“The Enormous Radio” vs “The Yellow Wallpaper” PDF

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“The Enormous Radio” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” are tales about two women, Irene and narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, who both faced such emotions as: fear, insecurity, and paranoia. Their families are in uppermiddle class, which make their husbands believe that these two ladies are happy, but in realty, they have hidden insecurity, jealousy, and depression. Irene who is a main character of “The Enormous Radio” wants to believe that she and her husband have a blissful life until her husband buys a gigantic radio that mysteriously plays arguments and sad stories of the other people. Iren listens to these arguments intensely and compares problems of the other families to her own. In this tale we can see Irene as a very emotional, sensitive, and in some ways; a spoiled woman who tries to show that her life is perfect. She covers her real emotions by buying new clothes and furniture that could fill her emptiness. She feels bored and tired of the life that she has but at the same time is afraid to accept it because of the other people`s opinion. Here the radio appears and makes her mind fill with negative emotions. She enjoys listening to sad stories because it makes her feel better about her life. John Cheever illustrates: “I mean, we`ve always been good and decent and loving to one another, haven’t we?” (261). She wants to be a better wife and mother, but she cannot control her emotions because of the way she thinks about money and herself. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” appears as a depressed woman whose husband does not recognize her real feelings because she hides them from him. Her mental condition becomes worse after moving to a

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summerhouse where she sees yellow wallpaper in her room. Highlighting her belief her husband does not understand how serious her condition is, Charlotte Perkins Gilman states: “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.” (90). She cannot share because anything she says is not taken seriously and means that she is getting better. These misunderstandings end with her seeing abnormal things as people in the wall and ghosts. By comparing these two tales, readers can discover both women have hidden emotions that in the end caused bigger problems in their families. We also realize that narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” might be a feminist because of her mistrust towards her husband and brother; she never agreed with them about her condition. There are times were Irene tries to be more loyal with her husband, trust him which can be a quality that she shares with narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Another quality that Irene has is making an attempt to take care of her kids even when she is self-centered. The narrator illustrates this by stating: “Her children came home from school then, and she took them to the park.” (254). These tales tell us about socioeconomic values from the view of a higher-class, where families become very selfish and think about money more than their relatives. This way of thinking leads to many disagreements within the family. These tales illustrate the impact of material possessions, for example, Irene has the radio that helps her thoughts about reality disappear, and narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” has the yellow pattern on the wall that she always concentrating on and

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thinking about. In both tales readers see two care-free husbands who love their wives, but do not pay attention to understand meaningful issues in a family such as: lost connection with kids and other relatives. All these problems appear because both families only think about their own comfort and success.

References: Charlotte Perkins Gilman. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” American Gothic Tales, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, Penguin Group, 1996, pp. 87-102. John Cheever. “The Enormous Radio.” American Gothic Tales, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, The Penguin Group, 1996, pp. 253-263....