ROOM by Emma Donoghue
This post is part of the From Left to Write Book Club for ROOM by Emma Donoghue. From Left to Write is a virtual blogging book club that I founded last June and which now has over 100 amazing bloggers participating. We write inspired posts based on the books we read. Read more inspired posts about the book ROOM here.
Ben and I were playing Bloons 4 on the computer today. The kids’ computer is old and slow (a used Mac we bought a couple of years ago) and it is easy for them to screw all of the settings up. (Clearly, we need to put some security measures/parental controls on this contraption… if for no other reason than to be able to actually find the Internet – they like to put Safari in the trash – fun!).
Ben: “Fix it! It isn’t working!”
Me: “You have too many windows open. We need to close some. It is slowing the game down.”
Ben reaches across me and shuts the curtain, looks at the computer expectantly.
Me: “Oh. No, ‘windows’ on a computer means a frame within the screen that you open and look at. See? Like this one. You have….21 windows open. A the spinning wheel of death. Let’s restart.”
Ben: “Spinning wheel of death? I didn’t mean to be playing that game. That’s inappropriate.”
Kids are so literal. A 5-year-old’s world is incredibly concrete. And it’s easy to forget that. What is real and what is pretend/fantasy/TV?
Funny and literal things my kids have said lately:
Ava, 4: “You and me will go ride on the tiny world yesterday, right? Pinky promise?”
(At Disneyland last weekend, asking to go on “It’s a Small World” tomorrow)
Ben, 6: “Luke doesn’t want a toy. He doesn’t want anything but math worksheets for his birthday.”
(Discussing what to get a friend for his birthday. Apparently, Luke LOVES math so much that he doesn’t want any (other kind) of worksheets at school.)
Lily, 6: “I can’t see! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”
(Trying to walk in the twilight by flashlight, when she doesn’t get to carry the flashlight while her sister gets a turn for a minute. We have started encouraging her to become an infomercial star.)
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This last week Jeff was out of town on business. Ava went to her 4-year-old checkup at the pediatrician and had to get 7 shots (7!!!!). She had a fever for a couple of days and missed school. As usual when she is sick, she slept with me in my bed. Especially easy since Jeff was out of town.
While she slept, I read late into the night. I happened to be reading the From Left to Right book club selection ROOM by Emma Donoghue, about a boy and his “Ma” who live in a 11×11 room together – they are being held captive, his mother having been kidnapped seven years earlier. The book is told from the boy Jack’s perspective – I love books like this, with a very different voice and perspective.
I had a small – tiny… – taste of what it would be like to be with just your child, in a small room, for an extended period of time. In our Room were Ava’s friends: Cup, Light, Bed, Bumpy (her blanket, which Ben named for its bumps that little race cars can drive over), Jewels (her stuffed kitten). It was very creepy to imagine what it would be like to live under the circumstances of Jack and his mother. But I definitely savor the times when I have alone time with just one kid, especially so with Ava, my baby (even though she is now four….).
The differences are many – there are other REAL people down the hall, there is no locking keypad on the entry Door, we have a “sideways window” through which we can clearly see “Outside” (as opposed to only a top skylight which lets in little light), we don’t eat or bathe in this room. Oh, and we can leave if we wish.
In the book ROOM, Jack was very literal. Although he was very smart, he didn’t understand figures of speech, to the point that it became overwhelming to think about some other meaning of a word. Perhaps it was a control issue, perhaps it was exposure to new vocabulary, perhaps it was just having overwhelming options post-captivity. But I have to think that it is largely a developmental one as well. 5-year-olds are simply….concrete. Thinking in abstract terms doesn’t occur to them. They don’t quite get it yet. They are trying to figure out what is real and what is pretend. Are we kidding or serious? It’s hard to tell, sometimes.
It’s why I try to limit my kids’ exposure to violent TV, to movies that manipulate and attempt to sell to them, to backpacks with Hannah Montana on them (they are not teenagers yet!) – they don’t quite understand what is real yet and what is fantasy. What’s the rush in having them grow up so fast?
Disclosure: I received a free copy of ROOM by Emma Donoghue for the From Left to Write Book Club, a virtual blogging book club that I founded last June and which now has over 100 amazing bloggers participating. I was not obligated to write about the book and all opinions are my own.
If you are interested in joining the virtual book club site From Left to Write, please contact me. From Left to Write holds regular book clubs, writing not book reviews, but our own stories that are inspired by the books we read.
