People tend to take for granted that publicities or brand names like Apple or McDonalds are part of their life because it’s always been that way for them. But what if they are just part of the walls of a cage restraining everybody’s life? Would they be able to notice the bars and try to break them? Imagine being the only one around conscious of the cage you all live in. How dangerous is that… That’s exactly what Ray Russell portrayed in his short story “The Room”, starring the desperate protagonist Bob Crane who tries to escape a corporate control dystopian world invaded by ads and consumerism by moving into an antique apartment, but ultimately fails. Stuck in a vicious circle as the apartment owner is going to “treat” his deviant behaviour.
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As soon as he turns on the bathroom lights, “the TB’s audio was immediately piped in to him”, needing it in order to shave (1). Russell clearly wanted to show how invading advertising and media are in daily life, even in the bathroom. No matter the efforts you make to escape it, you have no choice but to live with it. Later in the story, the author comes back with that idea of failed attempts to escape when Crane tries to read news stories in the cab but keeps getting distracted by ads. The character’s efforts at actually informing himself on other things than new products and to ignore “Breeze Deodorant ads printed yellow-on-white” were “fruitless” (2). Russell shows once more that anywhere you go, in a society dominated by advertising, your mind won’t be able to concentrate, stuck in this programmed vicious circle of a dystopia where it is impossible to be truly free. Finally, as his last attempt to break the circle, Crane moves into what seems like the perfect blank apartment for his escape, free from any ads, only to learn in the end that his safe heaven is actually where Dr. Ferman will “begin treatment at once” to get rid of Crane’s abnormalities (2). Russell obviously emphasize on that exaggeration of what intense control
As soon as he turns on the bathroom lights, “the TB’s audio was immediately piped in to him”, needing it in order to shave (1). Russell clearly wanted to show how invading advertising and media are in daily life, even in the bathroom. No matter the efforts you make to escape it, you have no choice but to live with it. Later in the story, the author comes back with that idea of failed attempts to escape when Crane tries to read news stories in the cab but keeps getting distracted by ads. The character’s efforts at actually informing himself on other things than new products and to ignore “Breeze Deodorant ads printed yellow-on-white” were “fruitless” (2). Russell shows once more that anywhere you go, in a society dominated by advertising, your mind won’t be able to concentrate, stuck in this programmed vicious circle of a dystopia where it is impossible to be truly free. Finally, as his last attempt to break the circle, Crane moves into what seems like the perfect blank apartment for his escape, free from any ads, only to learn in the end that his safe heaven is actually where Dr. Ferman will “begin treatment at once” to get rid of Crane’s abnormalities (2). Russell obviously emphasize on that exaggeration of what intense control