While this is technically true, this comment by Ma makes Jack unreasonably scared of germs. It also comes from a place of fear: Jack is her son and the only person Ma has, and she has to be really careful because she is not able to get him medical care.

Ma is scared of Old Nick and for good reason. He abuses and rapes Ma multiple times a week. Even though Jack doesn't know exactly what's going on, he knows it's a reason for fear.

Yikes. That sounds terrible. And it would be. There's no way Jack made up all this detail by himself. He must have gotten it from Ma. She's made sure to scare Jack into being safe, because she doesn't want to lose him, especially not in such a horrible way.

Even though Jack is smart and understands that some things are real and some things are imaginary (yes, some of the things he considers imaginary are also real, but that's another topic), like any child, he's still afraid of imaginary things, like zombies, ogres, and vampires. They could be lurking anywhere!

Ma's reaction to Old Nick's appearance is instant fear. It's incredible how much she manages to compose herself in his presence, given how frightening he is.

Here we again see Ma's uncanny ability to strike fear into Jack's heart. And once again, she's right. Mouse could very well nibble on Jack. But we have a feeling that she just doesn't want Mouse around because he could eat food and spread germs, not because she's terrified that Mouse'll eat her son.

Jack understands a lot at five, but he still has a rough grasp of time. He doesn't yet understand that he is getting older every single day, not just magically clicking over from four to five on the night of his birthday.

Unless the cake is burned black by the time it comes out of the oven, there's no way it takes this long to bake. Jack just thinks it takes so long, because it does take so long in kid time… when he's not doing something to keep his mind occupied, time goes by so slowly.

Jack doesn't understand the difference between a week and a year, because both are still an insane amount of time for a five-year-old. Ma, however, does understand the difference, and she cannot bear having to spend another year trapped inside Room.

It's true that kids have longer attention spans than adults, at least when it comes to certain things. But being forced to entertain himself with very little, Jack has a very long attention span compared to most other kids. When he's doing stuff that he loves, it doesn't feel like any time is passing at all, whereas time seems to be dragging and dragging for poor Ma, having to read Dylan the Digger over and over again.

A day just has twenty-four hours, and Jack is probably only awake for sixteen of them, tops. But when he's bored, without Ma, the hours seem like they're stretched out forever and ever.