Room by Emma Donoghue. - Printable Version

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Room by Emma Donoghue. - Leif Heaney - June 9, 2019

Room is the story of a boy and his mother who have been trapped inside a Room, the boy for his entire life. The boy, Jack, knows nothing about the world outside of Room, and believes that only things inside the Room, like him and his Ma, are real.

Discussion questions in spoiler tags, just in case. They're from the back of the book.

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This is a discussion thread for people who have read or are reading the book in question. With that in mind, there are likely to be spoilers throughout. However, in the event of major twists or “how it ends”, please wrap content in spoiler tags.

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RE: Room by Emma Donoghue. - Leif Heaney - June 9, 2019

Room is a lot different than I thought it would be. First off, I thought it was narrated from the mother's view when I looked at it or summaries of it, but now I realize it was told through Jack's much more innocent and caring point of view. I think this helps to lift away some of the heaviness of the book's topics, and Jack doesn't understand a lot of things that would fit into the heavy category. It's also so we can understand how much growing up in Room has affected him, vs. how being trapped there affects Ma. While Jack was stunted by Room in that he hasn't much knowledge of social interactions beyond his Ma, at least he was able to watch TV, and isn't like he's never seen technology before.

If I was Ma, the thing I would miss the most about the outside world is my family. It would kill me to think that they thought I was dead, especially since I would have no way of communicating with them. But if I was her, I would tell Jack about everything outside from the start. I can understand how she might think it better, but I would want him to know things in case we ever left. Especially about my family. I might have even asked that he be taken elsewhere, except I wouldn't know if Old Nick just planned to bury him. If Ma had never had Jack, I think she would have lost hope for everything outside of Room, and potentially even tried to kill herself.

For Sundaytreat, if I was Jack, I would ask for lots of toys. Or maybe some of my favorite foods. If I was Ma, I'd ask for practical things. Cleaning supplies, some tools. I doubt that Ma would get any tools because they could be used to hurt Old Nick, but it would be nice to be able to fix things. I think Ms. Donoghue didn't tell us about Old Nick's perspective because then there might be people who could find 'redeemable' qualities in him(as for me, I doubt there would be any) besides, it isn't Nick's story they're telling, it's Jack's.

Jack has trouble

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