Although for the most part, or at least the commencement of the novel, we can view Jack as a complete opposite of Old Nick, his father, he begins to behave quite differently upon escaping Room. Of course, Jack is Old Nick's son and thus must share various characteristics of his father, yet he is nurtured in what I can assume is a very different way. To truly understand Jack, we find that in Room, he keeps no secrets and is not given any independence whatsoever, ergo he is tightly controlled by Ma, basically acting as a pawn as mentioned in my previous post. We can see that this style of raising Jack, although forced upon Ma and Jack by Old Nick, has advantages in that Jack is ingrained with the same mentality as his mother and is for the most part moral. Upon leaving Room, he continues to have a close connection with his mother as any child would, yet he also encounters a newly-found freedom and ability to create and take choices for himself. This in turn leads to Jack become more rebellious and perhaps less moral.
In comparison, Old Nick is a psychopathic criminal who likely had an average upbringing, yet we do not discover what causes his wronged mental tendencies, therefore we must only judge him by his actions against Ma and Jack and other information about him which we are given. Old Nick is clearly not a moral person such that he breaks laws and commits violent acts, thus we can conclude that he is the villain in this novel. Yet if we consider Jack the hero as well, the similarities between him and Old Nick towards the final parts of the novel increase, since Jack is given more freedom to behave as he wishes. Jack begins to commit actions which we would view as somewhat immoral at best, and starts to keep secrets from his mother, something unseen until this point. Perhaps Jack will change for the better if Ma keeps a closer watch on him, yet, judging from his recent actions and the idea that he derives from Old Nick, we can also guess that Jack's behavior will worsen.
I think it's safe to assume that Jack is "nurtured" in a way that's very different from pretty much everyone else on earth--but part of this "nurture" has to do with Ma's insistence that Nick have as little contact with Jack as possible. Discounting the idea that some of Nick's evil can be transmitted genetically, this would seem to diminish as much as possible his influence on Jack's upbringing. Ma is his sole parent, and Nick is only his "father" in a genetic sense.
ReplyDeleteBut there are of course limits to what Ma can achieve here: Nick will still profoundly shape Jack's life in ways that are impossible to trace. He is responsible for his first five years being in these extreme and socially isolated conditions, not to mention all the psychological damage of witnessing his mother being raped in front of him (even if he doesn't fully know what's going on, Jack is dealing with a particularly extreme form of Oedipus Complex) and wrapping his head around the fact of their imprisonment as he attempts to socialize into "normal" society.
I think this almost enters the realm of the nature vs. nurture debate. I would have to side with nurture in this case because Ma is Jacks nurture. She is his life. He listens to everything she says and listens to nobody else. Considering Nick has very very little contact with Jack at all, I think its safe to say that he has no affect on Jacks upbringing, aside from the unescapable (for 5 years) circumstances that he has placed Jack in.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your second point, I can't say I agree with you that Jack resembles Nick once he escapes. I think he resembles a perfectly normal 5 year old boy in his mischevious actions. It is necessary for a child to get in trouble and learn what isn't right in order to develop.
I do have to agree with Isaak...the Jack we see out in the open world isn't a "mini-Nick", but a typical five year old. Five-year olds are very curious, and typically learn from their mistakes. I don't see anything different in the way Jack acts than I did as a five year old, or any other younger kids that I know.
DeleteYour point that Jack has Ma's mentality and morality ingrained into himself is a really good one, though. Ma has been the only person there for the first five years of his life, and everything he knows, he knows from her. A good example is Jack's Christian upbringing, something that pops up frequently as Jack mentions Jesus, or when the talk show host asks Ma about it. It's a perfect example of Ma's ideas being shared with Jack.
I think that realizing that you can lie is a normal part of human development, and that it happens to everybody. Everyone lies Quintin, in fact you've even lied to me before! Just because Jack tells a few fibs doesn't mean that he'll turn into a psychopathic. That's my opinion, at least.
ReplyDeleteIt really comes down to nature vs. nurture; whether you believe that tendency to commit crime is based on genetics or cultural factors. I personally agree with the latter, and I think that Ma did a good enough job of raising Jack that he will develop into a normal human being.