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 is the only person Jack knows, so he is incredibly close to her. To him, the worst punishment is to be separated from his mother. That's awfully sweet… and borderline Norman Bates, but he's only five, so we're sticking with "sweet" for now.

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.

This is the first lollipop Jack has had, which came from Outside. It's also the first time he seems genuinely curious about leaving Room and exploring what Outside has to offer. He'll learn that he can never explore everything. Like trying to figure out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop: the world may never know… and Jack may never know the world, at least completely.

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.

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.

Room is a place of captivity for Ma, but it's Jack's home. Because he's so attached to it, he defends Room when Ma insults it… and he insults her back as a form of revenge.

Jack is talking about Alice in Wonderland here, and he's relating it to himself. When Jack's view of the world changes because of new knowledge, he changes right along with it. His identity, especially at such a young age, is closely tied together with how he sees the world, and how he thinks he fits in it.

Lots of the "stories" Ma tells Jack, like How the Berlin Wall Fell Down and Princess Diana are stories of actual events. Even the fairytales, like the mermaid who has a child in captivity, are allegories. Is there anything allegorical about Room itself?

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.

With every new concept comes new vocabulary. It's a lot for Jack's little brain to process, this whole the-brother-of-my-mother-is-my-uncle thing, so his brain pretty much shuts off and thinks of something much simpler, like lunch.

Jack is expressing quite a bit of empathy here. He's not afraid for just himself; he's afraid for Ma and her safety. That's very sensitive for a five-year-old.

Old Nick is afraid, too. He's afraid that someone will figure out that he has a woman and child locked up in a shed in his backyard. He's afraid of getting caught. Plus, we can't forget the fact that he kidnapped Ma in the first place. Why did he do it? Is he that afraid of being alone?

This is Old Nick's ploy to get Ma in his truck, and it worked. It worked because he knew Ma would be scared for the dog's life. It threw her off guard, making it easier for him to snatch her. Like Jack, Ma seems to have always cared about other people—but it was her empathy, in a way, that got her into trouble. That could be why she wants to scare Jack out with stories: she wants him to understand dangers that maybe she didn't understand well enough.