Room

Ma is Jack’s 26-year-old mother. She has spent the last seven years trapped in Room, having been abducted by Old Nick from her college campus at 19. Ma has been through severe trauma at the hands of Old Nick, including sexual assault, imprisonment, abuse, and a stillbirth. Despite these horrors, Ma does her best to shield Jack from the trauma. Ma’s identity in the novel is explored exclusively though Jack’s eyes, and Ma’s real name is never revealed. Through Jack’s narration, Ma is revealed to be a passionate, caring, and resilient woman, whose sole obligation for the last five years has been to keep Jack safe and give him the best upbringing she possibly can. Ma’s efforts for Jack include physical enrichment to keep him growing and strong, mental stimulation to teach him things he would learn in school, and imaginative play so Jack is never limited by the confines of Room. Ma keeps many things from Jack, including what the outside world is like.

However, once Old Nick starts struggling financially, Ma worries he may do something drastic. She slowly reveals the truth of their situation to Jack and plans an escape. Despite their successful escape, Ma carries physical and mental trauma from her time in confinement. Ma works closely with the doctors of the Cumberland Clinic to process her trauma. Ma feels extremely protective of Jack, and she easily gets defensive about the decisions she made for him while in Room. Ma breaks down during her television interview, when the reporter presses the issue of Ma’s decision to not have Old Nick leave Jack at a hospital. The day after this interview, Ma attempts suicide.

Once Ma is separated from Jack for a few weeks, the doctors manage to help Ma turn her mental health around and regain a sense of normalcy. When Ma reunites with Jack, she seems better. At the end of the book, Ma and Jack experience many new things. They return to Room for a visit, and Ma vomits, showing that her trauma is still impacting her, but she is strong enough to enter Room with Jack. The novel ends on an optimistic note, with Ma and Jack leaving Room behind for the last time.

Old Nick is a man around 50 years old who abducted Ma from her college campus. He tricked Ma by asking for help finding his dog. He drugged Ma and locked her up in his garden shed, which he converted to a secure, soundproof dungeon. Old Nick rapes Ma almost every night, and he complains about the maintenance costs of Ma and Jack. Old Nick’s evil is shown both through his attitude and actions toward Ma as well as the nickname “Old Nick” that Jack has chosen for him, which is an allusion to the Devil. Through Ma’s stories, Jack learns that Old Nick has hurt her before. He is the reason she has a bad wrist. Although Old Nick tries to interact with Jack a couple times, Ma’s agreement with Old Nick is she will never scream or ask him for things if he leaves Jack alone. Shortly after Jack’s fifth birthday, Old Nick reveals he has lost his job and things are getting expensive, making Ma fear for her and Jack’s safety in Room.

In Chapter 3, Old Nick shows little regard for Jack’s health. He ignores Jack’s “fever” and says he will grab medications, but he otherwise leaves Jack and Ma to wallow in the filth of vomit and “diarrhea.” When Old Nick returns the next night to Jack’s “death,” Ma screams at Old Nick, and Old Nick shows an emotional response to Ma’s grief. This moment is later explained when Ma tells Jack there was a first baby who died. Old Nick now believes Ma has lost two children while confined in Room, and he obeys Ma’s orders to take Jack and bury him somewhere away from the house out of respect for Ma’s pain. This is Old Nick’s only instance of sympathy for Ma, and it quickly dissolves when he realizes Jack and Ma have tricked him. Although Jack fears Old Nick is going back to Room to hurt Ma, it is later revealed that Old Nick went on the run. He is apprehended shortly after Ma and Jack’s rescue.