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"The Enormous Radio" by John Cheever
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Post War America
- Dramatic Economic Boom
- Baby Boom
"The Enormous Radio" by John Cheever
Lack of Spiritual Guidance
John Cheever
(1912-1982)
Selfishness & vanity
Human Weakness
Moral Conflicts
Drawbacks of Capitalism
- U.S. short-story writer and novelist
- Won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978.
References
Cheever, John. “The Enormous Radio” The Norton Anthology of
ShortFiction. 7th.Eds.Bausch, Richmond, and R.V Cassill. London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.250-258. Print.
Colford, Ian. "John Cheever's Ascendant Voice: The Enormous Radio,
and Other Stories." Antigonish Review 33.132 (Winter 2003): 93-107. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 120. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
Black, Brian C. "Oil For Living: Petroleum And American Conspicuous
Consumption." Journal Of American History 99.1 (2012): 40-50. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2015
Post War Society and Present Society
Moral conflicts
Violating others' privacy
“She continued to listen until her maid came in.”(Cheever 254)
Capitalist Society with the Conspicuous Consumerism
a seemingly happy New England marriage that when poked reveals a relationship strained to the point of breaking.
“Irene's distress, brought on by the discovery that her neighbors are not the virtuous householders she imagined them to be, is purely hypocritical, given Jim's denunciation of her behavior at the story's close.” (Ian Colford 8)
“By listening more carefully, she was able to distinguish doorbells, elevator bells, electric razors, and Waring mixers, whose sounds had been picked up from the apartments that surrounded hers and transmitted through her loudspeaker.” (Cheever 252)
“The Enormous Radio" can be read as a relatively simple tale of one couple's moral downfall.”(Colford 9)
Capitalist Society with the Conspicuous Consumerism
“‘Conspicuous consumption,’ to describe the power of social emulation expressed through extravagant display, particularly in the American model of capitalist society.” (Brian C. Black 3)
“Mass consumption became a symbol of American success in the Cold War.” (Black 3)