Landon Julson
Miss Hassinger/ Mrs. Neville
English 12
22 February 2013
Final Essay for the Book Room
    Being locked up in a small square space at the age of about 6 can have a huge negative impact on growth and development of a child especially that young.  There are many ways in the normal world where people suffer from growth and development issues but when being locked up hostage gets taken into place you will have huge issues that can be life long problems.  Jack is lucky though because Ma made the bold move to escape and get away from that bad situation.  One huge important thing that Jack is missing out on that all children need is social interaction with other kids and adults.  Just being around people in general is a good thing for us as kids because we learn from watching elders and seeing mistakes and making them.  How many mistakes has Jack made? None, that is completely different from me as a kid I can assure you that.  I made so many mistakes as a 6 year old, but they helped me learn and somewhat mature into what I am today.  Kids at the age of about 6 take on the role of school.  They begin learning how to be controlled at school and shaped into a student.  Jack has poor development of thinking, as we see on page five Jack says, “Not when you’re on at the same time I’m off.” (5).  Jack doesn’t understand that people sleep at different times, and that sleep schedules are different for everyone.  In Jacks situation I think we would all think that when we have no understanding of what real life really is.  Jacks understanding of living things is not all there either.  I feel that he has no idea where they came from or how they got there, where as a normal 6 year old would probably have some sort of understanding of how this got to be and what its doing when its around you or scurrying by at a distance. Jack makes the statement on page ten, “it was my blood the mosquito was stealing, like a teeny vampire.  That’s the only time my blood ever came out of me.” (10).  I feel that Jack doesn’t really know what’s going on with how the mosquito came to be and just the basic understanding of other living things.  He has never learned about that kind of stuff like the normal kid.  One thing that has a slight benefit for the situation is that he has never experienced bad pain or severe injury.  Many kids at a young age get hurt or get scabs from simple accidents that Jack has never experienced.  On roughly page fifty Jack questions Old Nick by saying, “Why is he being so mean…so ungrateful on my birthday.” (50).  The only thing Jack knows about being mean or any sort of harm is the way Old nick treats them.  To some extent it’s a good that Jack hasn’t experienced pain or extreme torture.  Even though his situation can be considered torture he doesn’t know it, and what he doesn’t know is not there just like the outside world. 
    I think we are so interested in these types of stories because they are so different from what we normally see and hear of.  How often is it that you come home, turn on the TV and hear about things like the events that take place in Room? Hardly ever I can guarantee you.  I think its about the fact that they’re a different story and just somewhat unusual to people who are used to the normal, but another way I see it is that I’m very interested in how they escape if they do, or how they cope with a situation like that.  Things like what they did to pass time, or how they managed to survive with scare resources that we can’t live without on a normal everyday basis.  I thought the way Ma hid Jack from the things that were better off for him not knowing was very interesting.

Landon Julson 

 

1.  Donoghue, Emma. Room: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown and, 2010. Print.

 
2.  "ROOM, by Emma Donoghue." ROOM, by Emma Donoghue. Http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/ 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2013.


3.   "101 Dalmatians." 101 Dalmatians. Disney Channel. DSNY, 27 Nov. 1996. Television.
4.  Skip


5.   What is the story? What are the features of it?

     101 Dalmatians is a story about a dog names Pongo who lives in London.  Pongo likes taking walks to the park which he gets good at convincing Roger (his onwer) to take him there when ever he feels like it, but Pongo has something else in mind.  He spies a female dalmatian named Perdita with her owner Anita.  Pongo has his britches in a bundle and is overtaken with love for Perdita so he tries to get Roger to meet Anita, which suprisingly works.  After a small affair Pongo and Perdita have puppies, 101 of them.  A really shady lady named Cruella De Vill wants to buy all of the puppies and keeps asking Roger if he'll sell them and he denies her.  Cruella De Vill hires two robbers named Horace and Jasper to kidnap all 101 puppies. They are held hostage and are threatened to be skun for their pelts until they break free from being held hostage.  With help from other dogs and friends the puppies are able to return home to their family.

6.   What part of this story relate to Room? What are your predictions for this book?

     I think that the book relates to this movie because the puppies had a normal life before they were catured and held hostage.  The puppies relate to Ma in the book of room cause they had a sense of normal life and the normal ways of living before they were kidnapped.  Ma was born and had a childhood, a family, and a good life before she was kidnapped.  She knew that the situation that she was in was not good and knew that it was not how life was supposed to be.  Just like how the puppies had a life and a sense of normality before being taken.  Eventually Ma and Jack escape from room, and that is similar to 101 Dalmatians becuase all of the puppies escape and return home as well.  Both stories are very relatable and even both have a bad guy.  Room has Old Nick who comes at night to rape Ma, and 101 Dalmatians has Cruella De Vill who wanted the fir from the puppies for a coat.  I predict that the book will end with Ma and Jack escaping from room and going back to a normal life, but Jack will have issues because he has grown up in hell since he was born.  Jack will have a hard time trying to figure life out and will basically be 6 years behind every other kid his age, which is sad because it was not his nor Ma's fault for the situation they are in.

7.   How did the book end, similarly or different from your predictions? What further (NEW) connections can you make between the book and your chosen text?


     Ma plans a very bold and brave escape plan that does work but it takes her to the max on courage and strength.  It turned out to challenge her but since it worked and they escaped it turned out to be beneficial to both her and Jack.  Now Jack can start a normal life and begin a life in a new world for him to figure out.  It was similar to how I predicted and there is no further connections that I have to toss out there.