This is an open blog forum for Cheever's story "The Enormous Radio". In other words, you are now in control of the comments you post. You may ask questions, provide interpretations of the text, analyse the characters, define vocabulary, closely examine quotations, give your reactions and so on. The choice is yours. I will also participate and provide feedback as usual. Try to make the discussion as interactive as possible. What you write here may be very useful to others in preparing for the exams or the presentation. Happy writing!
61 comments:
I think that the text "the enormous radio" can be compared with todays television, internet or any other digital stuff because the main theme of the text is based on a new technology's drawbacks.The family has been in trouble with the radio by its effects on Irene with her fairs, deppression and so on. That is because of the new radio.
Also there can be seen voyeurism in the text in that she cannot control herself without listening to the radio and be awared of their neighbours. So, i want to empasize that there are a lot of similiraties between todays problems and the enormous radio. For example, the internet brings addiction to itself as we can also see the same situation in the text. Due to some uncontrolled usage of technology we may encounter with some tragical divorces,ruin of relationships with our neighbours and even ruin of family.
Besides, we are also able to peep some people's lifes by television as we mentioned in the class as "The reality tv", that comes with television and the same thing happened in the enormous radio.Lastly, it can be irrelevant, but there have been produced lots of series nowadays and they are also addictive for some part of the society.Thus, they can have huge harmful effects on the individuals,families,children and so on. So, as we can see in the text it can destroy people's lifes.In my opinion, contemporary issues about all these things are really more important than the time of the enormous radio or the time that there was just a radio.
ın spite of the The Enormous Radio begins as a work of conventional realism writers theme, plot and symbols can be evaluated allegorically. author in reality exposes underside of American life that Jim and Irene Westcott represent, by exposing Irene Westcott.on the other hand, he and she exist in two worlds the real and darkness world composed by radio. Also she falls into knowledge and out of love because of radio.
as a symbol, radio is a corrupter of morals and tempting one into an addiction to listening to secrets of neighbours.
Ahmet Demirbüken said
In Enormous Radio John Cheever reveals the effect of a radio on individual behaviors of persons and relationship between people with a very different perspective. Actually, at the outset it seems to be like an average story about which we can not discuss very much. However, while I was reading the last part of the story, I realized that writer has a different approach to Irene. In the beginning of the story Irene seems to be like an ordinary wife and mother who has not an issue about life. Afterward, when the radio comes, her life begins to change. She becomes desperate because people's lives which she listens by the radio affects her too much. As a reader I think that the story is all about a radio and a woman till the speech of Jim at the end of the story and after that I start to think writer wants to emphasize that this radio reveals Irene's problems ,that she doesn't concern, by other people's problems. Somewhere inside of her there are some bad memories which are restrained but with the help of the radio she can act out her pains.
I think there is a strong bond between the story ''the enormous radio'' and voyeurism. At first Irene thinks that someone can be able to listen them and learn about their private life. Because of this, she did not think that it is a good idea to use this radio. By contrast, when she experiences that she is the one who can learn about the private life of the neighbors, she does not care about the virtue or other things, she just listens to them.
by the time, it becomes the only joy and work of her and her husband listening other people and caring what they are doing. because of this situation i think that this text wants to explain that the curiosity has a negative impact on the American family as the chance to access to voyeurism is getting easier. big brother is watching you can be another example to voyeurism apart from ''the enormous radio''.
Dilara, you need to include your surname to get credit for this post - I don't know which Dilara you are...thanks
In my opinion, most crucial side of the story is the change of attitude. Irene's nature is very suitable for emphasising how awful voyeurism could be. In the course of time, there is a change in Irene's temper, and we can see that unexperienced girl corrupted by the "violent forces" of the enormous radio. I also think that in this story Irene figure, symbolizing the media. Because when we think of the evolution of media, firstly they astonished by this enormous power of communication. Then, when they discover the charming side of the media, they began to use it furtively (paparazzi, Reality Tvs and so on). Then by the time, the attitude of media became more aggressive. There is just one big difference between Irene and media organs. At last, Irene aware of what she have done, but media yet haven't.
When I finish the story "the Enormous Radio" the first idea that came to my mind is if the radio or our curiosity is more enormous. Well I actually think it's our problem. We can't except media to make the right choice while you can not to. We have to confess, we really enjoy watching other people's lives. I'm not saying that we all adore "Big Brother", but in a point each one of us have an idea about private lives of the celebrities we love. As a consequence I keep telling myself to not to criticize "the media", before looking in to the mirror.
Involving other people's lives, owning these people's personal problems can be a necessity for human being?
Could the desire for finding an inspiration for our own lives, make us voyeuristic?
As others mentioned, I think “The Enormous Radio” is directly related with voyeurism.
Irene used to have good personality, but after she started to listen about others’ life, she started to change and wanted to know about others’ and became obsessed with that. There is no big difference that watching somebody’s life or listen their conversations. This story reminded me Reality TVs. I think people cannot benefit from the technology with doing things like that and they also start to ruin their life with getting addicted to voyeur as we have seen from Irene.
In this story , the author wants to make public the consequences of being addicted to a radio on the relations of people and their lifestyles. There is a couple whose life changes day by day due to the changing customs of Irene who has an increasing interest on the radio. It makes excited and curious Irene in terms of listening more and more regarding private lives of her neighbours. In addition to this situation it takes apart her from her social life and orients her to an abnormal habits such as not caring about necessary tasks and waiting for magazines throughout the day. However, in my opinion Irene has seen her problems while she's listening to the radio so it has become a mirror for her to understand how her life goes ahead. Hence it would be injustice if we accuse Irene of being unconcerned for her responsibilities because radio enables her to unveil the hidden aspects of her life.
When I was reading story an interesting question came to my mind, and I want to share it.If you had the chance to listen others' private lives from radio or something else, what would you do? Turn it off immediately or continue listening? I think feeling of curiosity that every people have, may cause us continue listening at least a few minutes.
I want to write about the effects of the enormous radio on Irene Wescott's character and how it changed her personality listening to other people's lives.
Irene Wescott seems to have a perfect life and the only difference she has from her neighbours is spending a lot of time listening to music on the radio with her husband.She is a pleasant woman.When their radio stops working Jim,her husband,buys her a new one and to her surprise she discovers that this new radio picks up noises from other apartments in her neighbourhood.First she is reasonable and wants the radio fixed.But as time goes by,she starts being addicted to other people's lives.She starts cutting her meetings with friends short to come home and listen to the radio.In a way I think she realizes this is wrong because she hides it from the maid but she is so intriuged that after a while she spends all her day listening to lives of others.While the problems of other people make her a melancholic unhappy person she can't stop herself from turning the radio on.The addictive side of her personality takes over and I think the climax of the story is when she want her husband to stop Mr. Osborn beating her wife. In a way she has lost the sense of privacy and because she's been listening to their fight all day she thinks she has the right to intrude their lives.She doesn't realise that it's no different than looking inside from people's windows as Jim tells her.She becomes so depressed in the end and gets in a big fight with Jim,in which she tells him to stop, ''They'll hear us!'' She has so lost the sense of privacy that she thinks what would happen if other people heard them fighting in their own home.She thinks this way because her opinion on other people changed when hearing their private lives. *Example from the text: . ''And some woman in this building is having and affair with the handyman- with that hideous handyman. It’s too disgusting. And Mrs. Melville has heart trouble, and Mr. Hendricks is going to lose his job in April and Mrs. Hendricks is horrid about the whole thing and that girl that plays the “Missouri Waltz” is a whore, a common whore, and the elevator man has tuberculosis and Mr. Osborn has been beating his wife.”
So she doesn't want somebody to say about her ''Irene had a big fight with her husband.''And she is too tired to fight with her husband because she's been listening to other people's quarrels all day.
In the end the radio gets fixed and she has to face her problems instead of getting involved with other people's problems and also she has to face the problems of the world. (the fire,railroad disaster etc.)
The main themes of this story are,in my opinion, addiction,curiosity of other people's lives and privacy.
About Ceren's question which I think is very interesting: I would turn it off immediately because I think it's really disrespectful. Not that they would find out but I would just feel really really uncomfortable.And secondly I don't find it interesting to listen to other lives,my life is more important for me than to spend time listening to other lives.But sadly, I think many people would choose to listen.
I have a question: In what way do you think, listening to this radio picking up voices of other apartments,is different from watching a reality show?
I think we can compare this story with the reality Tv shows. If we look at the main character of the story Irene, at first she appears as a proper wife and a regular mom. But after the coming of the enormous radio, she become obsessed with listening to her neighbors personal lives. At the same time, she is struck with horror with the possibility of others to hear her too because she does not want anybody to learn what is she hiding behind her innocent appearence.
I think "The Enormous Radio" shows us, how much we enjoy watching other lives, and that makes voyeurism the strongest theme in the story. But the crucial fact is, if we all have the same enormous radio, i believe, we all listen to our neighbors lives as well. But such kind of a misuse of technology could not affect us in a good way.
As my friends mentioned this story reminds us today's world. Irene was a normal woman since she started to listen her neighbours, because her noisy radio broke down. Her character and personality changed negatively by listening to her neighbours secrets or their private lives. In this story radio symbolyses awaresness. (She did not want anbody to listen to thieir argument between her and husband,but she did same thing by listening to thier privates.)
Ceren oğuz, I thought the same question. If ı have that chance , unfortunately ı will listen =/. Because generally people wonders other lifes or privates. Indeed, Humanity could wonder and want to learn others private. But everything has a limit and so this limit shouldnt be passed.
Nowadays people especially woman who spend their times in front of the tv watch some programs because they could learn and watch others private lives for example to these programs, Big Brother or Biri bizi Gözetliyor in Turkey=).
I agree with my friends on the existence of strong correlation between the story and the theme of voyeurism. However I want to point how the differences of time of author and time of reader (us) appear and affect the understanding of the text (which we talked about during the class session on this story).
The first difference exists between the opinions of the reader and the author on the issue of abortion. Today, abortion is much more acceptable in society than it was during the author's time. This affects understanding of the story, as the revelation of the big secret in the end doesn't affect us as much as the author intended to.
The second difference exists on the importance of radio. This causes less problems to the reader as it is related to technology and not to ethics so reader changes the radio with the television to interpretate the story.
If we were talking about a story in the Middle Ages, for a modern reader, the interpretation of the motives behind the marriages would be harder than the interpretation of the wars. Both are different than today, but in one the difference exist in a tangible area in contrast to the other where difference exists in the values.
Irene Wescott is a typical housewife I think. Due to the fact that she was unemployed she felt herself in a gap. Therefore she started to listen her neighbors. In today's world there are lots of housewife who are in same position with Irene. If they also have a enormous radio they will start to listen their neighbors as Irene did.
So far you've really taken control of this discussion, well done. I am really pleased to see you asking each other questions and answering each other's questions.
It is interesting to see the comparisons you are drawing between the enormous radio and technology today.
I read the text slightly differently to most of you, I suppose: do you really think that the Westcotts' marriage troubles were *caused* by the radio? Or is it more likely that the radio acted as a catalyst for exposing latent problems?
When i finished reading that story first, i didnt like the end of it cause the happenings are very enjoyable to read however it is conclusion is not strong enough to like.
The concept of it is the medias destruction like the articles we have already read, most of which are about the effects of media.
Enormous Radio was talking about a family who have a radio. There is Irena and his husband. His husband bought her a radio first cause their old radio was broken. Then especially Irena start to listen it everyday regularly and she suddenly start to hear the voices of their neighboors and she learn about their private life.She learnt that somebody is sick, somebodys are arguing about money and so many things like that. And she said her husband that 'they are happy, they are not arguing like others,arent they?'
However after that happenings they suddenly start arguing about the bills and story ends like that.
It is language is not so confusing and it is enjoyable to read.
Despite of all these things i still cant really understand the concept it is trying to give at the end of the story..
John and Irene were a couple who lived in Manhattan. They graduated from a college and were rich. They had an old radio but it was broken and bought a new one. At first Irene did not like their new radio because it was “enormous” and it did not fit in her living room decoration. It was like an unwanted visitor. Then she hide it behind the sofa. After a while she liked their new radio and she spent all the time by listening it because she noticed that she could hear what their neighbor’s are doing. She became an addictive and voyeuristic person.
She eavesdropped her neighbors only and did not care about her children and husband. She thought that they were a perfect couple however , their neighbors were arguing about money and they were not happy. Then Jim and she argued about her bills and her secrets. She had an abortion and stole her sister’s Money. She hide her true identity behind her physical appearance like she hide the radio behind the sofa.
I think the author of enormous radio wants to tell the readers that people especially who feels themselves under pressure of stressful life are interested in listening to developments given by the radio like Irene. If we take the situation of Irene into consideration it is very clear observing the changes in her life because while she listens the radio she finds her hidden feelings about her problems.Although paparazzi and magazine fill the lives of individuals with waste things in this case it is different in order to reveal the issues of a woman to herself.
Irene, the main character of the story, does not like 'the Enormous Radio' at first. When she recognizes that she can hear her neighbours, she can not avoid herself listening them. Her curiosity changes her views about the radio.
Curiosity is a very strong feeling that everyone has internally, so, not only Irene but also all of us would listen to the others if we had the chance. Even if we do not have 'the Enormous Radio', we have reality shows-with the highest rating. This if the proof of voyeurism inside the people.
Irene is affected by the enormous radio and I think Irene is just a reflection of the people who live in today's world. It was predictable or unpredictable, it is a controversial issue but it is obvious that Cheever has a strong foresight. He could analyze perfectly what is going to be happen in the future. But, there is a confusion in my mind. Maybe that was a thought that was developed in his life's period of time. Maybe people were also curious 50 years ago about the other people's life. However, 50 years ago, or now, this is a serious problem, which is called voyeurism. I think observing people secretly is a unnecessary and unhealthy situation. It is also harmful for the children. I wonder, when is voyeurism going to be ended and when will the restricted laws prevent voyeurism.
Those days' "enormous radio" or these days' televisions or internet give the people the opportunity of exploiting it like how they want to do. In my point of view, individuals should aware of that the usage of it is optional. Besides, they should also be aware of that, in some cases it can transform to an addiction. As some friends said, sometimes people crave to be a voyeur or to act like the ones who are on tv or in radio although they know that it is gonna influence their relationships in a negative way.
The Radio is expected to bring happiness to Irene because she likes listening to the music, but instead, the radio back-fires and causes her to become a character who is obsessed with neighbor’s problems and paranoid due to the its capabilities causing others to over-listen to herself. So there is a transformation of Irene and the radio seems so ultimate to her that despite what she overhears from it causes the change, she doesn’t stop and eventually became sad. I think that what Irene does with the radio is an example of, as Berke Doganoglu stated, privacy violation (the very significant point is beginning of page 7) and also “voyeurism”. In addition, there is an obvious conflict between right and wrong. Explaining more, Irene wants to help others because of their variable problems (Mrs. Melville's heart troubles, Mr. Hendricks's losing jobs), but at the same time she breaks neighbors privacy. So there is a paradox here, because her action is wrong but the intention is right.
Also the last part is symbolic in sense of indicating that the media has the potential of emotional impact on individuals. This is clear by the part where the radio announces deaths due to both “disaster in Tokyo” and “a fire in Catholic Hospital”.
After we've read The Enormous Radio, significant keyword has emerged which is voyeurism.When we discuss about the story in lecture mostly this word has mentioned because the story is totally about this keyword. Westcott's whole life became addicted to radio especially Irene she could not desist by listening her neighbors private life, and eventually affected the relations of Westcott.
In 'Enormous Radio' we see the examples of the upper middle class people's lives. On the surface their life all seems good, elegant like they do not have any problems. However on the inside they all have issues , maybe dark pasts or illnesses. Jim and Irene is a typical example for that. they live the perfect life until a radio comes along. with this special radio Irene could hear all her neighbors' conversations and their issues. she becomes obsessive with that and could not leave the radio. firs she just enjoys listening parties and funny conversations but by the time goes she learns all the dirty laundry of her neighbors which makes her really judgemental. when Jim realizes that she is being such a hypocrite he makes her think of herself and what she did in the past. so the radio is not the reason of their relationship troubles, it just makes them realize.
we can see some evidence about voyeurism in the text, but however, if we consider about the scene in which Irene tries to persuade Jim to interfere with a quarrel of a family, we can see that Irene actually tries to do something instead of just listening to people's private lives.we can discuss if this situation could be nominated as vouyeurism or not. But it is obvious that radio becomes an obsession for Irene.I have also one question about the text. At the end of the text, Irene turn of the radio as the couple quarrels. Some catastrophic news were announced. What kind of an impact does this scene have on the flow of the story? Did the writer wrote it just because wh wanted to end the story somehow, or does it symbolize an idea in the backround?
For example, is this scene about the corruption of communication between a couple (Irene turns the radio on during quarrel), or do the news mean other things?
I would like to link this short story with the movie "The Butterfly Effect".. Before Mrs.Wescott learned out what the neighbors' lives are like, she didn't care about giving them a better life by making a change in their lives. however, after she learns the difficulties and the negative sides of those lives, she begs to her husband to help all those people.. In the movie "the butterfly effect", the character who becomes able to rewind time and alternate the path of the lives of people around him try to apply this every time he sees a negative thing. Before he was able to do such a thing, he just "obeyed" fate and lived through, together with those negative situations...
I really liked the irony that Arif Mete has caught about for what purpose the radio was buught and what it brought.It was supposed to bring happiness but it just brought sadness and depression.That's how TV and sometimes computers and maybe even ipods do in our lives.They were created us to be more informed, entertained and happy.However,they mostly bring problems and disadvanteges more then they bring advanteges.It is like having a rose with a lot of thorns.But what should we do if the thorns are so much that we can't even smell or touch the rose?I think that's an issue to think about.
About Sonja asked if radio caused the couple's marriage problems.I don't think it caused it it just made them see their problems clearly.Because they already had problems but the radio just started making a contrast about what Irene thinks and what she does.Then everthing became more clear and the collapse in their marriage accelareted.
Enormous radio is a good example of addiction on a device and voyeurism. Irene has the possibility to turn off the radio but she cannot keep her from listening to the conversations of other people. She feels badly about her neighbours, when she eavesdrops their problems. The reader realizes, that she did also things, which saddened others, when her husband reproached her sharply for her experiences of the past.
I think in this story, author wanted to tell about the consequences of addiction to radio and its impacts on people, their relationships and lifestyles.i think it asks a question like "what would you do if you have a chance to listen other peoples lives from radio?","Do you turn it off? or do you continue listening?"
First of all the story is full of metaphors, for example the sentence "fitch skins dyed to resemble mink" is a metaphor in the story which describe her cover in life, the purpose of sentence was not describing the coat and the sentence "They went to a great many concerts - although they seldom mentioned this to anyone" is a great metaphor as well to describe how their life really are.
respect to todays technology and enormous radio, i think they are all similar if we consider what we can do with computers and televisions. i would definitely worry if the spy ears were available by everyone, then we could see the tragedy that time because it s a truth everyone had a curiosity feeling, someones can ignore, someones can not.
Basically The Enormous Radio and its theme relate with voyeurism. The changing in the attitude of Irene toward voyeurism is a solid example of corruption in American daily culture. Even though Irene has some worries about the fact that people can reach her private life through the radio she becomes the one who enjoys from learning the privacy of other individuals. I think the Enormous Radio in the text symbolizes the media. Although media and the related technological devices are firstly used for positive purposes in time “ the aim” of media undergoes a total change and destroys the ethical values of individuals like Irene.
I think people's notion towards voyeurism is triggered by "the enormous radio" in the story. The characters we've seen in the story are quite ordinary, mid-class people. their ordinary life becomes livened up with the arrival of the enormous radio. Irene Scott becomes one of the voyeuristic people she's always despised, at the end of the story. She's learning about her neighbours' private lives and as she keeps exposing them, she's becoming some kind of voyeurism addict. Eventually that leads to her quarrel with her husband. Right after they had a quarrel, she went back to the room to listen to the radio to expose more of her neighbours' lives, that's how addicted she becomes. I didn't like the end of the story, it should have been something to do with the removal or destruction of the enormous radio, and people would get back to their lives.
Throughout the story, the writer wants to emphasize the core meaning of private life. In a more conceptual angle of view, the significances of owning inevitably separate life can be distinctly observed. If a person as Irene Wescott consider others life more than her own, she can lose her happiness in terms of its durability. Because here the essential idea is entertaining wiht others life so much can induce some consequences like we see as omiting her relations with her husband in an accelerating way. The writer shows up it by also touching on a purview of own responsibility, in each individual's life.
DENİZ D. KİPGE
In thise story the author is trying to make how did sosciety life change by radio.
İn the the story we can see that couple whose lifes are changing while the time passes
the changng life style of ırene who has an incerasing interest on the radio .
Listening to privare lifes of neighbourse gives more interest on irini
and she gets more and more curious and excited.A question if we can listen to our nieghbourse talking by the rodia will you turn it off OR will u listen to it and gossip around ??
we can take irini in hand she first have a wonderfull life and she is really happy after she find out that form the radio she can listen to her neighbourse conversations and she starts to like it aat first
when the radio brokes down her husband jim buys a new on and thise radio can can picks up conversations from the other buildings... at first she doesnt really enjoy it but than she comes addictive to listen to other people private life... and she loose is her sociel life becoause she spends her time at front of the radio by listening to other peoples conversations..
Zeynep Karakaş
The author suggests that the radio is a kind of life style with in their daily life. Day by day people's interest are changing to other side like what is happening in the other people's life, that's why radio and television is one of the most popular devices in our world. Because people can get a lot of information about all events and it encourages people's curiosity. As a conclusion, when the radio came at that story in Irini's life, the other's private life became more transparent and for her more curiosity.
Before invention of computer and internet, radio had more significant place in people’s life unlike today. Radio became the meaning of learning news and entertaining for people. In ‘’ Enormous Radio’’ which is written by J. Cheever emphasizes the bad usage of radio.In the first of story family they only listened music but after new radio came, Irene began to hear neighborhood’s life on radio. Also she could not control herself, she knowed that was wrong she could not stop. I think writer emphasizes the effects of voyeurism on Irene’s character. She becomes addicted to listens others’ life and their private problems or secrets. In addition, this situation makes Irene depressed and restless when she heard bad things about her neighborhood’s life and also these problems begin to harm her own family ties. She reflected what she heard for her husband and this damaged their relationships dramatically. What’s more, we could see the how voyeurism might be effective on personal or family life. Similar conditions exist in today’s world in high rate. Reality shows make people addicted and convert people into object. I think people generally want to escape their daily problems therefore observing other people’s life become more attractive and less stressful. However these induce serious problems in family life like erosion of family values and society like erosion of cultural values.
In my opinion 'The Enormous Radio' can help us to understand the importance of private life. Everybody has the right of protecting of own private life and I'm sure nobody likes to publishing it.
In this story we can see , how important to save your own life in your family and do not comparing it with others. Irene's obsession about listening other people's private life makes her unhappy but she could not change it. Knowing others private is always seems like attractive to us but we can not realize how it effects our peace. It's not worth it to corrupt your private life cost of listening others.
The Enormous Radio is a foresight to the media effects on the daily life of people. The important theme as today audience is the voyeurism. Irene has started to overhear her neighbourhoods and at the first it looks like weird. Afterwards she has listened to the radio all the day and troubled with her friends problems but she has never given up the listening to the radio even if she obsessed with what she overhears. She did because of curiosity but she keeps on listening to others even it is demolishing her family that shows how her voyeurism is stronger than today’s. Today people have fun with it. I don't like the end of the story. They continued to listen to the radio. Instead, they could return the radio because it was distorted from the beginning and causes financial problems in the family.
I think enormous radio is mainly related with the irresistible curiosities of today's people to each other. Media and reality shows are the most important cause for growth of disappearing privacy because people started to think that voyeurism is not out of the ethics and it is an ordinary action. As we see in the story, voyeur is also damaged from this action because it can be disruptive for social life of voyeur.
well the first thing in my mind after reading the story "the enormous radio" was Voyeurism. Invasion of private life. Well thats also what we have at todays "Reality TV". So the situation doesnt change, the objects change.
The Enormous Radio explain a family's changing life because of a new radio. In this story there is a couple Irene and her husband. They bought a new radio since their old radio broke down. The new radio is enormous. For this reason Irene find new radio not good because new radio's size is not suitable for their living room. After the buying of the enormous radio especially Irena start to spend her all time by listening radio. This situation continues everyady. She noticed that she can hear the voices of their neighboors. She likes learn about private life of their neighboors. Day by day she became an addicted of the radio. Meanwhile she become an obsessed person because she start to think about do someone else her me too? Of course she do not want that. At the end of the story she argues with her husband about bills. The Enormous Radio indicates that people enjoy learning other's private life and secretly listening other people.
As others mentioned, I think “The Enormous Radio” is about voyeurism.
Irene was a good person,before she started to listen about others, started to change and wanted to know about others and became obsessed.I think people cannot benefit from the technology with listening and learning about the others' private life and they start to make their life badly with becoming addicted to voyeur.
We can see in this story how the voyeurism affects person’s life. As we see in the story, voyeurism does not affect in a positive way. At the beginning of the story, the characters have an ordinary life and they just listen music from the radio. After Irene realized that she can hear their neighbour’s dialogues, her family life changes. She becomes addicted to voyeurism. She always listens the neighbour’s life from the radio and this situation damages her family life. She argues with her husband. All of these problems are caused by voyeurism.
This radio also represents the reality tv shows. These shows are also make people addicted to the television and harm to the personal life. Some of the technological devices can damage our life, if we can use the technology in a good way such as avoiding of voyeurism, we can have benefit from it. For example, at the beginning of the story they listen music from radio and they do not have a problem which is caused by technology.
"Did you hear that?"
The real story start with this. The Enormous Radio demonstrate how can far away the voyeurism? Story create a extraordinary machine and it give an idea about if we can hear or see everything, how this influence human life? The Enormous Radio also criticize the media. Today, we see a lot of woman program that women exhibit their special life and we see the 24 hours of one people with some programmes like "Big Brother 2" or "Biri Bizi Gozetliyor". Some programmes shows that every word and movement of famous people and I know some people who can almost spend one third of day follow these programme and news about people.
The short story is about a radio which was found by a family. In this text we can see the disadvantages of media. I think that it really likes with media. The family can learn the others conservations. In my opinion, it is not ethical. If I had this radio, maybe I wanted to listen because of my curiosity. However, I know that I should not do this. And also, it has some similarities with magazines programmes. But we should know this that anyone wanted to be listened.
As we all know, Irene and her husband, buys a new radio, firstly they thinks that radio is not working correctly and then they notices that they can hear their neighbors from the radio. Even if Jim warns Irene about not listening the radio, she keeps doing it. She is unemployed and bored, i think these are the reasons for her huge! curiosity. There too many people in the societies in a situation like that. And they spends their times with TV, especially on programs which satisfy their curiosity. But be careful, not curious about nature, science or art, just about other people's life and that is why the problem occurs. Finally, she gets punished because of her attitude, fights with her husband and the story ends. I think, this shorty story refers to media by using the radio. So many people would agree that, getting into people's private life is not appropriate and it can be harmful sometimes.
The short story is about a family who changed their broken radio with an extraordinary one. The radio they have later lets them listen from their neighbours' radios. The main family at the short story seems a happy one at the beginning of the story, and almost all the families they listen from their radio have different kind of problems. This radio becomes the center of Irene's life so throughout the story Irene starts to get depressed listening all these problems of other families. We see the effect of voyeurism here, Irene starts to live her life listening to other people's ordinary life whereas when she can live her own life. And at the end of the story we see that she starts to see her life also has problems and she and her husband have a big argument.
The short story is about a family who changed their broken radio with an extraordinary one. The radio they have later lets them listen from their neighbours' radios. The main family at the short story seems a happy one at the beginning of the story, and almost all the families they listen from their radio have different kind of problems. This radio becomes the center of Irene's life so throughout the story Irene starts to get depressed listening all these problems of other families. We see the effect of voyeurism here, Irene starts to live her life listening to other people's ordinary life whereas when she can live her own life. And at the end of the story we see that she starts to see her life also has problems and she and her husband have a big argument.
This story is one of the most possible story. It is true that losing people her/himselves with interesting and being impressed from other people's lives and problems. Irene would be effected from another things in her neighbors lives, for instance their happiness or wellness or love etc. In my opinion situations like this are existing everywhere, especially in Turkey. It does not recrudesce this much, but being curious about people's lives so much always culminate with problem. In Turkey, people are anxious especially artists. They consider artist's lives important and they watch their TV series heartily.
the story shows how "reality shows" effect peoples psychologies. in the story main family buys a new radio witch let them hear the neighbors. their family ties were strong and they were happy. Irene like the idea of listening others private life so she keep listening. later listening all other peoples problems makes her depressive, negative. she have a huge fight with her husband and their family was no longer a happy one.
This text mentions about media's effects but in other hand it talks about family ties. The family seems like calm and understanding, however radio plays a role like a mirror and shows the real feelings of family members. The couple gets along with each other well but in real life, they don't like that. We can see the disagreement between them after the coming of radio.
i think this story sart goods but after many scenes trying to read iss very hard beacuse it is boring .other thing is listening other peoples private life is such ashame i dont agree with them
I think this story is created around the concept of voyeurism. The need for knowing every single detail of somebody else's life makes Irene's life miserable. This violation of personal privacy is very much present in the story. Also, the radio acts as an instrument to expose existing problems in the marriage to the couple in a more serious way, which makes things worse. This story made me think of Big Brother and the celebrity shows which people are dying to watch so that they can witness the privacy of celebs.
this story is about a family who found a radia and all troubles came to them after finding the radio. I think it reflects the deteriotion of media on people. Watching a tv like big brother shows and these type shows even can ruin people's life. curiosity to artist' life on the screen does not reflect their real lifebut people understand that it is their real life. they wanna be like them and watch them more, people wonder everything about these artists.it is a voyeurism to private life.
"The Enormous Radio" tells the direct impacts of media on two people. Listening the life of the neighbors plays the deuce with Irene's life. Her relationship with her husband is affected. In a word, Irene becomes a pathetic. I did not understand the insistence of her to not gave up from listening radio although it is destroying her life.
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