Jack's Reluctance to Escape and Dependency on Ma

Throughout the first part of Emma Donoghue's Room, our 5-year old narrator Jack knows of nothing outside the small, 11-foot by 11-foot room that has confined him and his mother for the entirety of his life. For Jack, Room seems to be satisfactory, as he has no point of comparison or concept of the outside world, and thus he enjoys a lifestyle in which he gets to spend every waking moment with his beloved mother. Ma, on the other hand, while she loves Jack dearly and devotes her full time and energy into raising him, eagerly wishes to escape the prison that her captor, Old Nick, has placed her in and experience once more the outside world. As Jack begins to grow older, turning five at the beginning of the novel, Ma realizes that the time will inevitably approach when Jack's curiosity outgrows the boundaries of Room, and as a result, Ma begins to slowly explain to him the behemoth that is the outside world--her real world--with the end goal of planning an escape from Room with Jack. While Jack is initially struck with a flurry of questions and feelings of bewilderment regarding what exactly this inconceivable world outside Room is, he appears very distant and disinterested whenever Ma mentions her initial kidnapping or speaks of any plans to escape. When Jack understandably expresses his reluctance to perform after hearing Plan B, Ma gets understandably frustrated, as she desires so heavily to finally escape and wouldn't want to miss any opportunity. Jack's reluctance to go through with the escape plans and general aversion of Ma's stories show how reliant he still is on his mother, making it hard to imagine Jack growing up to a point in his hero's journey narrative where he can function normally without always being in close proximity to Ma.

The most prominent cases when Jack seems detached seem to occur whenever he hears Ma's sentiments about being trapped in Room or hears of her previous life in the outside. Jack seems to not fully comprehend what Ma is telling him when she is narrating her story of how she got captured. Whenever Ma mentions a moment where she was in danger or was suffering, Jack seems to quickly shift the subject, instead focusing on mundane details and asking questions like "what color is it" and "how many wheels" in reference to the truck (93). While we may be inclined to think that Jack simply doesn't understand the gravity of the story that Ma is telling due to his age, we can observe through his thoughts and his narration that he seems to draw conclusions from Ma's stories and understand the situation with Old Nick fairly well, with the only disparity being between how knowledgeable and well-informed he seems in his thoughts when compared to the innocent phrases he speaks when conversing with Ma about such profound matters. It seems that Jack actually absorbs a lot of what Ma tells him about her past and Old Nick, but simply disregards it on purpose and immediately tries to divert attention from the depressing story about his mother's past as a defense mechanism--almost akin to a form of denial. By not addressing the stories that Ma tells and the horrors of Old Nick, Jack can keep them clear out of his mind and confine his thoughts to Room and Ma, a much more desirable task. Through this method, Jack conveys to Ma that he is not interested in her stories about the outside world and her previous life, when in reality he simply can't endure hearing the emotionally scarring past of the one figure in his life who he loves so dearly.

Despite understanding Ma's problem with remaining in Room for so long, Jack is still hesitant to escape Room. We can understand this simply by considering Jack's age and innocence, as at one point he says directly to Ma that he wants to leave Room, "only not really" (113). Jack enjoys life the most when he is with his Ma, and we can see this is true whenever Ma is "Gone," as these are the hardest days for Jack, when the hours feel like they could last forever. Interacting with Ma and playing with whatever he can find within the limits of Room have served him sufficiently so far and as a 5-year old, Jack isn't ready for the drastic change that Ma is suggesting. After hearing of the outside world and later learning of Ma's plan for him to go outside, alone, in order to seek help, Jack completely shuts down, as simply remaining in Room and continuing to live his ordinary life with Ma seems much more appealing than venturing into an entirely different world that he has rarely even imagined, let alone actually ever been in. Even when Jack and Ma are finally reunited after escaping from Room and Old Nick, Jack's first instinct is to go to sleep, specifying to Ma that he desired to not just sleep in any bed, but "Bed," presumably referring to his bed in Room. After Ma states to Jack that they will never return to Room, Jack's narration shows how unprepared he is to leave Room behind and enter the real world: "The car starts moving and I'm crying so much I can't stop" (155).

Another aspect of Jack's reluctance is his constant dependency on Ma. While the argument could be made that it is only natural for a 5-year old to be dependent on his/her mother, it seems that it is more this aspect of being away from his mother that frightens Jack from the plan rather than the wonders of the outside world itself. In comparison with other children the same age as Jack, we can observe his dependency in his constant need to drink milk through breastfeeding, even at the age of 5. This example is simply one manifestation of the intricate developmental complex of dependency that exists in Jack's head regarding his relationship with his mother, and we can observe that in Jack's constant diversion and procrastination anytime Ma speaks about the plans. Keeping in mind this heavy dependency of Jack on Ma, it's hard to image the novel progressing in the outside world without Ma right beside Jack to guide him. Without Ma, Jack's growth as a hero would not only stagnate but would likely be stunted permanently, as it's unimaginable simply how overwhelmed Jack would be--alone and in the real world.