"Room" by Emma Donoghue

In "Room" by Emma Donoghue, the protagonist is a boy named Jack. For this five-year-old, one room is everything he has come to known. He was born in Room and has grown, learned and played with his mother in it ever since. In the eyes of Jack, he lives in a perfect world, but to Ma they are locked in a prison by Old Nick. From what I have read so far, Jack’s personality has been revealed by his actions and his mother’s words. The circumstances do not stop Jack from being a curious child. His thoughts are always jumping and his actions follow suit. An example of this comes on page 4, “I jump onto Rocker to look at Watch, he says 07:14. I can skate-board on Rocker without holding onto her, then I whee back onto Duvet and I’m snowboarding instead.” Emma Donoghue does an excellent job portraying Jack’s playful personality by using capital letters and eliminating the word “the” to give objects in Room life in a child’s eyes. His juvenile nature becomes clear when he does things such as, “I stroke Table’s scratches to make them better, she’s a circle all white except gray in the scratches from chopping foods.” (6) This novel creates passage into a young child’s mind and I believe it is quite accurate in doing so.


The novel is told from the first person perspective of Jack and his dialogue makes the story so spectacular. After seeing his mother take two pain killers for her tooth ache on page 9, Jack asks, “Why don’t you take two killers all the bits of every day?” She responds by saying she’d be hooked which is, “Like stuck on a hook, because I’d need them all the time. Actually I might need more and more.” Then Jack says, “What’s wrong with needing?” (9) This excerpt is a perfect example of Emma Donoghue’s ability to express childhood innocence on paper. Jack does not understand the problems that can come along with someone’s actions like many children his age. However, the extent of this is much more extreme with Jack due to his isolation. Also, Emma Donoghue mixes up verb tenses and leaves out words to make Jack’s dialogue as child-like as possible. For instance, he says things such as, “How did a picture asleep?” (5)


On the other hand, there are certain parts of "Room" where Jack’s growing maturity becomes evident. This maturity is seen when Ma begins to speak of the existence of the world outside Room. In order to escape, a plan is made where Jack needs to fake sick and go to a hospital with Old Nick. Ma says, “I know it’ll be really weird to go on your own, but I’ll be talking to you in your head every minute, I promise.” However, Jack is mature enough to know that this is not the case and “Ma won’t be in my head really. My tummy hurts just thinking about it.” (108) At times, Ma’s frustration towards Jack shows through and he always sees this. After disagreeing with Ma’s plan, Jack understands that, “She doesn’t say anything she’s so furious with me.” (114) He is more mature than the reader’s original impression and his curiosity of the outside world and Ma’s past drive this novel during and after their escape.