Room

Introduction

Emma Donoghue’s Room is a 2010 novel about a boy named Jack who lives in a single room with his mother, Ma. Room is a crime thriller novel that explores themes of trauma, innocence, and adaptability through the eyes of five-year-old narrator, Jack. Room has received many awards, including the ALA Alex Award, the Indies Choice Book Award for Fiction, and The New York Times Book Review Best Book of the Year award. Room was adapted to a screenplay, which was released in 2015.

Content Warning: Room and the contents of this study guide feature depictions of rape, violence, death by suicide, still birth, child endangerment, abuse through neglect, and imprisonment.

Plot Summary

Jack is a five-year-old boy who has lived his entire life with his mother, Ma, inside Room—a single-room dwelling with a kitchen area, plumbing, and a bed. Jack does not know anyone else in the world except Old Nick, who visits Room through the beeping padlocked door and rapes Ma regularly—though Jack does not understand this and refers to it as “squeak[ing]” the bed.

Jack and Ma fill their days with education, activities, mealtimes, and hygiene practices. They have a weekday activity called Scream, where they get close to the skylight—Room’s only window—and scream, then wait and listen.