Ma Quotes

Ma is explaining what she means by calling Jack "the dead spit of me," but she's also doing a good job of explaining DNA and genetics on a level that a five-year-old can understand.

Ma often tells stories about heroic children named Jack. However, in this story, it's more about the character's mother and how she escapes… and how she almost forgets to bring her child with him. What's the significance of this story, and this omission?

Ma definitely thinks that an intense bond between mother and child instantly exists. She'd do anything to protect him, so when the talk show host asks her if things were "difficult," Ma doesn't think of it that way. It wasn't hard or easy; it's just what she had to do.

Ma is insulted by the talk show host, who implies that Jack would have been better off with a "loving family." Ma is his mother. Shouldn't she be family enough? And doesn't she love Jack enough?

Jack isn't just confined in Room, he's sometimes confined in a Wardrobe within Room. That's double confinement. Just as parents want to protect their kids from things in the outside world, Ma has to find a way to protect Jack even though their "world" is only 121 square feet.

With the power out in Room, Ma feels increasingly trapped and she wants to break out even more. But she can't. So the urge to break out becomes the urge to simply break something in order to vent all that pent-up rage at being pent up.

We doubt Ma is normally a violent person, but being trapped will make a person go to extremes. Ma would probably kill Old Nick, given the chance, if it meant that she could get out of Room for good.

Ma is irritated about having to talk about her captivity on TV, because she knows that others have been through it and are going through it all the time. She isn't special. She's talking about both literal captivity—whether it's other girls like her, or the slaves of the past—and the figurative captivity that comes from, say, being in an abusive relationship. Everyone wants to break free of something, and that is why so many people identify with Ma and Jack and their plight.

Ma is starting to describe the Outside that lies directly on the other side of Door. These are a lot of details for Jack to absorb at once, though. He likes the smell, but trying to visualize it all is too much. It's going to take him a while to work up the ability to explore it all.

Ma longs for Jack to explore Outside more than Jack does. Jack is content staying inside Room, his home, but Ma knows how many wonderful things are Outside for him to experience.

Jack doesn't yet understand that there are different versions of Outside. For him, being cooped up in a hospital is a world of difference from being cooped up inside Room. But for Ma, being cooped up anywhere is still being cooped up… she wants to be in the outdoors, and she wants to convince Jack to come with her.

Jack explores the world the only way he knows how, through the lens of Room, where he has grown up. Everything in Room was bought for him, so it would have a label or some sort of identifier. He doesn't yet understand that there are things in nature that have been around a lot longer than labels have.

This is when Ma reveals that she used to have a home outside of Room. The fact that a home can be a place other than Room is still incomprehensible to Jack. Heck, Jack can hardly believe that there are any other places besides Room, whether they're homes or not.

It's difficult for us to tell why Jack is crying here. Is he crying because he thought Ma was dead, but she's actually been saved? Or is he crying because he's never going back to Room, the only place he knows as his home?

Ma is conflicted because she definitely wants to forget Room. It's where she was held captive for seven years. But she understands that it is actually home to Jack. It's where he was raised. What will he lose if he forgets his home?

Ma tries to explain the way society works, with all its weird exceptions, even though Jack's trapped inside Room. She wants to teach him good morals —like don't hit people—but she also wants him to understand that sometimes people do hit people, and in certain contexts, it's okay. How can anyone keep all these rules straight?

Ma is experiencing some culture shock of her own on the Outside. Even though Ma and Jack have lived outside of society for years and years, everyone else expects them to abide by their societal norms. Breastfeeding in public is weird enough to most people; breastfeeding a five-year-old is just unacceptable.

Okay, the outside world is weird. When we find out stuff like this, it makes us wonder if things were better in Room after all. At least there, strangers don't send you poo in the mail…

Ma has to explain almost everything to Jack. He's only five. She has a great ability to explain the idioms that people use all the time without thinking. And she has incredible patience since she's able to define all of these things for her son so many times a day.

Ma knows that Jack is much wiser than your average five-year-old. His curiosity and passion for knowledge make it easier for him to understand complicated concepts. Ma is confident he'll eventually get them, which is why she shares so much with him, without sugarcoating things, as he gets older.