Room Emma Donoghue Character Analysis

The way a child thinks and learns different things is very compelling. In Room by Emma Donoghue, the five year old character, Jack, has a particularly interesting mind due to his situation. He is very different than other kids as he spent the first five years of his life in a room with no knowledge of the outside world, and no interaction with anyone other than his mom. There are many psychological theories that Emma Donoghue applied using Jack; the “Conscious Competence Ladder”, the “Observational Learning Theory” and the “Mazlow Hierarchy of Needs”.

Donoghue represented the Conscious Competence Ladder using Jack with great ease. This theory shows the process of how people learn new things, and begin to understand them, like Jack when …show more content…
This is about how people are motivated to meet certain needs, and when they reach them, they move on to the next level of needs. Donoghue represents this with Jack perfectly. At first, when Jack is still in the room, his needs were all the way up at self-actualization needs. He already had all the physiological needs, such as breathing, food, water and sleep. Although he may not have been drowning in the riches with those things, he had enough to meet his needs. His safety needs were met, even though he may not have been in the safest situation, Jack felt safe in “Room”. He never felt any threat or danger in there, Old Nick never hurt him. To him, it was his home. It was all he ever knew, and he felt safe in “Room”. He had his love and belonging needs fulfilled by Ma, as she cared and loved him more than anything in the world. He felt he belonged in “Room”, and nowhere else. He had his esteem needs because Ma made him feel special. He felt like he knew everything, and his self-confidence was very high. When Jack escaped the room, it seemed as though he lost his safety needs and fell down the pyramid. “In Room I was safe and Outside is the scary” – Jack. When he lost his safety needs, he lost all his other needs as well, because he did not motivate himself to fulfill those needs any longer. He lost his self-esteem, he no longer felt like he was on top of the world, and his love and belonging needs. He did not feel like he belonged in the outside world, he wanted to back in “Room” where he felt comfortable. “I 'm not in Room. Am I still me?”- Jack. Jack did not feel like himself outside of “Room”, and this quote shows that. He fell down the pyramid and all his other needs were no longer fulfilled when he did not feel