Ma's Control

Looking at Emma Donoghue's Room as a hero's journey, I started to draw some parallels to the classic hero's journey, The Odyssey.  One of the first connections I made was to compare Jack to Odysseus, as they are both the main heroes of their respective journeys. Comparing the innocent 5-year-old to the muscle-bound war hero was amusing, though I did find a comparison I thought fit better.

Much of what happens in The Odyssey is a result of the goddess Athena's will. The story almost seems to be a game for her; she has control over every aspect that she chooses to. While reading Room, I noticed that Ma had a similar sense of control over the hero in that story, Jack.

Jack's entire world in Room is what Ma has made it to be; in that sense, Ma is essentially a goddess. All of Jack's perceptions of reality, as well as all of his actions on a daily basis, are dictated by Ma. The reasoning behind Ma's doing so was most likely necessity rather than desire, but all the same she has a superhuman control over Jack's life. Additionally, such control was most likely a comfort for her in Room, where she had no control over anything but Jack.

After leaving Room, however, Ma no longer has such control over Jack. She is still the boss of him, but she cannot define the world however she pleases like she could in Room. She is only a human, and not a superhuman. Life in the outside world does as it pleases. Jack's pictures being leaked, for example, when there was a contract explicitly stating that he was not to be shown at all, show just how little control Ma has over anything in the world after Room.

Ma's control seems quite obvious, but one part of Room really stuck out to me and made me think about the need for control Ma seems to have. Said part is where Ma tries to commit suicide. Initially, I saw her suicide attempt as losing herself under pressure and wanting everything to be over. However, she had spent 5 years in total control of someone's life. Now being thrust out into the regular world, suddenly Ma has no real control over anything, as evidenced both by the world not listening to her, but also by Jack's ability to disobey her in simple ways, such as taking 6 toys instead of 5. The one thing she has the total Athena-like control over at that point would be her own life. I'm not coming completely out of nowhere from this - I've heard of suicide attempts or self harm as being a way of feeling in control of something when one has lost all control. I find it very interesting how someone put in a position with seemingly no control is somehow able to find a way to control everything and grow accustomed to such control.