Reading for pleasure is something which I can only do if I have become extremely engaged in a novel within the first few chapters. Luckily, I was gripped to ‘Room’ from the very beginning. When read for pleasure, I have always read fiction books; usually those which have a thrilling or particularly emotional story-line. I would always tend to read fictional books as I like the idea of escaping reality to read something purely for entertainment. However, I also enjoy fictional books which focus on realistic story-lines such as ‘Room’.
I enjoyed reading this novel as I could tell from the first few pages that Jack’s life was very different from my own, so I was interested to find out more about it. I also enjoyed piecing parts of the story together as Jack’s language means that the reader is not always told exactly what is happening in clear terms and every situation is discussed from his perspective. In addition, I found that Jack’s language had many hidden meanings and suggestions about his thoughts and feelings, and I was given access to his perception of the world. I was able to engage with Jack and to empathise with his ‘Ma’ in a way which his environment and knowledge would not let him do.
It is for these reasons that I would recommend ‘Room’ to anyone. As I have a view of what the world is like it allowed me to connect with Ma’s character and as I read the story from Jack’s perspective, I formed a connection with him. I built up hope that Ma and Jack were going to escape but I could not see how it would be possible and became lost in reading about their daily lives and routines, just as they got lost in doing them. When the characters do escape, Ma is not returning to the same life she left as the world has moved on without her. Also, for Jack to adapt to his new environment will take a long time and at first, he wants to go back to the room. I think that these aspects of the story outline the life-changing effects that this kind of situation would have on both types of people.
I feel that reading ‘Room’ challenged me as a reader as I have never read an adult book written in a child’s perspective before. At the beginning of the novel Jack’s language meant that I was not able to read as naturally as usual as I was noticing missing or mispronounced words and words which are used by him to describe events or things that only someone who could see them would understand. I felt that this improved my grammatical knowledge as I often found myself correcting Jack in my head. Also, as the book went on, I found myself being able to read Jack’s language more naturally and I had picked up on the meaning of the specific words and phrases he used, meaning my contextual understanding was improved.
Reading ‘Room’ has encouraged me to get back in to reading novels as it reminded me how gripping they can be. I had never previously considered the use of fictional novels in academic study, however, ‘Room’ allowed me to relate the different parts of language acquisition to a character and to see how environment can affect the development of speech. It also helped me to consolidate my knowledge on the different aspects of oral language as I could analyse Jack’s language throughout, reading his thoughts as well as his speech.
