The Growing Rift

I'm a few dozen pages into After at this point, and some interesting dynamics are definitely beginning to develop. Spoilers beware if you haven't done much of this reading yet.

in Dying, Jack plunged himself face-first with his safety on the line into a universe he knew basically nothing about, where he had to rescue Ma, alone. This a terrifying experience and almost certainly a traumatic one for him. To say his whole world has been turned upside down would be an understatement. As far as he could tell, he and Ma had just lived there peacefully forever, but with their escape, their true differences begin to emerge. For seven years Ma had been presumably been fantasizing about what she would do once she got out, and with her escape, she can't wait to return to normal life as best she can. Jack, on the other hand, knows nothing other than Room, and so, in a complete role reversal, Outside seems to feel more like the prison to him.

This is especially interesting because neither Ma nor Jack seem to be fully aware so far about what exactly the other is feeling, both just seem to kind of translate their emotions onto the other person, more or less assuming that they should both feel the same way. This mentality disalignment has increasingly caused them to butt heads in the hospital, and I greatly look forward to how both characters, as well as their intense relationship, develop throughout the rest of the novel. We're not even half way done yet with Jack and Ma's story.

Who is the Real Hero?

We're around half-way through the novel by this point, and an important aspect of the book that still seems to be somewhat ambiguous is who the true hero of the story is. On the one hand, Jack is the narrator of Room, and thus it's his story to tell. Surely he would go ahead and make himself the hero. The book is presented in a way such that Jack is central to the story and everything appears to revolve around him, seeming to make his actions the most impactful. As we've learned in this last section of the book Dying, Jack appears to be literally risking his life to free Ma and himself. Sure sounds pretty heroic.

On the other hand, Odysseus' crew risked their lives constantly, and yet we don't call them the heroes of the story. The hero there is the brains behind the operation, Odysseus himself, who appears to be analogous to Ma. Jack didn't come up with any decent plan of escape whatsoever, nor did he really have any desire to do so either (not really of any fault of his own). He ended up being forced to go through with the final plan by their leader, Ma, in a state of total cowardice.

That's a really harsh way of me to put it. Although Jack did fight very hard against the plan, he did end up going through with it, and although he was no doubt experiencing the most terror he'd ever felt before, he executed it flawlessly. Credit where it's due to Ma as well, resisting the urge to stay cooped up in Room until the end of time with her son and instead deciding to risk it all for a very real chance at freedom, all while keeping Jack calm and comforted. I really don't have a definitive answer as to who the primary hero in the story is. I think the concept of an equally dual heroship is a very interesting possibility here, and I'm certainly interested in what others of you have to say about it.

Norma's Impact on Smithy

With Smithy's journey having decidedly come to a close by the end of the story, I can't help but realize just how huge of an impact Norma had on Smithy throughout his great cross-country bikeride. He initially set out with the sole intention of escaping his current situation and taking time to reflect on past events in order to more fully understand how he ended up in the depressed, unhealthy, friendless state he was in, and how to fix it. To me, Norma seemed to play just a big a part in this "quest" of his as Smithy did.

Throughout his whole journey, Norma's been Smithy's rock, his guide, his primary source of joy. He's basically dedicated his ride to her. She's also been a central figure of kindness, much like Smithy has, helping to keep him focused on the goodness of humanity rather than to let all of the terrible things people on his journey have done to him get to his head. She contributes to his understanding of compassion, really giving him the strength to continue his ride for her and his sister.

Norma has been an inspiration for Smithy the whole way. Through most of the story, Smithy has had profoundly low self-esteem, and it's really not until he sees Norma, physically crippled yet still tackling life with confidence that he begins to free himself of his harsh thoughts. Slowly, through both example and through the way she treats him, Smithy regains his self-esteem and gains a certain level of confidence that he didn't have before, culminating in his love relationship with Norma. Sure seems like this journey would have been a whole lot more difficult for Smithy without her.