The Problems Jack and Ma Will Face

Now that we've finished Room, I can say that Emma Donoghue has left us with the impression that Jack and Ma are in a hopeful, positive place. In the last scene of the book, Jack and Ma revisit Room and Jack realizes how small and insignificant it actually is in the larger scheme of things. After seeing the world and experiencing new things, Jack no longer clings on to Room. The book ends with the sentence: "It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door." With that last sentence, Donoghue suggests that Jack and Ma have moved on from Room and are now looking towards the future.

However, like we talked about in class, Jack and Ma will face many difficulties and challenges in getting assimilated. For both of them, I foresee problems with the media for a while. The media loves sob stories, daring rescues, and strange situations because it attracts attention from the public and therefore, money. Therefore, I think Ma and Jack will struggle with the presence of the media. However, Jack is already becoming more assimilated (more of a normal boy, I guess) so I predict that the media will eventually lose interest and move on.

For Ma, I think the big struggle will be coming to terms with the fact that she lost seven years to Old Nick. They were also very important years--college years--where people tend to find themselves and what they want to do. Ma was snatched away pretty early in her college career and so I can imagine how bewildering it is for her to be back in the world but with Jack and seven years gone. All her friends have moved on and are probably married or have jobs. A big thing that Ma was worried about was finding her place in the world again. In Room, Ma was solely concerned with being Jack's mother. But outside of Room, she is a daughter, sister, and aunt.

There is also the problem that she and Jack have been confined together for such a long time. She may suffer from PTSD from her traumatic experience. She may also struggle with talking with new people her age. In the last few chapters of the book, Ma told Dr. Clay that she used to crave company in Room but now she doesn't want it. Ma will have to accept the fact that Room drastically changed her from the girl she was before she was abducted.

I think Jack will have an easier time to assimilate into society because he is still a five-year-old. He's at a malleable stage of his life and by the end of the book, has more or else become a normal child. Jack may still have issues socializing with other kids--the incident with Walker showed that he still doesn't understand boundaries--but I think he'll quickly learn.

Ultimately, the horrible and harrowing experience that Ma and Jack went through made them stronger. Jack and Ma will definitely face psychological obstacles in the near future but I see hope that they'll find their way.