Power Dynamics in John Cheever’s The Enormous Radio : A Synergy of Turn-Taking Patterns and Stylistics

This study synthesises Conversation Analysis (CA) and stylistics to analyse the evolving power asymmetries between Irene and Jim Westcott, the protagonists of John Cheever’s The Enormous Radio. Through quantitative analysis of turn-taking patterns across three pivotal marital dialogues—tracking turn quantity, length, interruption frequency, and topic control—we demonstrate Jim’s escalating conversational dominance. A detailed stylistic examination of modality, point of view, and intertextuality, together with pragmatic dimensions of (im)politeness and face-threatening acts (FTAs), further reveals a tripartite discursive nexus: marital dialogue, omniscient narrative discourse, and the intrusive voices of the auditory world. This layered analysis reveals a power trajectory shifting from passive spousal interaction (Phase 1), to futile rational persuasion (Phase 2), and to moral condemnation (Phase 3). Our analytical framework can be extrapolated to other cases of literary critique.