Post 6: Room

Robbie Hicks

 5 Things Emma Donoghue does well with Character Development

Emma Donoghue does a great job with Room by making the characters realistic and easily relatable. You could believe that this book could be written by a 5 year old, which usually isn’t a good thing, but this is a special book. The Jack describes his surroundings and events happening around him are exactly what you’d expect a 5 year old to talk and the other characters that are added in later in the book just feel like part of your family or friends.

 1.    She makes you think Jack is talking to you

  You could think this book was written by a 5 year old who was trapped in a Room. The way Jack describes everything is just how you would imagine a 5 year old to speak, we’ve all been there. Jack is different, however, he didn’t get the same social interactions and outdoor experiences, so when he sees the world we’ve been living in all our life, his mind explodes. Everything he knew has changed and we get to follow his journey through our everyday life.  

 2.    She makes Likable characters

The thing I liked most about Room is the characters were all likable and different. Usually, my favorite character would be one of the main ones, that’s the ones who you learn most about, you see their reasoning and thoughts, they are usually the ones you can connect more too, primarily because you know more. In this book however, my favorite character is Leo, who doesn’t talk very much and is only in about 20 pages, but he seems like such a cool guy. He knows the family the least of anyone Jack meets, because he is his step-grandpa, but yet he gets him closer to his family than anyone, by simply playing with Lego’s with Jack.

3.      Informal conversations

The conversations between characters are not straightforward and lame. She makes them seem like a real conversation people have. Like Jack constantly asking stupid questions about the world, which is understandable because his mom is a liar. It does not sound like scripted writing; she makes it seem like conversation we would all have. It’s about everyday stuff too so it’s easy to understand

4. Realistic

Donoghue seems like she learned a lot about children’s behavior to write this. She described the problems that Jack may have, in terms of social and mental problems in a really convincing way, like she’s an expert in the field. It sounds like something you would hear from a real doctor, which hopefully you haven’t. It doesn’t sound too good. She doesn’t make it seem like a fairy tale where everything works out for the best, the mom’s depression seems like a legit thing to happen. Even though it’s a pretty messed up thing to do leave your kid, who has only known that you exist, by himself with a world that couldn’t imagine his problems.

5. Relatability

                I feel like anyone could relate to this book in some way, maybe not to the extent of being trapped in a dungeon for about five years, but maybe you can relate to the medical aspect, constantly being poked and prodded to find out what’s wrong, maybe you can relate to the family problems, or maybe being a celebrity, constantly having someone looking at you taking pictures and trying to intrude your privacy. Whatever it is, I feel like everyone has a similar story to Jack’s experiences and it makes it easy to sympathize with the story, making it a more engaging read.