Though much of Jack's story aligns nicely with Joseph Campbell's model for the hero's journey, his unique situation does not lend itself to a clear "return to normal" or "master of two worlds" resolution at the end. For most of Jack's time in Outside, he thinks that the solution to his problems would be to go back and live in Room again, but also be allowed to go Outside every once in a while. Since this is clearly not plausible (for any number of reasons) and not at all a solution to any of Ma's problems, Donoghue finds other ways to try to resolve Jack's situation and give him a more realistic return to normal.
Jack was plunged twice into the unknown to set off his hero's journey: first when he leaves Room to enter Outside, and second, when Ma was in the hospital and he had to face Outside without her. Therefore, when Ma returns, Jack has some return to normal, because he is used to being with her 24/7, and now he gets to be with her again, and just the two of them get to live together in the Independent Living. One could even say that he is the master of two worlds in that he is capable of functioning with and without Ma (though he is still very reluctant to leave her). Despite being reunited with Ma and "master of two worlds" in that respect, Jack still really needs some closure with Room, because it is still his world in a sense, and he cannot really become master of it until he moves on from it.
Therefore, Jack really becomes "master of two worlds" in the last few pages of the book. When he finally gets to go back in Room, Jack is shocked at how unfamiliar it is to him:
"We step in Door and it's all wrong. Smaller than Room and emptier and it smells weird. (...) Nothing says anything to me. 'I don't think this is it,' I whisper to Ma." (319)
In the process of comparing everything in Outside to Room, Jack's view of Room had been glorified in his mind, and when he got back, he realized that it might not have been the amazing place he remembered it to be. In addition, by seeing Room in the context of Outside, Jack can also view Room from Ma's perspective. Jack also becomes a master of two worlds in this sense as well, in that he has mastered both his and Ma's perspectives towards Room, which was pretty much the one main conflict between the two of them when assimilating into Outside.
By seeing Room from Ma's point of view, Jack is able to really leave it in his past, further ensuring that he is the "master of two worlds," despite not being able to return to his normal life in Room. In the second to last line, Jack says, "It's like a crater, a hole where something happened," (321), showing that he doesn't expect anything else to happen there in the future. In addition, by willingly saying good-bye to everything in Room, we can see that he is now okay with leaving it behind, because he gets to do it on his own terms. Though Jack does not get to return to his ordinary world like some of the more traditional heroes, he still becomes "master of two worlds" in his own way: by being able to live with or without Ma, by understanding both his and Ma's points of view towards Room, and by willingly leaving Room behind.
I think this was a really interesting point you bring up, and I like how you developed the idea we talked about in class into an exploration of Jack's change of perception. Something you bring up is that Jack could only really see things from his perspective; something we see even when he's repeating the escape plan to Ma and keeps referring to Ma as "you" when he's trying to pretend to talk to somebody. By the end of the book, that's kind of his "return to normal" expect mastering perceptions is more our normal than his. Cool post Annemarie!
ReplyDeleteNice post! I also enjoyed following Campbell's hero's journey arc throughout reading Room, and totally see that the end is when Jack finally becomes a "master of two worlds." Through reading I thought that Jack would only be able to "return to normal" or "return home" once he realizes fully that outside his his new home, and he begins to feel safe here. This isn't fully satisfied by the conclusion, but definitely Jack made significant progress and as you said, "mastered the two worlds."
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