ACPL Online Book Club discussion

How did you react to Jack’s difficulty distinguishing between what’s real (in Room) and what’s on the television? Did you find his changes in perception and understanding feel authentic to you?
Question provided by The Mount Prospect Public Library

This is one of my favorite observations of the novel.

With no context, TV becomes complete fiction to Jack because he has no way of fact-checking what he sees. It is all like watching a movie or reading a book because he has no way of distinguishing between cartoons, sitcoms, commercials, and dramas vs. the news, sports, and live programing.

It kind of the opposite of how people act in the real world: The innocents believe everything they see and hear in the media is real; the skeptics believe everything they see and hear in the media is fake.