Room by Emma Donoghue is written in first person perspective. The narrator is a five year old boy who has grown up and lived in an 11X11 foot room. This novel had a lot of ambition and potential, however, the book felt very disconnected from the reader. The idea of having a five year old as a narrator isn’t necessarily bad, but it wanted you to feel sympathy for the naive child while trying to decode the plot. For me, I did not connect to the novel due to the writers poor portrayal of a five year old. Jack, the main character is supposedly very knowledgeable in math and geography, but continues through the entire novel to speak in a very difficult, nearly unintelligible baby talk. The development of Jack as a character seems incomplete and confusing. Jack is a very unconvincing five year with high vocabulary thrown into random stream of consciousness. For example; in some parts of the book he will be described as very intellectual, demonstrating things that normal five year olds are incapable of and in others, the reader is presented with this; “I choose Meltedy Spoon with the white all blobby on his handle when he leaned on the pan of boiling pasta by accident. Ma doesn’t like Meltedy Spoon but he’s my favorite because he’s not the same”(Donoghue 6). Jack has a very high vocabulary presumably to become a more understandable and relatable character but then sporadically neglects to use proper pronouns. This is very strange for the reader and the author struggles to show that he is indeed a small child all the while trying to portray the meaning behind the characters. Although it may be difficult to write as a five year old, Donoghue poorly represented Jack and very loosely connects our narrator to being a child. Now, sometimes it can be exciting and beneficial to have an unreliant narrator, but the heavy topic being told through a incomprehensive child was not a good choice for this story. Not only does Jack read as very annoying, but his complete lack of knowledge does not allow the reader to fully understand the emotions of what each character is feeling. The book is a poor example of using the literary device, perspective, to its full potential. Trying to relate it to the American Dream is difficult but achievable.. Another factor that leaves the reader uninvited to the story is the idea of being trapped and escaping while later gaining freedom. This is a great message for the American Dream and what america stands for, but unfortunately, it falls flat in the book. When the author could use the space to go more in depth with emotion or to better display themes she instead fills up her pages with very repetitive daily routines that Jack goes through instead of advancing the plot. All in all, the characters are undeveloped and are unable to connect with the reader, while the story itself uses a lot of filler pages before it gets interesting. The use of theme is very thinly veiled and could have been used to captivate the reader rather than thewasting the reader’s time trying to decipher the plot being told to us by an unreliable narrator. . Prior to reading this book, I wanted to like it. If you are given a summary, there is potential but I believe that it was executed very poorly which ultimately gave a very lackluster experience in reading.
The idea of having a five year old as a narrator isn’t necessarily bad, but it wanted you to feel sympathy for the naive child while trying to decode the plot. For me, I did not connect to the novel due to the writers poor portrayal of a five year old. Jack, the main character is supposedly very knowledgeable in math and geography, but continues through the entire novel to speak in a very difficult, nearly unintelligible baby talk.
The development of Jack as a character seems incomplete and confusing. Jack is a very unconvincing five year with high vocabulary thrown into random stream of consciousness. For example; in some parts of the book he will be described as very intellectual, demonstrating things that normal five year olds are incapable of and in others, the reader is presented with this; “I choose Meltedy Spoon with the white all blobby on his handle when he leaned on the pan of boiling pasta by accident. Ma doesn’t like Meltedy Spoon but he’s my favorite because he’s not the same”(Donoghue 6). Jack has a very high vocabulary presumably to become a more understandable and relatable character but then sporadically neglects to use proper pronouns. This is very strange for the reader and the author struggles to show that he is indeed a small child all the while trying to portray the meaning behind the characters. Although it may be difficult to write as a five year old, Donoghue poorly represented Jack and very loosely connects our narrator to being a child. Now, sometimes it can be exciting and beneficial to have an unreliant narrator, but the heavy topic being told through a incomprehensive child was not a good choice for this story. Not only does Jack read as very annoying, but his complete lack of knowledge does not allow the reader to fully understand the emotions of what each character is feeling.
The book is a poor example of using the literary device, perspective, to its full potential. Trying to relate it to the American Dream is difficult but achievable.. Another factor that leaves the reader uninvited to the story is the idea of being trapped and escaping while later gaining freedom. This is a great message for the American Dream and what america stands for, but unfortunately, it falls flat in the book. When the author could use the space to go more in depth with emotion or to better display themes she instead fills up her pages with very repetitive daily routines that Jack goes through instead of advancing the plot.
All in all, the characters are undeveloped and are unable to connect with the reader, while the story itself uses a lot of filler pages before it gets interesting. The use of theme is very thinly veiled and could have been used to captivate the reader rather than thewasting the reader’s time trying to decipher the plot being told to us by an unreliable narrator. . Prior to reading this book, I wanted to like it. If you are given a summary, there is potential but I believe that it was executed very poorly which ultimately gave a very lackluster experience in reading.