Room

“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. I don’t know what would happen if I didn’t count, because I always do.”

This quote, which contains Jack’s interpretation of what’s happening when Old Nick sexually abuses Ma, shows how Jack counts things in times of stress. Jack does not understand why he counts things, but he is compelled to do so in case something happens. This is an example of one of Jack’s self-soothing habits, and his counting of things, especially his teeth, becomes much more common once he is faced with the stress of the outside world.

“Forests are TV and also jungles and deserts and streets and skyscrapers and cars. Animals are TV except ants, Spider and Mouse, but he’s gone back now. Germs are real, and blood. Boys are TV but they kind of look like me, the me in Mirror that isn’t real either, just a picture.”

This internal monologue of Jack shows how he interprets the things he sees on television. This quote not only illustrates how Jack reconciles what he sees on TV with what Ma tells him is reality, but also how Jack’s age impacts his rambling internal thoughts. The intentional run-on sentences and lack of punctuation reflect how a 5-year-old child’s stream of consciousness might sound.

“She’s tired so she chooses Eye Stretch because that’s lying down side by side on Rug with arms by sides so we both fit. We look at far things like Skylight then near like noses, we have to see between them quick quick.”

Ma’s choice for her and Jack to stretch their eyes foreshadows some of the ways Jack may be developmentally stunted from their time in Room. Later, once they are out of Room, Jack runs into things because his depth perception is not good, as he has never had to learn new spaces or see things that are more than ten feet away.

“I don’t think she understands how amazing this is. I think about it right through putting on my sleep T-shirt and brushing my teeth and even when I’m having some on Bed.”

Jack refers to the revelation that the bottle of painkillers Ma has in Room is the same as the one Jack saw on a commercial for painkillers, leading Ma to confess that some things on television are real. While Ma is not making a big deal about this revelation, it has shaken Jack’s entire perception of reality, and he cannot get it off his mind. This quote illustrates how important this information is to Jack.

“‘So, Jack, we mustn’t try and hurt him again. When he came back the next night, he said, number one, nothing would ever make him tell me the code. And number two, if I ever tried a stunt like that again, he’d go way and I’d get hungrier and hungrier till I died.’ She’s stopped I think. My tummy creaks really loud and I figure it out, why Ma’s telling me the terrible story. She’s telling me that we’re going—Then I’m blinking and covering my eyes, everything’s all dazzling because Lamp’s come back on.”

In the final moments of Chapter 2, Ma tells Jack the story of the time she tried to hurt Old Nick and get the code. Ma is telling this to Jack because they have gone several days without power or a visit from Old Nick, and she is afraid that he is making good on this promise. When Jack connects these ideas, the lamp comes back on, symbolizing the lightbulb moment in Jack’s head when he realizes how dangerous it is for them to be at Old Nick’s mercy.

“Before I didn’t even know to be mad that we can’t open Door, my head was too small to have Outside in it. When I was a little kid I thought like a little kid, but now I’m five I know everything.”

As Jack thinks more and more about what he has learned from Ma about their situation, he gains a sense of confidence in his own thinking. Though he does not know everything, and he struggles when facing the outside world, Jack’s confidence is an important part of his development and aids him in executing the escape plan with Ma.

“Ma picks Corpse, where we lie extra still, I forget and scratch my nose so she wins.”

While Jack and Ma do physical education, Jack describes a game called Corpse, which Ma has chosen. They lie still and pretend to be dead. Jack thinks this is a fun game, but Ma is secretly training Jack to stay still because she is already constructing their escape plans in her head. This instance foreshadows what Jack must do to get out of Room and save Ma.

“Her hands are on her tummy. ‘I brought you into Room, I didn’t mean to but I did it and I’ve never once been sorry.’ I stare at her and she stares back. ‘I brought you here, and tonight I’m going to get you out.’”

Ma justifies her reasoning for being so strict with Jack about their escape plan and doing it tonight. Ma knows they have one chance for this to work and they cannot delay it. Despite Jack’s hurtful words that illustrate his childhood innocence, Ma is determined to do right by him and get him out of Room.

“‘I’ll know,’ says Ma, ‘I’ll know if you put him in the backyard, and I’ll scream every time that door opens, I’ll tear this place apart, I swear I’ll never be quiet again. You’ll have to kill me too to shut me up, I just don’t care anymore.’”

Ma’s dramatic speech has multiple implications and purposes. First, Ma is trying to sell that Jack is actually dead by showing how little she cares for her own life without him. Second, Ma wants Old Nick to take Jack far from his house so Jack can have a chance to escape. Finally, Ma is referring to the fact that Old Nick buried Ma’s first dead child in the backyard, and she is unhappy with this. Part of Ma’s closure in the final chapter comes with the relocation of this first child to a better resting place.

“‘The despot’s victims have an eerie pallor and appear to be in a borderline catatonic state after the long nightmare of their incarceration.’ There’s when Officer Oh tried to put the blanket on my head and I don’t let her. The invisible voice says, ‘The malnourished boy, unable to walk, is seen here lashing out convulsively at one of his rescuers.’”

Jack sees a news story on television about him and Ma. Though Jack is capable of walking and was only trying to keep a blanket off his head, the news has sensationalized it to make Jack appear to be a feral child with no connection to his humanity. This quote illustrates the role that news media takes in harming true crime victims.

“If Room wasn’t our home, does that mean we don’t have one?”

After Noreen suggests that Jack is “homesick,” she apologizes for her insensitive word choice after Ma asserts that it was a prison and not a home. This moment leaves Jack questioning the role of Room in his life and where he and Ma will go from here if not back to Room, which has been the only home he has known for his entire life.

“‘You keep talking about separation anxiety,’ Ma’s saying to Dr. Clay, ‘but me and Jack are not going to be separated.’”

During one of her meetings with Dr. Clay, Ma addresses Dr. Clay’s concerns about Jack’s attachment to Ma, stressing that she and Jack will not be separated. However, this proves to be an issue after Ma attempts suicide and must be separated from Jack for a few weeks. This quote foreshadows Jack’s issues with separation anxiety.

“What I’d like best is to be in Room but I don’t think that’s in the world.”

This shows Jack’s attachment to Room, even though he has been out of Room for a week at this point. He still feels that Room has something to offer him that the rest of the world cannot. Jack’s attachment to Room persists throughout the rest of the novel until he finally gets to revisit it at the very end. This quote also shows how Jack is still struggling with the concept of what is and is not real in the world.

“I move Tooth to my cheek. ‘Is she dead?’ ‘No, I keep telling you. Definitely not.’ Grandma rests her head on the wood around the glass. Sometimes when persons say definitely it sounds actually less true. ‘Are you just playing she’s alive?’ I ask Grandma. ‘Because if she’s not, I don’t want to be either.’”

Jack sucks on Ma’s tooth when he is missing her or struggling with his emotions. This shows Jack’s fierce attachment to Ma with his declaration that he does not want to live if she is not living. This quote occurs on the first page of Chapter 5 and illustrates the challenges Grandma and Jack will face while Ma recovers.

“I suck on Tooth that’s Ma, a bit of her anyway, her cells all brown and rotten and hard. Tooth hurted her or he was hurted but not anymore. Why is it better out than in? Ma said we’d be free but this doesn’t feel like free.”

This solidifies Ma’s tooth as a symbol of Jack’s attachment to Ma by showing how Jack uses the tooth as a stand-in for when Ma is not there. This also shows how Jack explores different philosophical thoughts now, considering what “better out than in” means in the context of Ma’s tooth, crying, and escaping Room.

“When I was four I thought everything in TV was just TV, then I was five and Ma unlied about lots of it being pictures of real and Outside being totally real. Now I’m in Outside but it turns out lots of it isn’t real at all.”

After Grandma tells Jack that the pole at the playground is just a pretend fireman’s pole, Jack has to reassess what he considers real and fake. Jack analyzes what he used to know, what he knows now, and what he is still learning to show how he is growing and adapting in the real world.

“Then Old and New bash each other with corners till a page of New rips and I stop because I’ve ripped a book and Ma will be mad. She’s not here to be mad, she doesn’t even know, I’m crying and crying and I zip the books in my Dora bag so they don’t get cried on. The two Dylans cuddle up together inside and say sorry.”

This shows The Innocence of Childhood theme by showing how Jack responds emotionally to the idea of getting in trouble, even when no one is there to punish him. He also does not yet understand that it is okay for things to break now because he can get new ones. Jack’s tender resolution to have the books cuddle is reflective of his development and the way Ma has cuddled Jack throughout his life to comfort him.

“‘At least Jack had TV.’ Another man laughs. ‘Culture as a shadow on the wall of Plato’s cave.’”

Jack is watching a group of people on television discuss the philosophical implications of Jack’s confinement. The men in the quote allude to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and relate it to Jack’s experience of absorbing the world through just the television. This quote shows how the media contributes to sensationalizing true crime stories, leading to people who are far removed from Jack discussing his life in intimate detail.

“Ma puts the key in the hole, when she turns it she makes a face because of her bad wrist. She’s not all fixed yet.”

This quote develops the theme of The Impact of Trauma by showing how Ma is trying to move forward with her life by moving into an independent living facility, but she is still affected by the things that happened to her in Room, like her broken wrist, which Old Nick did to her.

“‘Well, celebrity is a secondary trauma,’ Dr. Clay is saying to Ma. ‘Have you given any further thought to new identities?”

Dr. Clay and Ma discuss the way Ma and Jack’s true crime celebrity status has impacted their ability to heal from trauma. Dr. Clay’s declaration that celebrity status can be its own trauma helps to develop the idea that the media can cause further harm to true crime victims and their families.

“I think maybe I did swallow him by accident. Maybe he’s not going to slide out in my poo, maybe he’s going to be hiding inside me in a corner forever.”

Jack worries about Ma’s tooth. He is afraid that he will never get Ma’s tooth back after possibly swallowing it. The image of Ma’s tooth staying in Jack forever develops the link between Ma’s tooth and Jack’s attachment to Ma by showing how Jack feels it will be with him forever. Like his attachment to Ma and their impenetrable bond, Ma’s tooth will always be part of Jack.

“Ma and me go peek at her through the door of the store, Grandma doesn’t seem like Grandma. Ma says everybody’s got a few different selves.”

Ma and Jack visit Grandma at her job, and Jack observes that Grandma seems different. When Ma explains that people have different versions of themselves, it’s an important lesson for Jack as Ma begins to regain her identity and remember herself from before their time in Room. In Chapter 4, Ma expressed struggling to be Jack’s Ma and remember herself at the same time, and this quote toward the end of the book shows that Ma is accepting and managing the multifaceted person she is outside of Room. This quote is relevant to the theme of The Ability to Adapt.

“Grandma says why doesn’t Ma take me to the zoo but Ma says she couldn’t stand the cages.”

This quote contributes to The Impact of Trauma theme by showing how Ma has boundaries, even when she and Jack have agreed to try all new things once. Ma’s decision to not visit a place full of caged animals is reflective of the trauma she is still healing from after being locked up in Room for seven years.