings and wanted to help others which made Jim angry. This leads to more negativity as Jim exposes their financial problems and Irene’s past of hurting others with no remorse. Irene could have stopped using the radio to stop the negativity/problem but chose to keep listening.

One reason why “The Enormous Radio” can’t be considered gothic is the lack of extremes. What happened throughout the story was very tame compared to other gothic stories and there wasn’t anything unexpected. The problems people have in the story are very normal and Irene Westcott is too delusional to stop herself from overreacting.