Author: DENISE SINGH

“The Enormous Radio” by John Cheever is a story told in third person narration. The story is not gothic because the setting. Jim and Irene Westcott are a wealthy family with children and a maid. Irene stays home all day and Jim works. Irene wears her jewelry and fur and attends lunch with her friends. They both enjoy listening to the radio together when Jim arrives home.

 Jim buys Irene a new shiny radio to make his wife happy even though they seem to be not as wealthy as the year before. When the new radio is being used, they do not hear music but everyone in their private apartments. Jim and Irene find this amazing and continues to listen as if it was a reality show. Irene sees her neighbors in the elevator and judges them in her mind by what she hears through the radio. However, after reading this short story I realized that it had some allegory elements. Jim and Irene were wrapped up in listening to their neighbor’s personal conversations and judging them that at the end you learn they are having money problems of their own as Jim yells at her over her unpaid clothing bill, $400 for a new radio and Irene acting like she is saint when Jim really knows who she is. Instead of Jim and Irene being nosey they should’ve been working on their own marriage and home instead of judging others.

This story has gothic elements as well because the way the story ended. At the end the Central Gothic Irony comes in to play as Jim was yelling at Irene, she listens to the radio hoping to hear the neighbors, but she hears the weather and a railroad disaster in Tokyo. The radio starts to play when Irene wants listen to her neighbors instead of hearing the truth Jim has to say.

“Assumed that Gothic Fiction began as a lurid offshoot from a dominant tradition of largely realist and morally respectable fiction” Page 1

“Certain unique, cultural pressures led Americans to the Gothic as an expression of the very different conditions” Page 2

“The sensationalism of this at first almost universally deplored yet extremely popular form of writing allowed a vicarious experience of forbidden excess, with punishment and retribution offered in the eventual return to psychic normality” page 3

“Among the extremes and taboos that the Gothic explores are religious profanities, demonism, occultism, necromancy, and incest. This can be interpreted as a dark side of Enlightenment free thinking.” Page 4

“Among the most striking features of the Gothic genre is the style of its architectural setting. In early Gothic these were often medievalist, involving ancient stone building with elaborate, “Gothic” arches, buttresses, passageways and crypts” Page 5

I love reading and I haven’t read any good short stories or books in a while but the gothic fiction short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson was one that I really enjoyed.

There are so many reasons why I liked this short story. In the beginning of the story, it was going to be a wonderful day. Everyone was chatting and the children were playing and waiting to draw their ticket from the black box like the prize was something great. I did not think the end would’ve been horrifying.

After I read the story, I was a little upset the way it ended. Like was I tricked? Her own children and friends were about to stone her to death. The actual lottery prize was, being killed by your community. However, I started to process the plot, I realized I enjoyed reading the short story and suspense it came with. There were clues from the beginning about the “stones”, but I didn’t think it was a symbol.

Compared to the other fives stories “The Lottery” didn’t make me loose interest even at the end. After reading I was thinking about the characters and what happens to the Hutchinson family after they helped stone her to death? Do you get a good night rest after the narrator kills his wife like in “The Black Cat” By Edger Allen Poe?

This story really made me think about people that may be in your life. Some may not like you and you won’t know until your time is ending like Mrs. Dunbar carrying the heaviest rock to throw at Mrs. Hutchinson. Also, how could a person’s husband be so happy that you die instead of him. I have never read a story with an ending that made me think about the clues and what I could’ve missed even after reading the story twice.