Room

The first chapter of Room introduces the circumstances in which Jack and Ma live through five-year-old Jack’s narrative perspective. Jack’s limited life experience and childish outlook inform the way the narrative slowly reveals and implies the living situation of Jack and Ma. This chapter also introduces some of the novel’s main themes.

Jack’s first-person narration makes it so the reader must slowly piece together the novel’s setting and the implicit events that occurred before the book began. Jack’s childish reflection breaks into tangents about what he knows, what he has seen on television, and how he interprets his life in Room. Jack’s limited exposure to the outside world means he has formed certain ideas about what is and is not real, and he personifies almost every object in the room, including Room itself. This animism-like perspective shows how Jack becomes emotionally attached to the objects in Room the same way a normal child might become attached to friends, family, or pets. Jack regularly seeks companionship, even though he is not entirely sure what is and is not real outside of the room. He remarks, “Spider’s real. I’ve seen her two times. I look for her now but there’s only a web between Table’s leg and her flat” (8). Jack decides he will not “tell Ma about Spider” (8), so he can preserve the one other living thing around besides Ma. Later, Jack gets attached to a mouse in the kitchen and is upset at Ma for scaring it away.

Jack’s interpretation of the outside world also influences his religious views. Jack believes he was “Up in Heaven” and that he “zoomed down” through the skylight in their room (3). He refers to the sun and moon as God’s faces, and he and Ma talk about Jesus. Ironically, without knowing about the devil, Jack assigns a devilish name to the man who keeps them imprisoned. Jack explains that he “didn’t even know the name for him till I saw a cartoon about a guy that comes in the night called Old Nick. I call the real one that because he comes in the night, but he doesn’t look like the TV guy with a beard and horns and stuff” (12). Though Jack does not know this, Old Nick is a nickname for the Christian devil, and Jack’s description of the television character furthers this interpretation.

Jack’s animism, his bonds with objects and hypothetical friends, and his limited understanding of the world outside Room all develop the Innocence of Childhood theme by showing how Jack assigns his own understanding to the things he sees, hears, and learns. Because Jack has had limited exposure to anything outside of Room, his child brain fills in the spaces. With Ma’s careful upbringing, Jack has no knowledge of the dark history between Ma and Old Nick. He also does not understand what Old Nick is doing every night when he visits Ma. All Jack knows is “When Old Nick creaks Bed, I listen and count fives on my fingers, tonight it’s 217 creaks. I always have to count till he makes that gaspy sound and stops” (37). The juxtaposition of five-year-old Jack counting the bed creaks while Old Nick rapes Ma illustrates Jack’s childhood innocence through his lack of comprehension of what is happening.

Despite being prisoners, Ma tries to give Jack the best life possible. Ma’s efforts for Jack develop the Ability to Adapt theme by showing the resilience that Ma maintains in the face of their situation. Ma and Jack sing to each other and recite nursery rhymes. Ma gives Jack an education through their limited means by having Jack read difficult words from their milk carton and recite words from television. Ma limits their television time because “it rots our brains” (11). Ma and Jack make toys like Labyrinth, which they have “been making [...] since [Jack] was two, out of toilet roll insides taped together” (14). Ma also does daily physical education with Jack. When Jack exclaims, “I can do a there-and-back in sixteen steps” (15), Ma recalls, “When you were four it was eighteen steps” (15), showing how her routine with Jack has been consistent in order to give him the best chance at a normal life.

Ma teaches Jack everything she can within the confines of their Room, but she intentionally omits things to protect him. She chooses not to tell Jack that he is missing out on the world outside, teaching him instead that the things he sees on television are not real. There are also routines that Ma does not explain, like Scream, which they do “every day but not Saturdays or Sundays” (40). During Scream, they climb on the table and “open wide our teeth and shout holler howl yowl shriek screech scream the loudest possible” (40), followed by a few moments of silence. When Jack asks Ma what they are listening for, her explanation is “just in case, you never know” (40). Their daily screaming session implies that Ma has engaged in a regular ritual to attract attention to Room. Ma has done this in a way that protects Jack from knowing they are prisoners to preserve his childhood innocence. Ma’s attempts to educate Jack develop the Ability to Adapt theme as she tries to give him the best life in a bad situation.

Overall, Jack’s narrative perspective sets the pace and tone for the novel while still revealing dark insights into his and Ma’s life. Jack’s interpretation of things develops the Innocence of Childhood theme, while Ma’s daily routine and efforts for Jack show the Ability to Adapt theme. This first chapter also establishes the dynamic between Jack, Ma, and Old Nick.