While reading Room, I found it really interesting seeing the world through Jack’s eyes. He was brought up seeing a very small window of the world, and believing that their life was normal. When I first started reading, I didn’t understand exactly why Jack capitalized certain nouns, until I realized it was because he’s only seen one. One Door, one Toothbrush, one Bed. But his mind is completely blown when he finally sees the ad for Ma’s medicine. That’s when he realizes that outside of Room is not completely separate from him.
Being inside Jack’s mind at this time was really eye-opening. We see the confusion and the questioning. “Dora is a drawing in TV but she’s my real friend, that’s confusing. Jeep is actually real, I can feel him with my fingers. Superman is just TV. Trees are TV but Plant is real, oh, I forgot to water her” (63). Jack’s constantly trying to fit his world together around him, and learning that there is more than just Room is pretty big. After the mind blowing revelation that there are other humans and things outside of his Room, Jack has to really turn his ideas about the world around. But this doesn’t just greatly impact Jack. The world that Ma’s painted for him comes crashing down. She can no longer protect Jack from learning about the terrible situation that they’re in and Jack soon learns about their traumatizing situation.
I think that portraying the novel through the eyes of a five year old actually helps the reader see this story through two eyes. Ma’s thoughts are a lot easier to interpret through what we know (she was kidnapped and knows what they are being constrained by) and Jack’s observations. However, if we weren’t given Jack’s narration, I don’t think we would’ve been able to understand what he was going through. It would be extremely hard to believe that a child could be brought up, thinking that the room they live in was the only thing in the world. We wouldn’t have been able to see him slowly realize that they were imprisoned and that he was missing out on so much. Putting this novel in Jack’s eyes also emphasizes how terrible his situation is. Even though Jack doesn’t know that his life is not the norm, the reader does, and that just makes me sympathize for him so much more.
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ReplyDeleteYes! I agree that it helps that the narration is said through Jack. Though we don't know the clear situation until some into the book, it's very interesting to see how Jack describes the world (the one with just Room). But as he starts figuring out theres more, it's nice for us to be able to follow him along his revelation and trying to fit the pieces together as opposed to told by his mother which wouldn't have been able to capture Jack's confusion and frustration with how everything fit together.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Jack's narration shows us everything instead of telling, contributing to the effectiveness of this story -- I feel that if the book was from Ma's point of view, it would be a lot more of "hmm Nick's gonna come back at 9 again, but I need explain to Jack about our situation" which (in my opinion) is a lot less effective than "Wait so there's an outside world and other people exist but the only people I've seen are Ma and Nick (once)? Nick bought me a lollypop but he's actually a bad guy?? &^&^*&#%#^ what???"
ReplyDeleteI agree that Jack's narration is a lot more terrifying than Ma's in that we understand some of the situations that he doesn't understand. I also think that through Jack's narration the reader slowly uncovers the horror of the situation as either he discovers it or Ma tells him it. One example is the measurements of room, where we realize the confinement that Ma and Jack are in. Another is Jack's naivety to the creaks of the bed, which he doesn't realize is Ma having sex with her kidnapper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! With Jack as the narrator, the story also seems to be told in a lighter tone, especially since he doesn't know about Outside, until the reader realizes the events he experiences and describes. Like you said, it makes the reader realize just how terrible the situation is which makes it even sadder to see how Jack misses Room later in the story.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting seeing this perspective but also nostalgic in a way. It reminds me of how I probably was as a child and when I was trying to understand complex things. At the same time, I also found this perspective exhausting. It would have been much easier to just explain the situation to Jack but I realize just how cruel that would be and understand why Ma didn't do it. I'm glad I got to see this point of view but I don't know if I prefer it over other narratives.
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