Jack has been through a whole lot just in his first five years. He began inside a 11x11 area, completely cut off from everyone else, only really communicating with Ma. Then, when he hit 5, he escaped and dramatically shifted his frame of reference from Room being the world to Clinic being the world to only barely grasping where he now is. How will he cope later on?
One thing that will certainly happen is that Jack's social skills will be lacking. He has only ever needed to talk to one person before, and needs to adopt a different way to talk to everyone else. His vocabulary certainly has not been affected, in fact his vocabulary is higher up than most other kids this age, as shown by Bronwyn, when Jack says "She doesn't talk right yet." This may be both to his benefit and to his detriment, as some kids his age may not be able to understand him.
Jack's pace of learning seems to be at a higher level than most kids, and that plays into his favor. He recently had his entire worldview turned on its head, and he was able to cope, think through it, and develop a more structured and true worldview over the course of a couple of days. Even in the place in the book where we are, Jack is learning something new every day and is able to add it to his worldview. This will allow him to more quickly adapt to society, and while he might not be able to grasp the whole idea now, he certainly will soon.
Finally, there is school. Jack will probably in the very beginning of his time in Outside be unable to go to school due to his fame. However, after that has died down, I think that he will do fine at school. In fact, school is most likely be where he learns the most about the world he lives in, because it will be able to correct him and teach him and his quick learning will make it all the faster. He will probably not have many friends in the beginning due to his lack of social skills, but no doubt he will acquire them before he is done.
One last thing to wonder: is he going to remember Room? The doctors have mentioned that it will be forgotten later on in his life, and that the memories are already being forgotten through nightmares, but I think that instead he will at least have a fleeting remembrance of his time there. He will remember the general idea of Room, will probably remember some things, most notably the Great Escape, but will forget most of it. As for the nightmares, I wouldn't be surprised that they all stem from his new memories instead of his old ones, as those seem to be the most scary for him, but since they do not pertain to Room, I believe they will also pass.
It’ll be yet another journey for Jack once he goes to school. His adjustment to the social world and interacting with his peers without Ma is going to be interesting to see how he might react to it. Like you said, he’ll probably be smarter than the other kids; maybe he’ll even skip a few grades. I do hope we get to see Jack’s journey of going to school. I feel
ReplyDeletelike as Jack gets older, his memory of Room will begin to fade away or at least he’ll have a realistic understanding of Room. Maybe all of his new experiences will overcrowd what he remembers.
Nice post. I also wonder if he will remember Room. Regardless of his conscious memory, I think that Room will always affect his life in the ways you've stated. It was his world. It's like he was taken to another planet, in fact, he kind of self-describes it that way. I think that the world you're brought into really affects the way you think for your whole life. Even though he's still "plastic" and will likely not have to deal with the conscious trauma of Room, it may always be with him like our childhoods are.
ReplyDeleteI think Jack's strong attachment to Room is because he relates all of the outside things to objects in Room or the information that he learned in Room. At least that was the practice in the beginning, but I think the things that he is learning on the outside will slowly take over the way that he thinks and process through things, and Room will just be a memory of the place that he used to live in, the lifestyle that he used to live but not anymore. A less extreme example of this would be transitioning from middle to high school or as such. You start off comparing and contrasting until suddenly that's the way that you view the world.
ReplyDeleteat the end of the story jack seems to see room through rose tinted glasses until he finally revisits Room. I think he will always remember Room because he learned so much during his time there and also because of his fame he will be reminded of it very often.
ReplyDeleteRoom was such a big part of Jack's life that I find it hard to believe that he'll just forget it and everything that happened there. Don't get me wrong, I of all people should know that your brain is a pretty funky thing. It isn't unheard of that people's brains will end up wiping everything from a traumatic experience (ex. me). I really don't know how much Jack will remember about Room.
ReplyDelete