Enormous Radio, which was written by John Cheever, takes place in the 1950’s and follows the lives of Jim and Irene Westcott. The two loved to listen to music, and when their old radio broke down, Jim was forced to buy a new one. The radio that he bought had special powers that he did not know about, and granted him and his wife Irene the ability to listen to conversations being held around their apartment complex. Irene used this ability to her advantage, and would spend hours every day learning about the secrets of other tenant’s lives. Eventually, however, the conversations grew darker, and Irene learned about the struggles of these people. Hoping that her and Jim were not like everybody else, she confronted Jim, and asked him whether they had issues in their lives. Unlike Irene, who would like to pretend that everything in her world was perfect, Jim knew that they were struggling with money, and called Irene out for being “Christly all of a sudden?”, and asked “What's turned you overnight into a convent girl?” (Cheever 7). It was not said at the end of the story, but it became clear that Jim and Irene’s marriage would never be the same after the events of the story. By looking at the increasing dependence of technology for humans, along with divorce rates for families living in urban areas, along with how trust issues increase the chances of divorce, it becomes easy to find why Jim and Irene had this falling out. By looking at and understanding these reasons for divorce, the percent chance of anyone getting a divorce could be greatly lowered. At first glance, the breakup of Jim and Irene could easily be seen as Irene’s fault for spending too much time on the radio, but after looking at the addiction to technology that most humans suffer from, it becomes clear why she could not give the radio up.

Humans have become increasingly dependent on technology as its many abilities and function continue to get better. Although this story was written and based in the 1950’s, when technology was nowhere near as advanced as it is today, one could argue that the radio Jim and Irene purchased could still create a dependency, as its abilities were far greater than that of any other during the time. Irene’s time spent listening to her radio could be compared to the time many people spend on their cell phones today. A team of scientists at Kent University studied how the use, or overuse, of the cellphone could lead to weakening social relations in life. One particular area that the researchers looked at was calling instead of texting family members, and how doing one instead of the other improved or weakened the ability to interact socially. This could relate to the story by explaining why Jim and Irene’s relationship weakened towards the end of the story. The researchers studied how calling and texting instead of talking in person negatively affected social interactions in both male and female college age students. They found that for males, there was no evidence of any social skills decreasing as a result of using their cell phones too much. This could prove why Jim still seemed normal at the end of the story, and was still able to think rationally, and see what he needed to do to provide for his family. However, in females “there was evidence that cell phone use augments important social relations” (Lepp, Li and Barkley). This is very important in showing why Irene and Jim’s relationship seemed to be ruined. Not only does the fact that Irene had the potential to have lower social capabilities because she is a female, but the study also proved that social abilities were not only lowered between a person and a stranger, or a friend, but they were also lower between that person and their family members, proving that this is a cause for Irene and Jim to struggle interacting with each other. An example of Irene’s inability to interact socially can be seen when Jim is in an argument with her, and instead of talking back, she runs to the radio, standing “for a minute before the hideous cabinet, disgraced and sickened, but she held her hand on the switch before she extinguished the music and the voices, hoping that the instrument might speak to her kindly, that she might hear the Sweeneys' nurse” (Cheever 7). This is the best example of how Irene’s social skills had diminished. Instead of staying in the argument like a normal person would, or even admit that she might be in the wrong, she turned back to the radio, because it was the only thing that made her feel comfortable. As stated before, the addiction that humans have for technology stems from its always increasing ability to do new, and almost unimaginable tasks and functions. In many ways, comparisons can be drawn between the radio, and a social media platform, like Facebook, in today’s world. That ability would be unlike anything Irene had ever seen before, and could easily draw her towards being addicted to using it.

Social media is used as a way to give insight into one’s daily life to many people at a time, sharing smaller moments, that previously would not have worth the effort to tell each person you know individually, in a way that is as simple as clicking on one button, to post an update to hundreds of timelines at one time. Many are quick to criticize social media as providing too much information about one’s life, and think that there should be some restraints on it. To Irene, her radio is her social media platform. Although the residents of the apartment complex do not know that they are being listen to, the information that Irene receives from the radio about the tenant’s lives is very similar to information that she would get off of social media. A study ran by the University of Science and Technology of China looked into the side effects caused by addiction to social media. They looked at reasons why people say they are addicted to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, since technically, nothing about the sites themselves are actually addicting. Like these websites, nothing about the radio is actually addicting. Instead, what the researchers found was that “people are more likely to seek gratification through maximizing intrinsic needs (e.g., perceived enjoyment)” (Wang, Lee and Hua). People are addicted to the sense of gratification that social media gives. This could be a big reason as to why Irene was addicted to the radio. She takes pride in believing that her and Jim are better than the other residents. Her need to believe that her life is better is fully expressed when she states "Life is too terrible, too sordid and awful. But we've never been like that, have we, darling? Have we? I mean we've always been good and decent and loving to one another, haven't we?”  (Cheever 6). To Irene, her life is not as bad as the lives of her neighbors, and she needs to constantly be reminded of that, whether it is through asking Jim if they are like the others, or by listening to the radio herself, to hear more terrible news about their lives. This mental need to feel better than her neighbors fits right into the reasons for addiction to social media that the team of researchers found. Although Irene’s addiction to the radio was a big reason as to why her relationship with Jim was ruined, it is not the only factor that went into them growing apart. By looking at the setting of the story, more reasons why their relationship fell apart become clear.

Enormous Radio is set in an apartment complex near Sutton Place, New York City. Jim and Irene had two kids there, and hoped to one day move to the suburbs in Westchester. The urban setting is important when looking at the relationship between Jim and Irene because studies have shown that couples who live in such urban cities tend to have higher divorce rates. One study ran out of Denmark shows that that “between 2000 and 2004, 10 out of 1,000 existing marriages dissolved each year in the most rural parts of Denmark, while 20 out of 1,000 existing marriages in Copenhagen (the most populous part of Denmark) were dissolved (Statistics Denmark, 2005).”  (Gautier, Svarer and Teulings). Although this study was based around Copenhagen, Demark, and not New York City, which is in the United States, it can still be used because that “similar patterns are observed in other countries; see e.g. Peters (1986) and Jalovaara (2001).” (Gautier, Svarer and Teulings). This is extremely important because it essentially doubles the chances for not only Jim and Irene to get a divorce, but for every single couple in the building to get a divorce. This increase probability is easily seen in the story. Irene hears multiple accounts of infidelity, abuse, and overall unhappy couples, all of which have very high chances of leading a marriage to divorce. The study ran out of Denmark also showed that “of the marriages formed in the city, those couples who remain in the city have a 23% higher divorce rate than those who move out.” (Gautier, Svarer and Teulings). Since it was never said in the story if Jim and Irene ever moved to Westchester, it is safe to say that they stayed in the apartment complex, giving them and additional 23% chance of becoming divorced in the future. History shows that living under the stresses of a city are not good for a marriage, especially a city as large as New York City is. The radio that Jim purchased only brought all of the stresses closer together, and to the forefront of his relationship with Irene. The setting is clearly important to the plot of the story, and is another factor as to why Jim and Irene’s relationship was ruined. However, there is one more reason as to why their relationship fell apart, and that is that they failed to trust each other in the end.

In the final paragraphs of Enormous Radio, Jim reveals that there are many secrets that him and Irene hold from the world. When Irene confronts him, worrying about the faults in all their neighbor’s lives, Jim retaliates, asking “"Why are you so Christly all of a sudden? What's turned you overnight into a convent girl?” (Cheever 7). He then went on to reveal many things that would turn almost anyone against Irene, stating that she “stole your mother's jewelry before they probated her will. You never gave your sister a cent of that money that was intended for her - not even when she needed it. You made Grace Howland's life miserable, and where was all your piety and your virtue when you went to that abortionist? I'll never forget how cool you were. You packed your bag and went off to have that child murdered as if you were going to Nassau” (Cheever 7). These were secrets that Jim held in for the sake of protecting Irene’s image socially. Secrets are not good for any person to hold, and they can lead to trust issues. Jim had clearly longed to express his frustration in these events, and to him, Irene is just lying to herself and to the world when she denies these events that happened in her past. As Paul Levitt found, “repeated lying leads to a cynical distrust of words, even those told in truth; and once words lose their legitimacy, all contracts lose their validity, including the marriage one. Worse, no one trusts another” (Levitt 11). Jim had clearly lost his trust in Irene, and trust issues can lead to suspicion, which will ultimately lead to a failure in the marriage, ending it with a divorce (Levitt 12).  Jim could not take Irene’s lies any longer. To her, the lies were necessary to keep her fake reality alive, and to fuel her desire, or need, to feel better than everyone else. Jim saw right past her illusions though. He lived his life in the real world, seeing the struggles that his family faced. He talked about their need for money saying “"You've got to understand that we won't have as much money this year as we had last. I had a very sobering talk with Mitchell today. No one is buying anything. We are spending all our time promoting new issues, and you know how long that takes”, and later stating “To be perfectly frank with you, I worry about money a great deal. I'm not at all sure of the future. No one is. If anything should happen to me, there's the insurance, but that wouldn't go very far today” (Cheever 7). It is clear that he is worried about the future of his family. He says that he “worked awfully hard to give you (Irene) and the children a comfortable life”, and unlike Irene, he does not want to “see all of my energies, all of my youth, wasted on fur coats and radios and slipcovers” (Cheever 7). This section of the story emphasizes Jim’s trust issues further with Irene, not only now talking about her questionably immoral decisions earlier in her life, but also in the present in their lives, spending too much money when they do not have enough to support all their purchases. 

All four of these sources have one thing in common, they all help explain why Jim and Irene’s relationship dissolves at the end of the story. At first glance, it is easy to think that the radio was the sole reason that caused Jim and Irene’s argument. However, it is now clear that there were many more factors than just the radio that went into the dissatisfaction that Jim and Irene had with each other. For example, because Irene became dependent on the radio’s ability to give insight to other’s lives, her social skill decreased, and Jim was unable to effectively communicate with her, leading him to feel the need to yell at her, and reveal her secrets to the world so she would snap out of the fantasy that she was living in. Also, the location that Jim and Irene lived in played a major role in their fight. As seen, the chance for divorce of couples living in an urban area is almost double that of couples not. Irene sees that for many people living in her apartment building, this fact is the case, and she becomes obsessed with making sure that her and Jim are not like the others in the building. Jim then became tired of hearing how Irene was supposedly “better” than the other women, which is another reason why he felt that he had to lash out and break her from her fantasy world by revealing all of the horrible things that she had done in the past. The lies that Irene was merging into her reality was the final straw for Jim. He could not take it anymore. To him, it was clear that Irene had lost her mind. Not only could he not trust the so called truths that she was telling, but he also could not trust her with the money that he was making. It became clear to him that Irene was putting the future of the family at risk, which is why he had to confront her, and break her down. Although the radio played a role in revealing the fantasy world that Irene was living it, it was far from the only reason why her relationship with Jim was ruined.

Through studies looking at how the increasing dependence on technology weakens social interactions, why humans are addicted to social media even though the platforms themselves are not addicting, looking at the increased chance of divorce for couples living in an urban area, and finally, by seeing how lies can lead to trust issues, which can lead to a divorce, it becomes clear why Jim and Irene’s relationship failed to work. In the end, the radio was not the only reason that their marriage dissolved, even though on the surface of the text, it appeared to be the main cause. Instead, all four of the factors researched worked together, and all equally played a role in Jim and Irene’s marriage falling apart.
