Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Enormous Radio, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Appearances, Reality, and Social Respectability
Self-Deception and Hypocrisy
Innocence, Ignorance, and Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
Jim Westcott and Irene Westcott, a middle-class couple with two young children, live in New York City and “seem” to “strike that satisfactory average of income, endeavor, and respectability.” Jim acts “intentionally naïve,” and Irene has an open and honest look about her. The Westcotts maintain a secret “interest” in “serious music,” however, which sets them apart from their acquaintances.
Jim and Irene are introduced as an ideal couple, but their picturesque lifestyle is a cleverly cultivated deception. This passage takes care to establish just how unremarkable this couple is, but it will eventually become clear that both Irene and Jim actively construct their earnest, average, and carefree appearance. Additionally, they hide the one personality quirk that sets them apart from their social circle. The Westcotts, who wish to maintain their reputation of innocent contentedness, are afraid to seem abnormal or draw any attention to themselves whatsoever.
Themes
Jim and Irene often listen to a radio at home, but when their current model breaks down, Jim buys a new radio. Irene is immediately horrified by the “physical ugliness” of the new model, and describes the radio as an “aggressive intruder” amongst her carefully curated living room. When she turns the radio on, it glows with “malevolent” light and broadcasts at such a high volume that a “china ornament” falls onto the floor. Irene feels “uneasy” about the radio’s “violent forces.”
The new radio is an intimidating trespasser. That the new radio transmits broadcasts at an unexpectedly loud volume and breaks one of the delicate furnishings in the Westcotts’ home implies that the radio—a transmitter of chaos and knowledgewill be a destructive force in the couple’s carefully constructed life.
Themes
Later that evening, Irene turns on the radio again, and hears the beginning of a “Mozart quintet.” Soon, however, the music is interrupted by “interference,” and she hears “doorbells, elevator bells, electric razors,” and other noises from the apartments around her. She realizes that the radio is transmitting her neighbors’ sounds through the loudspeaker, and, recognizing that she cannot “hope to master” the machine, turns it off.
Like many characters in the story, the radio is more than it appears to be: at first, it seems ordinary, but it then reveals itself to be a sinister object. The radio’s unstoppable transmissions also represent the inescapability of worldly knowledge: awareness of others is unavoidable once the radio, a relentless communicator, has entered the Westcotts’ household. Irene is initially resistant to shattering her apparently blissful ignorance, however.
Themes
After work that same evening, Jim turns on the radio and has the same experience as Irene: the radio’s volume is initially so loud that it makes the apartment shake. The radio then experiences interference, and begins to broadcast sounds from their neighbors’ apartments. Jim is “unable to get rid of the noises,” and turns the radio off, promising Irene that he will get it fixed.
Jim’s experience with the radio is similar to Irene’s: both are helpless in the face of the radio’s unyielding, thunderous broadcasts. Jim’s experience reinforces the idea that exposure to worldly knowledge is inevitable. Jim initially believes that he can return to the innocuous music to which he is accustomedthis return would symbolize his ability to remain ignorant of the broader worldbut he is ultimately incapable of mastering the radio.
Themes
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By the next afternoon, the radio has been fixed, and Irene turns it on to hear a rendition of the “Missouri Waltz,” which reminds her of the music she used to hear from an “old-fashioned phonograph” during her childhood summer vacations. After the song finishes, Irene expects a brief “explanation” of the recording, but the song merely starts over again; soon after, she turns off the radio to tend to her children.
Irene’s next exposure to the radio leads to a moment of nostalgia. This interaction with the radio reveals another element of its communicative powers: the radio is capable of reminding its listener of past innocence that has already been lost or eroded by time. The radio, therefore, is a communicator of both present and past knowledge: it reveals the neighbors’ conversations and evokes memories. By communicating these dual types of knowledge, and providing no explanation for its broadcasts, the radio continues to illustrate how knowledge of the world is disorienting, and oftentimes inexplicable.
Themes
When Jim returns from work, he is “too tired” to uphold a “pretense of sociability” with Irene, who remains quiet. As they listen to the radio, a fight between a man and a woman interrupts the broadcast of a “Chopin prelude.” Jim insists the fight is from a radio play. Jim and Irene change the radio channels multiple times, and overhear other conversations, including a neighbor’s nurse, Miss Armstrong, reading a bedtime story. Jim continues to think it is “impossible” for the radio to broadcast these sounds.
Jim’s inability to act socially with Irene exposes the couple’s constructed appearance of marital bliss; in actuality, the couple is not completely happy. The radio’s broadcast of another couple’s fight only heightens this discrepancy between happy appearances and actual discontent. Moreover, this overheard fight introduces another instance in which knowledge supersedes respectability, as harmless music is overtaken by a private quarrel. Furthermore, Jim is unwilling to believe the radio is actually revealing another couple’s secrets, and lies to himself in order to remain ignorant of others’ problems.
Themes
Irene tells Jim to keep using the radio, and the couple turns to multiple radio channels. They overhear a rowdy cocktail party, and Irene begins to identify the voices with glee. Irene then asks Jim to deliberately eavesdrop on specific people, such as the neighbors in apartment 18-C. As the Westcotts continue to listen in, they overhear many private conversations, including “a bitter family quarrel” over finances. They stay up eavesdropping until midnight and go to bed “weak with laughter.”
Despite the Westcotts’ initial wariness, they soon enjoy the newfound knowledge transmitted by the radio. Instead of sympathizing with a couple that fights over money troubles, however, they find humor and satisfaction in remaining privy tobut unaffected byothers’ anxieties. The radio’s broadcasts provide useful information that erases Irene and Jim’s blind ignorance of their neighbors. Ironically, however, the couple does not actually learn from their knowledge; instead, they use it to fuel their illogical delusions of greatness and reinforce their carefree personas.
Themes
Irene’s son wakes her partway through the night for a glass of water. After retrieving the glass for him, she turns on the radio to overhear a conversation between a husband and wife. The husband asks if his wife is feeling well, and she tiredly responds that she “never” feels like herself. The wife then admits she is hesitant to go to another doctor, as her medical bills are already so expensive. Irene is disturbed by the “restrained melancholy” of their discussion, and goes back to bed.
Irene’s continual use of the radio indicates that she is becoming accustomed to the knowledge it imparts. Still, Irene begins to realize that knowledge has its costs: it can expose the painful emotional secrets that are hidden behind cultivated appearances. When Irene eavesdrops on a woman confessing to psychological trauma, she is troubled by what she hears, and decides to return to bed to avoid losing her willful naivety entirely. In other words, she doesn’t want to entirely face the issues she is now privy to.
Themes
The next morning, Irene tends to her children. Once Jim and the children leave for the day, however, she immediately turns on the radio, breaching the “privacy” of her neighbors’ homes. She overhears another rendition of the “Missouri Waltz,” and “demonstrations” of “carnal love, abysmal vanity, faith, and despair.” As Irene’s life is “simple and sheltered,” she is deeply disturbed by what she hears. Still, she continues to eavesdrop, and only turns off the radio when the maid arrives.
Once again, Irene is drawn to the radio’s transmissions of knowledge. As Irene is exposed to more secrets, she understands the depths of her neighbors’ immorality, which erases her sense of worldly ignorance. She is troubled to hear the range of her neighbors’ problems and disturbed by how differently they behave when behind closed doors. Despite this, Irene’s descriptions of her peers are clearly judgmental and dismissive: she considers them vain and sexually depraved. These labels only fuel her own self-righteousness.
Themes
Irene leaves to have lunch with her friend, and gets into the elevator. The elevator is already filled with other women from the building. Irene looks at their “handsome and impassive faces,” and wonders about the problems and secrets they are hiding behind their aloof expressions. Soon after, another woman enters the elevator, humming the “Missouri Waltz.” Irene continues to wonder about secrecy as she has lunch with her friend, and looks “searchingly” at her acquaintance’s face.
Eventually, exposure to the radio’s revelations warps Irene’s worldview. Whereas previously she was unaware of her neighbors’ faults, she is now overtly mistrustful, and fixates on her peers’ false appearances and hidden secrets. The knowledge Irene has gained from the radio has so thoroughly altered her perspective that she even suspects her friend of faking normalcy to maintain her reputation. Irene’s naivety has rapidly eroded, and she has gained a new, painful awareness of social standing’s importance.
Themes
Although Irene is scheduled to go shopping with her friend, she makes an excuse and heads home. She tells her maid to leave her undisturbed, and turns on the radio to listen to the neighbors’ conversations. She overhears a couple scheming to sell a diamond that fell from a bracelet of one of their party guests, and hears another conversation in which a woman pushes her friend to “talk to somebody” at the party so they can stay on the invitation list.
Disoriented and overwhelmed by the pervasiveness of others’ lies and fakery, Irene chooses to cancel her plans. Instead of separating herself from the radio, however, she once again eavesdrops on conversations that reveal her peers’ greed and superficiality. Now that her naivety has been replaced by mistrust, she is unable to return to her state of carefree bliss. In fact, now that she is aware of how people truly behave, she seems compelled to seek out new secrets that will make her aware of further deception.
Themes
The Westcotts plan to go out for dinner with friends later that night, but Irene acts “sad and vague,” so Jim brings her a drink. As the Westcotts walk towards the restaurant, they hear a “Salvation Army band” playing, and Irene comments that the musicians seem much nicer than “the people” in their apartment’s social circle. Jim notes the look of unfamiliar, “radiant melancholy” on Irene’s face, and comments to himself about her strange behavior at dinner. As they walk home after the meal, Irene quotes a line from Shakespeare about how “a good deed” always “shines” in a “naughty world.”
Irene’s new knowledge of the world has made her a cynic. Instead of revealing her feelings of mistrust to her husband, however, she makes oblique comments that hint at her true thoughts. In this way, Irene maintains an appearance of normalcy and deludes herself into thinking she is unchanged by what she has learned. In actuality, she is deeply troubled; however, she seems unwilling to disturb Jim by telling him the truth. She then recites a quote that indicates she still strongly believes that she is better and more righteous than her deceptive neighbors.
Themes
The next day, Jim arrives home to 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 the assault. Instead, Jim shuts off the radio, and tells Irene she does not “have to listen” and can choose to turn it off. Irene exclaims that it is “dreadful,” and Jim answers angrily that he bought the radio, which was rather expensive, to make her happy. Irene, distraught, asks him not to “quarrel” with her, and emphasizes that everyone around them has been “quarreling all day.”
Eventually, Irene’s awareness of others’ cruelty triumphs over her investment in maintaining appearances. She asks Jim to intervene in a neighbor’s life, implying that she is finally prioritizing truth over respectability. Jim, whose worldview has not yet been warped by the radio, instead gets frustrated with Irene. He offers her the choice to stop listening, an option that would allow her to return to a state of ignorant bliss. Irene accepts this option, once again choosing to prioritize respectability over empathy. Jim and Irene are unwilling to provoke a confrontation with the neighbors, as this could alter their social standing and disturb the community’s tacit secrecy.
Themes
Irene then tells Jim that all the neighbors are “worried about money.” She discusses another couple, the Hutchinsons, who cannot afford medical treatment for their relative. In 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 the radio, and Irene leaves it turned off. Irene then exclaims, “Life is too terrible, too sordid and awful.”
Irene’s exposure to others’ problems has eroded her ignorance, but it has not made her less superficial. She finally reveals the neighbors’ worries to Jim, but is uninterested in empathizing with her peers. Instead, she tries to reinforce her sense of superiority by judging her peers harshly; she believes that her family is more fortunate and moral. Irene acts world-weary to arouse sympathy, as she wants Jim to affirm her sense of superiority and righteousness.
Themes
Irene asks Jim to confirm that their family lives a lifestyle that is different from their neighbors. She asks him whether they are “good and decent and loving,” and then asks him to say that, unlike their peers, they are “not hypercritical or worried about money or dishonest.” Jim does as Irene wishes, and “tiredly” confirms that they are happy.
In order to reinforce her self-deceptive lies, Irene asks Jim to confirm that their family is better, kinder, and more carefree than the neighbors. Irene’s request reveals her investment in reputation over reality: she does not care that her peers are suffering. Instead, she is solely interested in perpetuating her fantasies of social success and normalcy.
Themes
In the morning, a repairman fixes the radio, and Irene is “happy to hear” normal radio programming, such as commercials and music. When Jim comes home, however, he confesses to Irene that the radio’s bill was more than they can afford. He also points out that she lied to him about paying the clothing bills, as they are still on her dressing table. Irene claims she did not tell him because she did not want him to worry.
When the radio is fixed, Irene is happy to return to a state of ignorance about her neighbors. Jim’s confession about the radio’s price, however, shatters Irene’s delusion of carefree innocence; once again, she is forced to confront truths that undermine her untroubled façade. Jim’s accusations further illustrate the consequences of Irene’s self-deception: she is, in fact, not as financially secure as she pretends to be, and is actually quite irresponsible with money.
Themes
Jim responds that she must get better at handling the household’s finances. Jim then admits that he has not done as well as he had “hoped to do,” and urges Irene to think of their children. He says that he worries about money “a great deal,” and feels very unsure of the future, just like everyone else. Jim adds that he does not want to see his “energies” and his youth “wasted” on Irene’s luxury purchases.
Jim continues to reveal his true feelings of insecurity, dissatisfaction, and bitterness. His confessions further destroy the picturesque family image Irene has constructed, and ruin the self-deluded perception she had of her lifestyle’s stability. Jim’s plea for her to think of the children further implies that Irene’s delusions have made her dangerously self-centered and selfish. After being confronted with knowledge of her spouse’s unhappiness, and the reality of her family’s finances, Irene can no longer hold on to her feelings of superiority.
Themes
Irene warns Jim that the neighbors will hear their fight, causing Jim’s anger to flare, as he does not care who overhears. He asks why Irene is acting “so Christly,” and lists out cruel things she has done to her family; this includes stealing her mother’s jewelry, and refusing to give her sister money when she was in need. He then asks why Irene’s “piety” and “virtue” seemed to disappear when she visited an “abortionist.”
Despite the lessons Irene has learned about the hazards of maintaining appearances, she insists on hiding the family’s quarrels to preserve their respectability. Jim finally reveals that Irene’s overinflated self-righteousness and naivety hide secrets that are darker and more numerous than what the radio has revealed: Irene is cruel and unfeeling towards her family, and she also terminated a pregnancy illegally. In this way, the radio teaches Irene lessons about herself, not merely about others: it prompts a confrontation that forces her into a state of self-awareness for the first time.
Themes
Irene feels “disgraced and sickened,” but keeps the radio on, hoping that she will hear kind words, such as the soothing storytelling of the neighbors’ nurse, Miss Armstrong. In the background, Jim continues to yell at her, and the radio delivers a news bulletins about a “railroad disaster in Tokyo,” a Church fire, and the weather in a “noncommittal” voice.
Despite the destruction of Irene’s carefully constructed, carefree persona, she clings to the radio, hoping it will play music and give her a chance to remain innocent. The radio, as a symbol of knowledge, offers no respite; instead, it informs her of additional morbid and bleak situations. In this way, the radio further reinforces Irene’s lost sense of innocence: she is now inescapably aware of her neighbors’and the world’sproblems.
Themes
