Category: Coffeehouse #4 (Page 2 of 2)

John Cheever’s story, “The Enormous Radio” demonstrates a lot of the emotions of a typical gothic storyline. For instance, cruelty, when Mr. Osborn is beating up his wife. There is lust or passion shown, in the case of the girl that Irene refers to as a “whore.” There is dread, that is a big emotion throughout the whole story where Irene hates everything she is listening to, she hates to see what her neighbors are really like, to wondering what the world around her is really like. One of the biggest gothic actions shown is dwelling in negativity, since Irene starts to only focus on the negativity, starts asking her husband questions about their life, trying to be different than the others. She knows that what she is doing is wrong, yet she purposely goes out of her way to sit down in the living room to listen in to her neighbor’s conversations, which can also be seen as doing the forbidden. Eventually, her emotions get out of hand, and her constant nagging at her husband also brings out the negative in her husband, who brings up all the negatives of her past, judging her as to the actions she had taken and now she is being judgy of everyone else.

The reason that “The Enormous Radio” would not classify as a gothic story would be because of setting. The setting of this story is a regular average home, with regular average people. Gothic settings tend to be castles, graves, forests, or anything involving darkness. Another difference of gothic stories is that there is no return to normalcy. After listening to her neighbor’s life, she starts to have doubts on people, starts acting differently and even her husband starts to notice the changes in the way that she is. It does not state in the story that Irene was able to go back to being the way she was in the beginning. She was a normal person, who lived a normal life, and now it is as if she lives her life paranoid. In a previous argument with her husband, they were able to calmly settle the argument. However, during the last argument, they end in a bitter note, with Irene’s husband yelling at her, which he had not done at any point in the past.

The story is called “The Enormous Radio” by John Cheever. It depicts a gothic term because of the hidden messages the radio is giving throughout the story. As the story invests around the married couple of Jim and Irene Westcott and their family but shows their point of views from the narrator in a third person view. The amount of suspense, tension, and guilt between the couple which this radio has brought to their point of view. The gothic element that is being used in this story would be the suspense of secrets that the wife has realized into their marriage. She has the feeling of guilt which has been brought up to her when the radio depicts the neighbors argument which gives the realization and connection of her own marriage. Irene has been suppressing her own emotions, guilt and secrets which has created a drift into her own marriage. The radio symbolizes a gothic element of suspense and mysterious tone in the story. The story is not gothic literature because there is no villain or any type of main issue or the characters do not seem suspicious to me while I was reading this story. The characters do not give any vibe of being the villains or the bad guys in this story, they seem like a regular couple. The setting does not take place in any abandoned or mysterious or scary place; it seems like a normal regular place. It does not give any scary or spooky vibes in this story. But the story does give a hidden message and the radio has been symbolized as it gives us an intake of the secrets behind the couple and how they have been hiding things from each other. The realization hits when the radio gives the main characters a whip of what is being going on between them. 

-SarkerNoha

Alexha Charles

In the short story “The Enormous Radio” by John Cheaver, it focuses on a couple, Jim and Irene, who brought a vintage and daunting radio. This story does indeed have gothic irony due to the fact that a radio comes into Westcotts life. This radio isn’t like ordinary radios and it can listen into other conversations being had by neighbors in their building. At first, Jim and Irene disliked the radio due to them not being able to listen to music but the discussions between neighbors. After hearing the neighbors, Jim and Irene felt a sense of superiority because they never experienced issues that their neighbors are currently going through. However, over time, Irene hears her neighbor being abused by her husband and another neighbor faces issues with hospital bills. When the radio is fixed, all goes back to normal. They can no longer hear the conversation being had by neighbors and the radio becomes a normal radio where it only plays music and weather reports. 

One can say that the story does not have gothic irony because there is not a return to normalcy. The Westcotts relationship was “good, decent, and loving”. Having the radio and overhearing the many conversations being had by neighbors all over the building, made the Westcotts feel as if they were better than others, but they (mainly Irene) started to have trust issues. She doubts her friends and her neighbors. She believes that they are playing a facade to hide what they’re truly going through. After the radio is fixed, Jim and Irene eventually start arguing with one another. Irene becomes worried neighbors will hear and Jim reveals that Irene is not innocent and she has done terrible things. It wouldn’t be considered gothic irony due to the fact that the Westcotts relationship doesn’t return to normal and that they are no different from their neighbors that face personal issues.

Directions for Coffeehouse #4:  Read John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio” and write one paragraph on why this story is gothic (use correct terms) and one paragraph on why it is not gothic (300 words); this is due by class time on Oct 13 (remember we don’t have class on Monday, Oct 11)