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The Media in Room

It's been a hot minute since we talked about Room as a group, but to be honest, it's still on my mind. What I want to talk about in this post is the final question Mr. Mitchell left with our class, is that are we just some twisted form of the media? In class, we were criticizing the media in Room for being overly interested in Jack and Ma's story, but aren't we kind of in their head, intruding in their private thoughts? Put it simply, are we the asshole? We find Jack and Ma's story just as interesting as much of the American public does. Although it's objectively an interesting story, I found myself wanting to know more and more about Jack and Ma's situation, and part of the page-turning pull of the novel was that there were just so many questions that were left unanswered on every page. Even after I finished the novel, I was left with questions. And then I truly understood why the media was so eager to chase Jack and Ma around, and why the ladies in the d
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How Ma is affected by Room

Two words: Room's wack. That being said, we get a lot of insight into Jack's thoughts and how he deals with transitioning from living in a eleven by eleven room for 5 years to the wide and open space of Outside. While it's obviously a difficult and perplexing transition for Jack, we can see glimpses of how difficult and traumatic the transition is for Ma. Most obviously, she freaks out at any door-related sounds: whenever a door is opened or shut without her knowing, it's clear that it's an unpleasant sound for her. It's clear that their both in the psychiatric hospital for a reason, and we can see Dr. Clay being very patient with them, expecting that they will need a long time to recover. Another problem that becomes obvious is "separation anxiety" that both Ma and Jack do and will face. When Ma gets defensive the first time the term is brought up, she says something along the lines of "Me and Jack will never be apart", which is a problem
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Jefferson's Diary

I've never read anything like Jefferson's Diary. It's definitely one of the most unique things I've ever come across in literature, for a multitude of reasons. This blog post will highlight what I found most compelling about the journal: his grammatical and spelling mistakes. Reading Jefferson's entry is tough on your mind. Trying to decipher Jefferson's words and thoughts isn't easy, especially when some of his misspelled words are other correctly spelled words. However, I think that Gaines does this intentionally; by trudging through Jefferson's innermost thoughts, we can better understand and appreciate them. To be honest, if Jefferson's notebook was written in perfect prose, I probably would have skimmed over a lot of important stuff, reading this late at night before going to bed. However, because I had to consciously make an effort to understand him, I felt like I was engaging with him as a character more than any other in literature. His tho
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