“When I woke up in
that shed, I thought nobody ever had it as bad as me. But slavery is not a new invention.
And solitary confinement- do you know that in America we’ve got more than
25,000 prisoners in isolation cells? Some
of them for more than 20 years. As for kids, there’s places where babies lie in
orphanages five to a cot with pacifiers taped into their mouths, kids getting
raped by Daddy every night, kids in prison, whatever, making carpets till they
go blind.”- Ma.
I just finished Donoghue’s Room where in an eleven-by-eleven
room, Ma and Jack strive to survive everyday having relatively nothing, and
possessing the very basic of furniture and commodities, as well as dealing with
unannounced visits of Ma’s undesirable captor, Old Nick.
Seven years of isolation and captivity. To Ma, it’s worst
while to innocent Jack, it was everything he ever needed. It hurts to read the
first three chapters of the book (Presents, Unlying and Dying) because you know
that the protagonists do not deserve the life they live. Fortunately though,
this novel is an extensive fairy tale which gradually presents a happy ending to
Ma and Jack’s life.
I have nothing but admiration for Ma’s utmost sacrifice for Jack’s welfare. At twenty six, she endured five years of creating and
faking joy. Meanwhile, Jack is the youngest novel hero I have encountered yet. At five, little boys should be out on the
fields learning to play, fight, fall down, and stand up. With Jack though,
his daily exercises made him save two lives- his and Ma’s.
Emma made use of Jack as the narrator, and so most of the
sentences are incorrect, and constructed in a youngster’s language. To me, it
is brave of a writer to enter a child’s world and create misery in innocence. I can read it through the pages but I don’t
think I can take my son suffering the harshness and diversity of the Outside
world, if ever.
Room is a mix of fairy tale, suspense, drama and adventure. It
is plain on the outside yet rich in details. For certain, all of us have
memories in a particular place we wish we could forget, forever. This place may
not have a secured lock or may not be located in a backyard, but we still find it
hard to escape, permanently.
Let us try to be like Ma and Jack, no matter how hopeless
our situation may be, there is always a way to get out, go back in reality, and
live life anew, from then on.
Read Room and be free!
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