Outside
Home is where the heart is. That’s the saying that everyone
knows, although possibly not Jack, he doesn’t seem to grasp idioms so well.
Home, what an interesting concept for the Ma and Jack duo. Ever since Jack’s
world has been turned upside-down he’s noticed peculiar behaviors from Ma. The
two used to share everything in Room, their lives were literally inseparable.
In their life after the great escape, Jack’s dependence on Ma is becoming more
obvious. As he notices little things she does, like answering “I don’t know”
more or doing more activities without Jack, his response speaks to his unspoken
outlook of life. Ma has painted everything he’s lived. Of course, we already knew
this, we carefully studied the games she created for him to keep him educated
and entertained, but we especially see his mind at work now.
While still
in Room, Ma taught jack how to speak properly, but she didn’t teach about
figures of speech or societal customs. It seems like it could be protection
from the real world, to keep him in his fantasy world as much as possible. Ma
has been planning an escape from the beginning, she has been academically
preparing Jack for a life outside Room, but not for a life without Room. As
Jack learns more about the outside world, the customs and such, he still wants
to return to Room. Not just the place but also the routine.
Stuck in
Jacks perspective it’s clear for the reader to feel Jack’s un-comfortability
with the outside. Ma’s troubles are there too, just more cryptic. It’s hard to
imagine what she feels knowing that Room was the only place that Jack knew and
the worst place she knows. I hope to see more of Ma’s development in the last
part of the book because she is complicated and I can’t predict her next moves.
Ma is certainly a complex character, especially through Jack's limited understanding of her. Something that I do find a little odd is how he doesn't know manners, though. Even though we usually employ them with strangers (and therefore Jack would have little use for them in Room), I figured she would have taught him to use them with her.
ReplyDeleteYou have a good point that Ma's preparations of Jack for the outside world were oddly incomplete. If she had planned from the beginning to escape, like you said, then why would she not have taught him more about the world he would face? And if she hadn't planned on escaping (which is clearly not the case), then why would she have bothered teaching Jack math and reading to levels well beyond the levels expected of him in the outside world? This is a good example of the problems Ma had with figuring out how to raise a child in her extremely difficult situation.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of home is certainly really complicated for Ma and Jack. Jack still seems to think of Room as home and even though he likes being free, he still wishes for familiar objects from it. It's difficult to imagine what space could become home for him since at the moment his environment is constantly new and changing and especially for a five-year-old, an environment often needs to feel consistent and familiar to feel like home. Home for Ma is possibly more complicated. Her childhood home still exists but if she returned now, I doubt it'd feel like home given how much her family has changed. But since she grew up with this very traditional idea of home, she might need something like it to feel at home again. Thinking about "where the heart is though," the only part of the outside that is familiar and comforting for both Ma and Jack is each other so I'd say they'd definitely have to be together for somewhere to become home.
ReplyDeleteJack and Ma's relationship is like the bond between a parent and a child but carried on for longer than usual. Due to their inseparability, Jack is having many behavioral difficulties, such as separation anxiety and saying he "belongs to Ma". I feel like a central point of Jack's "coming of age" (although this is not that class) is going to be being able to distance himself from Ma and grow as an individual, for both their sakes.
ReplyDeleteI do think Ma did a good job parenting Jack the best she could given their situation. I that Jack's wanting for everything to be the same as it was in Room might become more problematic for both of them in later chapters. I'm not sure what Ma could've done to make him less dependent on her or prepare him better for being away from Room. We already saw Ma get very defensive when her parenting was questioned, and I wonder if that will become a bigger theme in the coming chapters.
ReplyDeleteIt's super interesting what you say about Jack being prepared for life outside Room but not necessarily a life without Room. The doctors even notice stuff like this, he's a great speller and has an amazing vocabulary and can do math better than other kids his age, but when someone asks him for a high five or Jack hears phrases that anyone else would know, he is super confused. In this way, Ma did a great job I think of giving Jack a good groundwork to build and learn off of, but Jack still has a lot of learning to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The interaction between Ma and Jack is definitely an intricate one. While they may have defeated Old Nick, there real enemy still remains: The room, or at least the remnants of its effect on their lives. While Ma want's freedom, she also is too proud to recognize that Jack shouldn't be so dependent on her. And Jack is too far out of his element to take his freedom into his hands. It's bitter sweet in a way, that they're free of nick, but not themselves.
ReplyDeleteYou really put a finger on the central problem of After: Ma never wants to go back to Room, but Jack never really wanted to leave. One indicator of Jack's feelings happens at the end of After, when Jack's tossing a penny into the well. He thinks that what he really wishes is to be back in Room, but knows that wish is unattainable. Of course, when he returns to the ward, he discovers that not only has he lost Room, but he's also about to lose the other constant in his life: Ma. That's when we learn that behind her cracking facade, Ma's been dealing with more emotional turmoil than she can handle. Both of the characters face unprecedented struggles in the outside world.
ReplyDeleteYour point about Jack's home still being Room has been troubling me throughout the entirety of "After". But I don't think (or, at least, hope) that it's completely unresolveable. Jack doesn't miss Room for Room, necessarily - he just misses familiarity and comfort and having Ma all to himself. While he may not get the last one completely back, I do think that he'll be able to adjust once he and Ma maybe find a home for themselves, one where they live alone together. Jack's home isn't Room, Jack's home is Ma. Maybe once their dynamic is sort of back to the way it was before, Jack'll be able to move past Room.
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting to see the way that Ma and Jack's desires start to grow further apart from each other. In the beginning they just wanted best for each other from what they could manage inside Room. But as they grow further and further away from it, what they want start to change from each other. Jack wants to go home, but to Ma, Room is not home to her the same way it is to Jack. And Ma wants to go to her home, which Jack has never known before. It's an interesting conflict, and I'm glad Donoghue decided this to be the great journey for both of them, and not make it all an escape thriller.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about Jack and his limited facility with idioms made me laugh: "Why he say my heart is at my home? My heart is inside me going boom boom!"
ReplyDeleteI like how you stated that Jack's dependence on Ma is becoming more obvious now that they have gotten out of Room. I especially liked how you pointed out Jack's fear of Ma not knowing the answers. His whole childhood she has been there to answer his questions, even if she was not telling the whole truth. Now she is changing and admitting that she doesn't know everything. I'm curious how Jack will continue to adjust to this.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! I also wrote about a similar topic relating to Jack's idea of home and how that impacted Ma. I think because she is such a complex character Jack's more simple world view of Room as his home was detrimental to Ma's recovery.
ReplyDelete