Kissing in Manhattan and John Cheever's "The Enormous Radio

Invasion of Privacy as an Opportunity for Self-Reflection: Characters Irene Westcott in "The Enormous Radio" and Douglas Kerchek in "The Smoker"

John Cheever & David Schickler

In contemporary society, the value of one's privacy is given premium importance, the reason being that people have and can exercise the right to decide whether or not to let people know things about him/her. Disclosure then becomes a voluntary act that must be the individual's prerogative to another individual or group of people. The issue of privacy, then, is an important concern because of the increasing prevalence of individualist thinking in society nowadays. Human society is characterized by its focus on the individual; it is not surprising, then, if literature would depict a similar characterization of society -- one that puts importance on the self or individual.

This is the social landscape mirrored in the works of John Cheever and David Schickler, authors of the short stories "The Enormous Radio" and "The Smoker," respectively. In these literary works, both authors tackled the issue of the individual's battle against invasion of another person's privacy, not only because people are not receptive to the idea of violating this right, but also because they find it hard to discover that there are still people who openly invade one's privacy.

Apart from invasion of privacy, another theme that is prevalent in both stories is the emergence of self-reflection and -realization among the protagonists. If not for the violation of one's privacy, Cheever's protagonist Irene would not realize how flawed her character is. Similarly, Douglas in "Smoker" will not know that he is living a lonely and meaningless life until Nicole had pointed it out to him. In the texts that follow, these themes are discussed and analyzed thoroughly, with references to both short stories.

In "Radio," Cheever had cleverly crafted a story that demonstrated the hypocrisy of people in the society. As what Irene witnessed through their radio, what was her perceived images of her neighbors were not exactly their true characters or personalities. It was only by hearing her neighbors' conversations in the radio that Irene realized that truth lies behind every person's facade. Initially, Irene had difficulty accepting the fact that she was eavesdropping and purposely listening to her neighbors' everyday conversations and activities. Invading other people's privacy were both attractive and appalling to her: it is attractive because she learned a lot about the true characters of each individual she closely lives with. But it is also appalling because she cannot believe that she derived joy in listening to other people's miseries and frustrations in life: "Irene's life was nearly as simple and sheltered as it appeared to be, and the forthright and sometimes brutal language that came from the loudspeaker that morning astonished and troubled her..."

But the most important point that Cheever extends to the audience through this story was that Irene herself is the hypocrite, an individual not unlike her neighbors. This truth was only addressed at the end of the story through the character of Jim, Irene's husband. While the radio acted as the "mirror" to other people's souls, it was only until Jim's burst of anger ("Why are you so Christly all of a sudden?") that readers were given a glimpse of the true character of Irene even before the enormous radio had influenced her life. Irene as a 'cold-hearted, selfish' individual was never reflected in the story until towards its end. The radio also acted as a "mirror" for Irene, making her realize that she's just like some of her hypocrite members. Through the issue of invasion of privacy, Cheever successfully criticized society for its evident hypocrisy during his time, wherein immorality and cruelty abound in the privacy of people's homes despite their seemingly good disposition and character in the public eye.

Schickler in "Smoker," meanwhile, embodied invasion of privacy as an issue between Nicole and Douglas, the protagonists of the story. In Nicole's character, readers saw an individual who consciously violated Douglas' right to his privacy. Douglas, meanwhile, was the individual who was for a while incapable of accepting the fact that there are still people (like Nicole) who would willingly invade other people's privacy. Irene in "Radio" had obviously been greatly affected by the reflection she had about her real character, leading to the possible break-up of her relationship with her husband Jim. Douglas in 'Smoker," however, had shown disbelief at Nicole's steely admittance of her invasion of his privacy; however, his disbelief was not so much about Nicole's offense but her argument that Douglas was a lonely man who was "just killing time," waiting for the woman he will be marrying.