Room, although it is at the core a
terrifying story that you wish on no one, naturally intrigues us as readers. As
we talked about in class the other day, for some reason people have always been
interested in these kinds of experiments, where a child is born into a totally
different world with no exposure to society and undergoes various psychological
effects. We can clearly see many of these effects in Jack. But contrary to what
I expected, observing Jack has actually made me question the society that we
live in. Why does our society run the way it does? Why do we have these
unspoken rules that everyone knows about, and why do we follow them? Obviously
we have laws for moral purposes, but there are many rules that society has
created and accepted that don’t make sense to Jack, and that I have (kind of) started
to question as well.
One example
where society’s rules are confusing to Jack is when Ma is trying to explain the
sport of boxing to him (this is when they were still in Room, watching TV). Ma
told Jack that hitting is not allowed, but it is if people have special gloves
on. She described boxing as “nasty but it’s a game”. Now, even though I knew
what she was talking about, I could understand why this might seem so weird to
Jack. Hitting is only allowed if you have special gloves on. This may not be a
perfect definition, but it is not an inaccurate definition. This is a sport
that is accepted by society, yet seems a bit silly when you put it in this
perspective. It also makes me question, why is it that parents tell kids that
hitting others is bad, yet pay for people to do exactly that on TV for our
entertainment?
Another societal
norm that Jack struggles to understand is the fact that people expect those
with long hair to be girls. When Jack runs into the stranger walking the dog,
right after he escaped room, the stranger asks Nick “I’m so sorry, is your
little girl OK?” Jack at first doesn’t completely understand that the “little
girl” being referred to is him. We as readers understand this to be just a societal
norm, as people with long hair are most likely females (especially in the case
of children). But to Jack, it was normal for him as a boy to have very long
hair. This is uncommon for the rest of society, and made me wonder why women
tend to have longer hair than males, and how this societal norm happened in the
first place.
There were
also times when Ma was teaching Jack manners where it was hilarious and
relatable at the same time. Jack learned that “when something tastes yucky we
say it’s interesting.” We all know that this is part of having manners, as it
is rude to say something tastes bad, especially if someone put in hard work
trying to cook the food. This is not a rule that I am trying to question, but I
just found it funny that Jack was learning this, and that he explained it in
such a simple yet truthful way.
Overall, Room was a very engaging book, and it
was very interesting observing Jack as a character and watching him undergo
this six week journey. I wish that I could continue to see Jack grow up, as
there are so many interesting plots and stories that could develop. How would
he adjust to school? What would he be like in 20 years? Maybe Donoghue could
write a sequel…
Another good one, with Jack learning "manners," is when he learns how to "laugh behind our mouths" when we see someone being foolish or stupid. There's plenty of humor to be found in Jack's efforts to navigate these social norms--and I'd say there usually is with any kid learning this stuff. These are often the kind of moments that are funnier after the fact, as when a kid says something inappropriate or is "too honest"--it can be harrowing for the parent at the time. One more way that, with Jack, we see "normal" stages of childhood development in a more extreme form.
ReplyDeleteBy forcing Jack to go through such a terrible, five year experience and then suddenly leave his universe for Outside, Donoghue is able to effectively and realistically defamiliarize societal norms in the real world, something that I think is difficult to achieve, given how ingrained into our culture these norms are. Yet another example of this was her portrayal of paranoid and overprotective modern parenting, as opposed to Grandma and Steppa's more laid-back nature.
ReplyDeleteYou make very interesting points. Now that I think about the way Ma explains things to Jack, it does make me question the way our society runs with things for example like boxing.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this aspect of the book, it was a nice, lighthearted break from all of the very heavy topics that are discussed throughout most of the novel, and, as you said, makes Jack very relatable. As you mention in your post, it would be very interesting to see how Jack develops over the next few years, but I also think that Room concludes very well as it stands.
ReplyDelete