Jack’s character from the novel Room by Emma Donoghue is curious, imaginative, creative, and open. “Vegetables are all real but ice cream is TV. I wish it was a real thing to. Is plant a raw thing?” (Donoghue 20) shows that jack is curious to know about the things he sees on TV and the objects in Room. Jack has been building “Eggsnake” since he was three, Liv[ing] in Under Bed all coiled up keeping us safe.” (Donoghue 21) Jack’s imagination of an “Eggsnake” keeping him and Ma safe is not realistic because snakes don’t keep people safe, instead they can be dangerous which Jack is completely unaware of as the snake is fake. Also Jack is very creative at the age of five, he builds an instrument called Twang “that’s a cereal box I collaged with all different colored legs and shoes and coats and heads from the old catalog, then I stretched three rubber bands across the middle.” (Donoghue 16) Jack’s instrument Twang in reality is a guitar which he constructs using his creativity. “Then the wonderfulest thing… I watch his hands, his whiskers, his tail all curly. He’s alive, he’s the biggest alive thing I ever saw, millions of times bigger than the ants or Spider.” (Donoghue 31) This quote allows the reader to understand Jack’s openness to everything he sees, showing that he isn’t afraid of the things that many of us are of.
Through the first half of the novel, one can tell that Jack is precocious just from the kind of information that Ma reveals and entrusts him to. Ma gives Jack a very mature explanation of why she has a bad wrist and why they can’t attempt to hurt Old Nick in an effort to escape. She is very blunt and doesn’t remove some of the unpleasant parts of the story to spare Jack the worry. “And number two, if I ever tried a stunt like that again, he’d go away and I’d get hungrier and hungrier till I died.” (Donoghue 97) Hearing Ma’s story makes Jack curious of everything that happens and why it happens.
A text to text connection I made is by relating how Jack felt to the song “How” by Cranberries. The line “how you said you never would leave me alone, oh” relates to how Jack cannot live without his mother being there for him and that he forever need his mother to be with him. There is a time in the book when Jack is at Grandma’s house without Ma, while Ma is at the clinic recovering. Jack during this time feels alone and doesn’t want to do anything without Ma; all he wants is to be with her. Ma always told Jack that she would be in his head whenever he needed he, but when jack can’t hear Ma in his head, he yells “ Ma Ma Ma “ inside his head knowing that he is alone.
“But you said a birthday cake; it’s not a birthday cake if there’s no five candles on fire.” (Donoghue 23) On Jack’s fifth birthday, his mother made a cake for him, but placed five chocolates instead of five candles, but Jack wanted candles to make it a “real” birthday. Jack screamed and had a fit over this trivial issue. When I was five, I did similar things. Whenever I wanted something, I wanted it. Period. If I didn’t get it, I wouldn’t talk to my parents, throw fits and I would cry during the nights. Jack doesn’t realize that to get Sunday treats, his mother has to allow Old Nick to rape her multiple times a week. At the age of five, even I could not understand the reason behind why my parents couldn’t get the things I desired. For my parents it was difficult because they had arrived from India not too long ago before I was born and didn’t have enough income to fulfill my needs. Ma and jack’s living conditions are much harsher than mine were when I was young, but a five year olds mind cannot be changed.
The image of Room symbolizes the entire world for Jack where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn, read, eat, sleep and play. Room is the place where Ma and Jack have been kept confined and isolated in. To Jack, Room is unforgettable as he moves on life, whereas for Ma she doesn’t want to have to remember it, think out it, talk about it or even see it again, But when Jack asks about Room Ma has to tell him about it reminding her of the past.
