In Room, when Jack begins to experience life in the outside world, it is clear that there are a tremendous number of things about how the world operates that he doesn't understand. One of these is the idea of ownership; at first, he struggles with the idea that something which exists can be someone's other than his and Ma's, since everything in Room, which used to be the extent of his world, was shared between them. However, even before he leaves Room, he begins to take something for himself, and he continues to do so after they escape.
The first object that Jack takes ownership of is Ma's bad tooth. Once it came out, it was simply lying around Room, and Jack didn't quite take full possession of it at first. He treated it much lie anything else in his limited world: it wasn't his or anyone else's, it was simply there, so it was his and Ma's to enjoy. While he values the tooth more than most other things in Room, since it came from Ma, he doesn't see it as specifically his. Even as he tucks the tooth into his sock in preparation for escaping, he doesn't yet convince of it as his possession, rather as a part of Ma, the thought of which gives him some courage. Interestingly, however, he does demonstrate some unwillingness to give it to Officer Oh, which points to the conclusion that he understood that he had a right to keep it before Ma told him that some things belong to other people.
Once in the outside world, Jack is still gaining an understanding of what it means for something to belong to him or someone else, but we see him taking full advantage of his knowledge that things can belong to him. He gathers some "treasures", including Ma's tooth, a maple seed, and a heart that fell off a bag, which he keeps for himself. Eventually, we see him refer to these objects as "my treasures", and he refers to the backpack Paul and Deana get him as specifically his as well, showing that he comprehends his ability to have control and ownership of them.
This would appear to point to a better understanding from Jack of the concepts he hadn't been introduced to in Room than might be assessed at first, but we also see that hes conception of property is limited as he doesn't understand how people are supposed to attain things such that they can belong to them. This is demonstrated by his unintentional shoplifting of the Dylan book. What this shows is not only his lack of a complete understanding of the functions of the outside world, but also the potentially problematic certainty he has of the things he thinks he understands, such as his ownership of the book, which immediately gets Paul and Deana into trouble. While this may be typical of a five-year-old, situations like this do not bode well for Jack's adjustment to the real world.
Good post. I think Jack's failure to understand ownership is part of a bigger challenge for him, to adjust to life outside Room. We've seen him complain about things like the color of the plates he eats off of, for example, and he seems to have understood and overcome this difference.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is just one of the many ways in which we can see how Jack struggles to adapt to the rules of the real world. Other things that come to mind are how he struggles with depth perception, the idea of more than one of each object, the idea of more than one room and so much more.
ReplyDeleteI do think that Jack has already developed the idea of ownership in Room, before the Great Escape. Another scene that would exemplify this is when Jack is in Wardrobe and Ma is arguing with Old Nick. Jack does recognize that he belongs to Ma. I would also think that Ma would also belong to him in Jack's mind. His scope of ownership is still very limited in Room, but it expands once he's in Outside.
ReplyDeleteThe Dylan the Digger shoplifting is an indicator of three whole problems that Jack has: his aforementioned confusion about ownership, his lack of knowledge about stores and his problems with multiples. Regarding stores, it's entirely possible that either Jack has no concept of money or Jack knows that they have to buy things, but not that they have to check them out. For a long time, I thought it was dumb that we had to wait in lines for the checkout, but the automatic doors would open when we walked by. Why couldn't they sense our items and charge us for them? (I also thought that credit cards gave people infinite money. Fun times.)
ReplyDeleteIn addition, Jack clearly states that he thinks that the store has stolen HIS COPY of Dylan the Digger from Room. Jack's lack of comprehension that there are multiples of almost everything he owns shines through in the passage. Because he thinks he's taking back what he rightly owns, he has no qualms about shoplifting.
Good point. I think that his understanding of ownership goes alongside his general acceptance of an outside world. When he had existed just with Ma, there had never been a pressure that something he had would be taken. Now that he's been put outside the room, he begins to understand that others can take his stuff, but hasn't fully realized the opposite is true.
ReplyDeleteI think that Jack is doing a very good job adjusting to the idea of ownership. When you think about it, it really is just another idea that was put in place by society that doesn't entirely make sense. I mean why own things when you can just share them, at least that's Jack's point of view. I think this is another really good example of Donoghue using defamiliarization. Nice post.
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