Room

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2010

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Ma’s Tooth

Content Warning: This section mentions depictions of child endangerment, abuse through neglect, and imprisonment.

When Ma’s bad tooth falls out in Chapter 2, Jack quickly adds it to his collection of personified items in Room that he plays with like toys. At first Jack calls it Bad Tooth, saying, “I play with Bad Tooth, I hide him in different places […] I try and forget where he is, then I’m all surprised” (76). But over time, Jack simply refers to it as Tooth. Once Ma and Jack develop their plan for escape, Jack decides he is “going to tuck [Tooth] down [his] sock” while he is away from Ma (132). Jack has never been away from Ma in his life, and he cannot bring anything with him as he plays dead. Still, Jack finds a way to take a piece of Ma with him in his sock, showing how attached he is to Ma.

Jack maintains track of Ma’s tooth throughout the novel, and it becomes a significant item for him when he and Ma are separated again after Ma’s suicide attempt. Jack describes, “I suck to feel Tooth, he’s right in the middle of my tongue” (253) immediately after being separated from Ma. Whenever Jack becomes distressed, he puts Tooth in his mouth to soothe himself. This happens after he accidentally rips a book, when he has to face Grandpa who does not want him to exist, and when he throws a tantrum because he misses Ma. In Ma’s absence, Jack uses her tooth as a means to feel close to her and comfort himself.

After Ma is released from the clinic, Jack loses track of Tooth, thinking he might have swallowed it. This represents how Jack no longer needs Tooth to comfort him now that Ma is back in his life. Tooth loses so much status to Jack that he is not actually sure what happened to it, whereas before he punched Grandma to protect it. The idea of Tooth remaining inside Jack forever symbolizes Jack’s impenetrable and everlasting bond with Ma, strengthened by their shared experience in Room.

Plant

Plant is the potted plant that Jack and Ma maintain inside Room. Plant is a symbol of Jack and Ma’s livelihood. Jack narrates, “Plant used to live on Table but God’s face burned a leaf of her off” (8). At one point, Plant produced flowers, but when Jack asks why she does not have them anymore, Ma explains, “She got tired” (20). The damage done to Plant from the sun resembles the damage that Ma has received in confinement, like her wrist. Likewise, Plant’s inability to produce flowers signifies a greater failure to thrives inside Room. Ma and Jack also fail to thrive inside Room, as Jack is described as malnourished upon escape. Although Ma offers Plant’s soil a piece of a fish stick, Plant’s condition still does not improve.

When Old Nick cuts the power for three days, Jack and Ma struggle in the cold, doing what they can to stay warm and survive off their limited food rations. After the power comes back, Plant’s stem snaps. Ma explains, “I think it was the cold, it made Plant go all stiff inside” (101). While Jack thinks things are fine now, Ma understands the greater implications of Plant’s death. The cold was just the final piece in Plant’s slow death by neglect. Jack recognizes, “Ma’s not happy. Probably she misses Plant” (103), but he does not understand why Plant’s death was so upsetting.

After their three-day stint without power, Ma devises a plan to break her and Jack out of Room. Jack is scared of the plan, and he argues that everything is fine because Old Nick turned the power back on. However, Ma replies, “Yeah, after three days. And Plant was dead from the cold. And who knows what he’ll do tomorrow” (112). Ma’s relating Plant’s demise to their possible demise solidifies Plant as a symbol of their lives in Room. Plant’s death symbolizes that their time in Room must come to an end, and if they do not escape, they will go the same way Plant does.

Craters

The motif of craters is spread thin across the book, but it contributes to one of the most important themes of The Impact of Trauma. Craters themselves are sites where an impact happened, or as Ma explains, craters are “[h]oles where something happened” (24). Jack keeps the crater image with him. When Ma shows Jack that the floor is wearing away in the floor from their daily presence, Jack observes, “It’s like a tiny crater” (30). The gradual wearing of the floor from Jack and Ma’s confinement represents the gradual wearing of trauma in their mental health, linking the theme of The Impact of Trauma to the image of craters.

Although craters are not explicitly mentioned, there are several other significant “[h]oles where something happened” (24) throughout the narrative. In Chapter 3, Ma shows Jack the place where she dug out the floor under the bed only to discover that Old Nick implanted chain link fencing in the walls and floor. This was an intense moment for Ma, as her hard work toward escape was thwarted. Ma’s tooth falling out also leaves a crater in her mouth, with her damaged teeth representing the slow trauma from neglect. A tooth falling out is a result of that trauma.

The most important use of the crater imagery, however, is in the final scene of the novel, when Jack and Ma revisit Room for the first time. Jack realizes that it is never going to be the same, while Ma throws up and cries as a visceral response to her trauma resurfacing. As they leave, Jack narrates the final lines of the novel: “I look back one more time. It’s like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door” (321). This image drives home the way that Room was a traumatic experience for Jack and Ma, linking the crater motif to the Impact of Trauma theme.