ewrt 1c class 30

1. EWRT 1C Class
30

2. AGENDA
 Author Introduction:
 Emma Donoghue
 Literary Style
 QHQ Discussion
 Introduction to Essay #3

3. Author Biography
 Emma Donoghue was born in Dublin in 1969. She is a writer of
contemporary and historical fiction whose novels include the
bestselling Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, Landing, Life Mask,
Hood, and Stirfry.
 She is the youngest of eight children; not surprisingly, she
attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin. Her BA (1990) is in
English and French from University College Dublin. She later
moved to England to do her PhD at Cambridge (1997) on the
concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-
century English fiction.
 From the age of 23, she has earned a living as a writer. She now
lives in London, Ontario, with her partner and their two children.

4. Emma Donoghue on Room
 I borrowed
observations, jokes,
kid grammar and
whole dialogues from
our son Finn, who
was five while I was
writing it. Room was
also inspired by...
ancient folk motifs of
walled-up virgins who
give birth (e.g.
Rapunzel), often to
heroes (e.g. Danaë
and Perseus).

5. Historical Context
Room was also inspired by the Fritzl family’s
escape from their dungeon in Austria
 One day in 1984, 18 year old Elisabeth Fritzl helped
her all ready abusive father install a door in the
basement. There he handcuffed her, drugged her,
and kept her captive for 24 years, during which time
over she bore seven children. The torture took place
just feet from his wife Rosemarie, just a few floors
down from his tenants; just down the street from the
butcher, the baker and the post office.

6. Style
 The style is deceptively simple in terms of
word choice and sentence structure, yet it
was likely quite complicated to write prose
that both told the story and accurately
reflected the speech of the narrator. To
achieve this perspective, Donoghue studied
both cases of children born of rape and
autistic children.

7. The Narrator
 Her narrator, five year old Jack, has a
sophisticated vocabulary that reflects his
above average education. His clumsy way of
speaking gives readers the feel of a small
child, but Donoghue manages to keep the
coherence of an older person. The narration
is informative, familiar, private, and intimate.
Because of his living situation, of course, the
young narrator’s perspective is very narrow.

9. Group Discussion
QHQs

10. “Presents” QHQs: MA
1. Q: What is the role of Ma as a prisoner, and her
freedom of being a mother to Jack?
2. How does “Ma” and Jack’s daily routine help to mask
the reality of their powerlessness?
3. Q: How does Ma teach Jack about the fundamentals
of life?
4. Q: How does Ma’s trauma manifest itself while she is
in Room?
5. Q: How has Jack’s mother’s trauma affected Jack?
6. Q: How would the story change if narrated by Jack’s
mother?

11. “Presents” QHQs: JACK
1. Q: How does the five-year-old child’s point of view affect
readers’ understanding of the characters?
2. Q: Why does Jack refer to the objects around him like
they are humans?
3. Q: How does the capitalization of the first letter in objects
through Jack’s perspective create depth through point of
view?
4. Q: How is the theme of confinement integrated into the
portrayal of Jack?
5. How does Jack’s trauma manifest itself in Room?

12.  Why does Donoghue not openly state the action of Ma’s
breastfeeding?
 I thought it was interesting the way Jack, the speaker in “Room,” shares his
instinctual urge of jealousy when he says, “Then I [had] a terrible idea, what
if he’s having some? Would Ma let him have some or would she say, No
way Jose, that’s only for Jack?” (47)
 Q: Since Jack knows very little about sexuality and human
biology, is there a purpose for him “having some” when
referencing to him sucking milk from his mother’s breast?
 Jack says “So she lies down on the white of Duvet and me too and I have
lots” (7). The part where Jack narrates him lying on the duvet covers of the
bed with his mother and has lots is interesting to me because I think it
foreshadows Old Nick’s aggressive behaviors with Jack’s mother.
 Q: Could Jack’s refusal to give up his mother’s milk after turning
five foreshadow any aggressive sexual desire in Jack’s future?
Intimacy, Jealousy, and Jack

13. QHQs: Unlying
1. Q: What psychoanalytical interpretation can be drawn when
Jack says, “I thought [Old Nick] was going to punish us […] if
there were two Rooms, if he put me in one and you in the
other one” (Donoghue 29)?
2. Why does the author wait until the end of the 2nd chapter to
tell us the back story behind why Jack and Ma are really
trapped in the Room.
3. Why does Ma make Jack mute the television during the
commercials?
4. Why does Jack count his teeth?

14. QHQs: Dying
 Which parts of the great escape are traumatizing?

15. QHQs: After
1. Q: Will Jack ever understand that what him and Ma went through was
traumatizing?
2. Q: How does Jack’s concept of reality change by the end of the story?

16. Questions
1. While they are in “Room,” we see little evidence of the trauma they are
suffering. Why is that? What kind of trauma might we expect to see? Is
it possible that “Old Nick” has not traumatized them?
2. Explain the dynamic between Old Nick and Ma. Why does the author
choose not to tell us Old Nick’s story?

17. Questions
1. Q: Is it selfish of me to feel uncomfortable while reading a story about
an abusive situation when there are people who have experienced [it]
in real life?
2. Q: How will the ideas of confinement and freedom continue to oppose
each other later in the work?
3. Q: If Jack escapes from his captivity, will his entrance into society
traumatize him more than his captivity? How will it affect Ma?
4. Q: While we read of Jack’s education about what is “real” or “TV,” we
are being asked to learn about Jack’s mother’s situation (which would
be considered “TV,” or not real). How does the book’s understanding of
the “real” and “TV” color our understanding of our world?

18. Essay #3: Response to the
Novel/Novella
 The Writing Assignment
 In a thesis driven essay of 4-7 pages, analyze one or more
aspects of Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and the
Shawshank Redemption, Franz Kafka’s The
Metamorphosis, Elie Wiesel’s Night, or Emma Donoghue’s
Room. Consider using one extrinsic theoretical lens
(Feminist, Psychoanalytic, or Trauma theories), that we
have practiced this quarter to complicate your argument.
Aim to convince readers that your interpretation adds to the
conversation among those who read stories and write about
them. Back up your analysis with reasons and support from
the story. Use the critical strategies that we have practiced
this quarter.
See the complete assignment on our website

19. Homework
 Finish Room: Read “Living”
 Final Post #26: Choose One
1. QHQ Room Chapter 5, “Living”
2. Focus on a close reading of a
passage (or passages) that you
could use to do a critical reading
through a theoretical lens.
Consider New Critical, Feminist,
Psychoanalytic, or Trauma
Theories. You may use another
theory with which you are
familiar.
3. What role do you think the
media play in the novel? How
does the media contribute to the
trauma.