Essay On Jack As The Narrator In The Novel Room

Having Jack as the narrator in the novel Room brings a juvenile point of view to the text that is avant-garde. Meaning that his point of view is innovative. It can be seen as controversial, where he is restricted as an observer, because his mind is not fully developed yet, and he is still learning. One might confuse this as unreliable. But the fact that Jack is an inexperienced individual in his setting, it is the tension in this that makes both him as the narrator and the story more compelling. Jack’s voice in the novel is quite distinctive and authentic, being prevalently, because it is innocent. Where in the case of Ma, her voice is more complex and dimensional as a character. Jack is not as complex, he ideally is just trying to figure out …show more content…
It is through her repetitive dialogue that Jack begins to realize what Ma is telling him. It is seen yet again how the room is such an unnatural space and how it is outside the law, but it is important to visualize Jack’s relationship to the room, because it is seen how this is all news to him, which makes Jack such an underlying narrator. The fact that there are no windows in the room makes it all the harder for Jack to even imagine that there is an outside world, and it is interesting how we don’t find this out until later in the novel, which puts the reader in suspense, but allows one to engage with the text more. The fact that Jack is only five years old and merely a child it makes him as a narrator all the more appealing, and makes the reader continue to question his motives. Donoghue points this out in an interview, where she is discussing why Jack’s perspective flourishes. She states, “However, having a child narrator is very helpful in terms of point of view, because children are little Martians who see everything afresh and askew.” (Donoghue, The Guardian) This represents how having Jack, as the narrator is a different, but refreshing