Starting to read the sections of Room after Ma and Jack escape, and how Ma and Jack begin to adjust to being in the real world, I'm starting to get extremely concerned for Jack. Ma seems to be readjusting fairly well, as she was part of the world for many years before her capture, and seems very familiar with lots of things there. She does occasionally have had episodes caused by trauma, but given what she's been through that's completely understandable.
Jack, on the other hand, doesn't seem traumaticized by his experiences at all. He's still generally quite cheerful, and he is beginning to accept that Outside is a real place. He also does know a fair amount about Outside from the TV he's watched. My concern for Jack isn't that he's lost and overwhelmed in Outside, it's that he just doesn't like it as much as he likes Room. When Ma begins to get him new stuff and throw away the now useless things from Room, he often gets very upset and wishes he had all his things from Room back. He even asks to go back to Room to sleep, and wants to return there to get his old things, though Ma always refuses because she never wants to go back there.
It's obvious that Ma would never want to return to a place with such horrible memories, and I think none of us would want to either in the same situation. However we have to remember that while us and Ma see this as a prison because we know its place in the outside world, to Jack Room is his entire world. He had a lot of fun there with Ma, and she never portrayed it as a bad place to him, so he has no real reason to hate it. It's natural for a five-year old to go back to a place that he's very familiar with and has been his own life.
Another main reason Jack doesn't like Outside is that he's no longer always with Ma, though he's obviously extremely frightened of leaving her for even a second. Ma, after escaping, wants to have some time to herself and to actually live her own life. After being nothing but a mother for five years, it's obvious that she'd now want some time to rediscover herself and not to keep staying with Jack 24/7. Jack doesn't accept this, and I feel like this will lead to neither of them being able to become independent and adjust well. Ma will be unhappy as she, after being freed, is still sort of "trapped" by Jack, and Jack will become too dependent on Ma and won't be able to function by himself.
You make a lot of interesting points in this post! I think it's interesting that you found it strange that Jack wasn't very traumatized being in the outside world. I was very relieved because I thought the later sections of the book would be full of crying and tantrums. Also I agree with your last point, about Ma still being trapped, in a way, by Jack. But then I also think it's the realization that she might have trapped him and he could've had a better life that pushes her over the edge and makes her attempt suicide.
ReplyDelete