General Vision and Viewpoint in Room
Central Characters
Jack
Jack is the narrator of Room. He is 5yrs of age when the novel begins, he has been imprisoned inside Room for his entire life. Despite his youth, Jack is a complex and engaging character and he gains out sympathy from the outset.
Jack’s cheerful acceptance of the limitations of Room is heartbreaking. He does not expect much and is content to receive a hand-drawn picture of himself for his birthday.
Jack’s descriptions of his and Ma’s daily routine is told in such a way that it is clear he enjoys himself and thinks they are busy, but the sparsity of food, space, company and stimulation mean it is impossible for us to share his high spirits.
At 5, Jack is far too young to realise the gravity of his situation. He is excited to celebrate his birthday and eagerly anticipates his continued growth, telling Ma that he will ‘get bigger and bigger and bigger’ and will eventually ‘grow to a giant’.
As he says that he notices that Ma’s face has ‘gone flat’ and he knows that he has said something wrong but doesn’t know what. We know that his innocent remarks have forced Ma to think about the impossibility of Jack living in Room forever.
Ironically Jack’s very happiness has contributed to the negative vision and viewpoint at this stage in the novel.
He is looking forward to a future he cannot have, and Ma feels powerless to do anything about it.
Eventually Ma is forced to engineer Jack’s escape. Old Nick has lost his job and Ma is afraid that the bank will foreclose on his house and he will do something terrible to her and Jack to avoid their being discovered.
Jack has to pretend to be dead and allow himself to be carried away by Old Nick. He is terrified he is going to ‘mess it all up and Old Nick will bury me for real and Ma will be waiting always’.
The description of the bid for freedom makes it the point of highest tension in the novel.
Not everything goes to plan, but Jack manages to get away, much to our relief.
Although Jack is only a little boy, he is willing to fake his death and run the risk of being buried alive by Old Nick in order to escape and save his mother. His bravery, love and determination give us hope that he will manage to make his way in the outside world.
Ma and Jack’s escape does not provide us with a happy-ever-ending, the second half of the novel is taken up with the aftermath and Jack’s struggle to adapt to daily life.
Dr Clay says he is ‘like a newborn in many ways’.
Ma notices that he keeps ‘banging into things’ because he never learned to judge distances.
He can only cope with other people ‘if they don’t touch me’.
He behaves inappropriately at times: staring at a breastfeeding mother and touching his cousin’s private parts in the bathroom.
Although Ma did her best, Jack was damaged by his time in Room and is far behind the average 5year old in many ways. His continuing difficulties dismay Ma and, by extension, the reader.
Dr. Clay rekindles our hope that Jack will lead a fulfilling and happy life in time. He says Ma did the right thing by getting Jack out of Room while he was still ‘plastic’, and that he will forget about his past and move on.
Dr. Clay’s prediction is soon proven correct . In the space of only 3 weeks, Jack learns a great deal about interacting with others. For example, he gains a conscience when he feels bad for keeping one of the coins Grandma gave him to give to a homeless man.
Jack learns something new every day; saying , ‘I thought all the weird things happened yesterday but there’s lots more today’.
It’s important to know how Jack will fare as he grows but the giant strides he takes in that short time after he gains his freedom leave us with a guardedly optimistic view of his future.
Life may not be easy but Jack has already shown such determination and generosity of spirit that he seems as well-equipped as any child could be to overcome the social and emotional deprivation caused by his imprisonment.
Ma
Ma is the second central character in Room, she is 26yrs old when the novel begins. We never learn her real name because she is just ‘Ma’ to Jack, the narrator.
She was kidnapped by Old Nick when she was 19yrs of age and has been kept prisoner in Room for seven years, giving birth to a stillborn baby girl the year before Jack was born.
Ma gains our admiration and respect from the outset, doing her best to care for Jack in incredibly difficult circumstances. She educates him, plays with him and showers him with love.
Food is precious in Room, but Jack says that when they eat a tub of mandarins, he gets ‘the big bits because she prefers the little ones’. When they run low on food and there is only one bagel left, Ma only has a quarter and lets Jack believe that she is ‘not very hungry’.
Her selfless devotion and strength of purpose are counterbalanced by her utter helplessness.
Although Jack means everything to Ma, she knows that she cannot keep him safe forever. He will eventually grow too big to be hidden in a wardrobe at night, and Ma cannot possibly provide everything he will need as he matures. She has done well to get him to 5yrs of age in reasonably good health.
Jack is unaware of her concerns but the reader is not. In the early stages of the novel, it is hard to be optimistic about Ma and Jack’s future.
Eventually Ma decides that Jack must escape Room, she knows that she may not make it but doesn’t care as long as Jack is alright: ‘You’re the one who matters, though. Just you’.
The agony of her dilemma is heartbreaking. She cries so hard when telling Old Nick that her son is dead that Jack says he nearly believes that she is not pretending. Of course, the reader knows she is not acting: there is every chance that Jack will not make it or, if he does, Ma will not be saved. The odds of both surviving are low, and Ma’s bravery and self-sacrifice are truly admirable.
Ma longed for freedom for 7yrs, but it proves to be less than she hoped for. In Room she was just ‘Ma’, but now she is a person in her own right again and has to behave in a way that is seen as normal by society.
For example, she is still breastfeeding Jack, and is angry and upset when others find this unacceptable.
She has moments where she finds Jack’s demands too much, telling him, ‘I keep messing up. I know you need me to be your ma but I’m having to remember how to be as well at the same time’.
She is not the same person she was when she was kidnapped, and she cannot simply pick up the pieces of her old life.
Despite all that she suffered in Room, Ma is devoted to Jack that one of the most difficult moments in her life actually occurs during a television interview that she has agreed to only so she can earn money for Jack’s college fund. When the interviewer suggests that she was selfish by not asking Old Nick to leave Jack at a hospital and give him the chance to be adopted and live a normal life, Ma is so devastated that he attempts to take her own life.
It never occurred to her that she was not doing her best for Jack and that he needed more than her love. Her attempted suicide is one of the lowest points in the book and it is difficult to see how she will recover and go on to lead a happy and fulfilling life. Escape was not the end of her difficulties, but rather the start of a new set of problems.
Eventually the doctors find the right balance of medication to help Ma cope and she has continuing support from Dr. Clay.
She leaves rehab and moves into an independent living facility with Jack.
There is no doubt that Ma, despite her incredible strength and resilience, will be forever scarred by what has happened to her, and that all that is left is a hope that she will eventually find some sort of peace.
Opening
The novel opens with a simple statement ‘Today I’m five’, immediately followed by the young narrator’s observation that he was ‘four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe’.
The juxtaposition of a perfectly normal childhood comment about a birthday and a throwaway comment about sleeping in a wardrobe sets a jarring tone and immediately makes us feel uneasy.
Jack and his mother discuss his birth in a way that shows it is a familiar conversation Ma says that she was unhappy until she learned that she was pregnant with Jack.
It becomes clear that she gave birth in the room, alone. Jack can see the stain on the rug where he was born, and he reminds her that she ‘cutted the cord’ herself.
Ma and Jack’s extreme isolation and Ma’s utter misery before Jack’s birth contributes to a deeply negative general vision and viewpoint at this stage of the novel.
Ma gets up to turn on the heating and Jack says that he doesn’t think ‘he came last night after nine’ because ‘the air is always different if he came’.
The introduction of Old Nick strikes an ominous note. We don’t know who he is, but there is a sense of underlying menace associated with this shadowy figure.
In the opening lines, Jack says he went to sleep in Wardrobe but woke up in Bed, so it is safe to assume that he has to hide from him.
Jack says that Ma doesn’t like talking about Old Nick, so Jack avoids the topic.
Jack and Ma are so close that this reluctance to discuss something is troubling and gives the impression that whoever this man is, he poses a danger to Jack and Ma.
Jack has given names to all the everyday furnishings and objects in the room, as indicated by the capital letters: Wardrobe, Lamp, Skylight and Rug, for example. ‘Meltedy Spoon’ is his favourite of all the spoons because ‘he’ is different to the others.
Jack cares about the objects in Room that he even strokes the table hoping to make the scratches ‘better’.
A young child should not have to form emotional attachments to items such as these, and the fact that he has done so indicates he is lacking the company of other children.
Jack is cheerful about his lot and seems to know no different. He says that he and Ma ‘have thousands of things to do every morning’ but their tasks are repetitive and far from stimulating.
Jack’s ability to be happy in what are clearly dreadful circumstances does not contribute to any sense of optimism in the opening of the novel. Rather, it heightens the sadness of his situation that he should not even know what he is lacking.
The only positive note in the opening of the novel is the great love Ma and Jack share.
Ma has been imprisoned for seven years and was initially too depressed to take care of herself, but with Jack’s birth she found a purpose.
Their daily routine shows her great love for him and her desire to ensure that he is as fit, healthy and educated as he can possibly be in the confines of Room.
However, their deep bond comes at a price. Jack is overly attached to Ma because he has nobody else in his life.
At first he doesn’t like the drawing that Ma gave him because she drew it when he was asleep, telling her she should not be ‘on at the same time I’m off’.
Jack wants to hang the picture on the wall but Ma doesn’t want Old Nick to see so they hang it in Wardrobe.
This reinforces the idea that Old Nick is an overwhelmingly negative force in the novel. Ma does not want him to know anything about Jack, something which despite his youth Jack accepts without question.
Jack’s attachment to Ma is reinforced when he asks if he can breastfeed. Ma suggests stopping now that he is five but Jack refuses: ‘No way Jose’.
It is obvious that even at 5yrs of age, he needs the physical sustenance of breastmilk as well as the closeness of nursing from his mother.
Jack and Ma are struggling to make the best of the limited resources they have.
Although Ma does her best to protect and care for Jack and the pair love each other, even Jack’s cheerful upbeat narration cannot take from the dreadful reality that a young woman and her little boy are locked in a tiny room and under the control of a menacing figure.
Ending
The novel ends on a reflective note as Ma and Jack return to Room one last time. Jack has never fully let go of his first home and, with May Day approaching, he raises the subject with Ma, asking if he can visit Room. She is surprised by the request and asks if he does not like the outside.
Jack’s response: ‘Yeah. Not everything’, shows that he has not fully integrated into the world outside the tiny shed where he spent the five years of his life, and leaves us wondering if he will ever fully succeed in doing so or if he has been irreparably damaged by his experiences.
At the same time, however, Jack shows how far he has come when he says that is ‘choosing for both’ he and Ma.
In the ‘Dying’ section of the book, Jack did not want to leave Room, but Ma insisted, saying, ‘I’m your mother…. That means sometimes I have to choose for both of us’. Now the positions are reversed as Jack takes charge. He is growing up quickly and showing signs of the independent boy he may one day become.
Ma does not want to visit Room but agrees to go when Jack makes it clear that he will only be happy if she is with him. Although she is traumatised at the thought of revisiting the scene of her imprisonment, rape and torture, Ma puts Jack’s needs before hers, and sees that he must find closure before he can move on with his life.
Her selflessness is heart-warming and indicates that she will do her best for Jack at every stage of his life.
Shockingly, one of the first things Jack and Ma see in the garden is the hole in the ground where Jack’s baby sister was buried after her stillbirth. The tension is palpable as Jack says his chest is ‘thump thump thumping’. Ma weeps for her lost baby and, when she reaches the door of Room, is so distressed that she vomits on the grass before summoning the courage to go in.
That Ma is able to enter her former prison at all is a testament to her strength and gives us hope that she possesses the resilience to overcome the horror she has been through and may, therefore, find peace and fulfilment in the future.
Jack is taken aback by how small Room is and he thinks they have come to the wrong place as ‘Nothing says anything’ to him. He has already forgotten where Plant used to be, to Ma’s surprise.
However, this is a good sign. When Jack and Ma were in the Cumberland Clinic, Dr Clay praised Ma for managing to get Jack out when she did, telling her that at five, children are ‘still plastic’ and ‘probably young enough to forget…. Which will be a mercy’.
Finally, Jack accepts that this place ‘was Room one time’ but he does not think it is anymore. He wonders if that is because Door is open. Courageously, Ma offers to close it for a minute but Jack refuses. He walks around, saying ‘Good-bye’ to everything, taking only the picture that Ma drew of him on his birthday while noting that he looks very small in it.
Jack realises that he has outgrown Room in every way. The outside world may not be perfect, but it is better than this cramped prison. As he leaves, Jack looks back one last time, observing that Room is ‘like crater, a hole where something happened’.
We are reminded of the start of the book, when he took the M&Ms from the fifth birthday cake Ma made him and pointed out the holes in the icing to Ma. At the time, she compared them to craters, explaining to Jack that craters are ‘Holes were something happened. Like a volcano or an explosion or something’.
What happened in Room was horrifically violent and left its mark on Ma and Jack but there is a hope that the void it left in their lives can be filled as they heal.
Jack’s birthday cake marked a significant milestone in his life, and leaving Room for the last time is even more momentous. Although he is only 5, Jack is capable of letting go of his former emotional attachment to Room and accepting that he must move forward with his life.
The novel ends at such an early stage in Jack’s life that we cannot know for sure how life will turn out for him and Ma. They both have much to learn and relearn about the world, and the trauma they have endured means we cannot be wholeheartedly optimistic about their future.
However, we have seen the pair endure terrible hardships and survive, against the odds. Their determination and great love for one another is the best indicator we could have that they will make the very best of what is to come.
Relationships
The key relationship in the novel is that between Jack and Ma. Their love sustains them during their imprisonment, and they find the strength in one another. The bond they share is a bright light in a bleak tale. Ma tells Jack that her life was utterly miserable before he was born and that she ‘lay there counting the seconds’, but that as soon as he arrived, she found joy and a sense of purpose.
She began to take care of herself again, having neglected her health in the years before he arrived.
One of the difficulties in Ma and Jack’s relationship is that Ma constantly longs for freedom and detests Room. Unlike Jack, she knows that there is a whole world outside and that ‘Room’s only a tiny stinky piece of it’.
1Jack on the other hand, does not wish to be free because he doesn’t know he is a prisoner. Ma has to work hard to get him to understand that fact.
Even when she succeeds, Jack has mixed feelings about escaping. For him, Room represents security and the only life he has ever known.
When Jack manages to escape and bring the police to rescue Ma, she is delighted and tells him they can ‘do anything now’ because they are free. Jack says he wants to go to bed in Room because he has ‘seen the world’ and is tired now.
When Ma says they are never going back, Jack cries so much he cannot stop.
Their needs and desires seem so at odds after what should have been a wonderful moment that we can see their relationship will likely be put under great strain in the coming months.
The biggest blow to Ma and Jack’s relationship comes about when Ma allows herself to be interviewed for a TV show. The interviewer asks her if she ever considered asking Old Nick to take Jack to a hospital and leave him so that he could be put up for adoption, claiming, ‘Every day he needed a wider world, and the only one you could give him got narrower’.
Ma had never thought that she was the one keeping Jack imprisoned in Room and she is utterly heartbroken at the suggestion that she deprived him of his freedom. She is so distressed that she takes an overdose and Jack has to go and stay with Grandma on his own – the first time he and Ma have been separated since he was born. This incident is a low point in the novel and it is difficult to feel optimistic about Ma and Jack’s future together.
Jack is fortunate to have two other important adults in his life. Grandma and Steppa provide Jack with as close to a normal upbringing as they can while Ma is in hospital.
Grandma is down to earth and practical, scorning doctor’s concerns over her ‘standard of care’ when Jack is slightly sunburnt and stung by a bee.
After his intense relationship with Ma, Grandma’s more old-fashioned and, at times, impatient child-rearing methods provide Jack with some of the balance he needs in order to adjust to life outside Room. When he wants to eat dinner with Meltedy Spoon, Grandma refuses because she says it is ‘unhygienic’. The significance of the objects in Room in Jack’s life is lost on her and she breezes over complaints.
Grandma doesn’t have much time for people who overthink things, and when Jack hears people on TV comparing him to characters from myths and stories, she tells him, ‘Those guys spent too much time at college’. Jack says Ma wants to send him to college, and ‘Grandma’s eyes roll’. This no-nonsense approach, combined with deep affection, allows Jack to make mistakes and learn from them.
Grandma’s common sense lessens the tension in the novel and shows us that Jack is capable of surviving and growing without being coddled.
In Ma’s absence, he can find his own place in this new world. Jack’s relationship with Grandma, therefore, contributes to a feeling of optimism and a positive general vision and viewpoint.
Steppa provides another caring and nurturing relationship that helps Jack to develop the skills he needs in normal life. He is laid back and tactful, sensing when emotions are running high.
At one stage, Jack throws a tantrum and Steppa picks him up, carries him to his room and waits until he has stopped crying before asking if he would like to watch the game and eat pie with him. Jack agrees and calm is restored.
Steppa doesn’t get drawn into arguments like Grandma and Ma, and he gives Jack the space he needs to deal with his own feelings and come to terms with them. Knowing that Jack has Grandma and Steppa in his life, we can feel hopeful that he will be supported and guided by very different but equally loving members of his extended family.
Ma gradually recovers from the depression that led her to attempt suicide, but while she is in the hospital she struggles between joy and sorrow at all that Jack is doing without her. During a phone call, he tells her about his haircut and going to the beach and having baths on his own.
Jack accuses Ma of tricking him about there being poo in the sea, and she says tearily that he ‘had so many questions’ and she didn’t have all the answers, so she had to make some up.
She tells him that she must stay in hospital a little longer, until the doctors ‘figure out what I need’. Jack is confused as it is clear to him that what she needs is him.
The reality is that they need each other a little less that they did, and that is a good thing. If there is to be hope of their both living fulfilled lives, they will need to gradually find their own paths in life.