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Jim Westcott
Mr. Osborn, who lives in apartment 16-C, is a neighbor of Jim and Irene Westcott. When Irene uses the radio to eavesdrop on the apartment, she realizes that Mr. Osborn is abusing his wife. Overhearing Mr. Osborn’s assault on his wife prompts Irene into action; for the first time, Irene wishes to break the tacit societal code of privacy in order to intervene on her neighbor’s behalf. Ultimately, however, Irene chooses to leave Mr. Osborn’s domestic abuse unreported. Irene’s aborted response to Mr. Osborn’s behavior demonstrates her priorities: she prizes social respectability over decency, and is unwilling to draw attention to problems in her community.
Mr. Osborn Quotes in The Enormous Radio
The The Enormous Radio quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Osborn or refer to Mr. Osborn. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Enormous Radio Quotes
“Mr. Osborn's beating his wife. They've been quarreling since four o'clock, and now he's hitting her. Go up there and stop him."
[…] "You know you don't have to listen to this sort of thing," he said […]
"Don't, don't, don't, don't quarrel with me," she moaned, and laid her head on his shoulder. "All the others have been quarreling all day. Everybody's been quarreling. They're all worried about money. Mrs. Hutchinson's mother is dying of cancer in Florida and they don't have enough money […] and that girl who plays the ‘Missouri Waltz’ is a whore, a common whore, and the elevator man has tuberculosis and Mr. Osborn has been beating Mrs. Osborn.”
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Mr. Osborn Character Timeline in The Enormous Radio
The timeline below shows where the character Mr. Osborn appears in The Enormous Radio. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Enormous Radio
...see Irene crying while she listens to the radio. She tells him that their neighbor, Mr. Osborn , is beating his wife, and asks Jim to go to their apartment and stop...
(full context)
...tears, she labels the woman who plays the “Missouri Waltz” a “whore,” and iterates how Mr. Osborn is a domestic abuser. Jim once again says she does not have to listen to...
(full context)
