The Biggest Room, By Emma Donoghue
The Biggest Room: Escape from Captivity as it Pertains to Jack in Room Room, by Emma Donoghue, is a novel written from the perspective of a five year-old boy named Jack. Jack is the son of a 26 year-old woman, Ma, who was kidnapped at the age of 19 and held in captivity for seven years before Jack executes their escape. Jack has spent his entire lifetime in the room their captor built for them, which he names Room, and reacts much differently to the outside world upon escaping than Ma, to whom the outside world is home. For weeks after his escape, Jack struggles, first, to adjust to a new environment and, second, to learn how others interact with it as a result of the extreme simplicity of life in Room and the lack of an adequate support system. In Room, Jack trusts Ma’s word as his only authority on how things are supposed to be, convinced that “Ma knows about everything” (291). When Jack and his mother escape Room,
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Rather, he grows frustrated that the adults present to help him transition do not know how to empathize with him, noting that “adults mostly don’t seem to like [kids], not even the parents do” (287), which validates his feeling of isolation. Further, when doctors at Jack and Ma’s rehabilitation clinic explain to Jack that he’s safe, he withholds, “because of manners,” that “In Room [he] was safe and outside is the scary,” (218) uncomfortable with unfamiliarity. Jack carries this thought through the end of the novel, confirming doctors’ worries that Jack would struggle to adjust to his new environment and place in society. Room, as a novel, ultimately offers interesting commentary on how children are viewed in today’s society, and how their concerns often go unheard, through Jack’s struggles to adjust to mainstream
Rather, he grows frustrated that the adults present to help him transition do not know how to empathize with him, noting that “adults mostly don’t seem to like [kids], not even the parents do” (287), which validates his feeling of isolation. Further, when doctors at Jack and Ma’s rehabilitation clinic explain to Jack that he’s safe, he withholds, “because of manners,” that “In Room [he] was safe and outside is the scary,” (218) uncomfortable with unfamiliarity. Jack carries this thought through the end of the novel, confirming doctors’ worries that Jack would struggle to adjust to his new environment and place in society. Room, as a novel, ultimately offers interesting commentary on how children are viewed in today’s society, and how their concerns often go unheard, through Jack’s struggles to adjust to mainstream