At
this point in the story I think the Grandparents have been more effective at
parenting Jack. We must give credit to Ma for her work in a terrible situation,
but while she is at the clinic in an unhealthy state, the grandparents were
major in the parenting of Jack. From Jack’s narration, it seems like he
decently likes Leo and the Grandma, and he seems to learn a ton of new things.
As Grandma says on page 259, “You’re breathing and walking and talking and sleeping
without your Ma, aren’t you? So, I bet you can eat without her too.” Although
these are regular things for most people. Jack is a crazy exception, any growth
at all is very important for his development. At the clinic, Jack makes
development, but not as much as I expected. He can’t really learn, and even
when he wanted to go outside again, Ma hinders that. I think the Grandparent’s
house was a great environment for Jack to learn. He spent a lot of time
outside, Leo and Grandma both seem very nice and caring for him, and Grandma
has experience being a parent. Multiple occurrences, like going the play
structure, and to the mall, are parenting things that Grandma can teach better
than Ma.
To me it also seems like Ma is not
in a good condition to care for Jack right now. She tried to kill herself about
a week ago, and she seems barely healthy. As we mentioned in class, this all
happens over a relatively short amount of time. I personally think it would be
better for both Ma and Jack to be apart. Jack is learning to live with new
people, and Ma is returning to a healthy mental state.
Another thing that shows Jack’s
development to me, is how he doesn’t mention everything in the narration. He
just mentions in passing that he did go to the natural history museum, and I
thought that would be a big scene in the narrative. I think this shows as the
more things Jack sees, the less he feels the need to talk about everything he
does.
We also talked in class about Jack
didn’t capitalize “the door” on the last page of the book. This is another part
of his development over a short period. I think he really needs all the
diversity he can in his life, while he is still young and Grandma and Steppa
can provide that for him. Did anyone else feel like they did a better job than
Ma? Or at least they did a good job at the time?
I'm not comfortable criticizing anyone else's parenting, unless they're doing something obviously abusive or egregious, and I don't know that it's fair to compare Grandma and Ma's techniques. Ma really hasn't had a chance to parent yet, in a "normal" situation, and I think she's done a superhuman job with Jack these five years: she's had to put a lot of original thought into how to do things for him under these extreme conditions, how to ensure his safety and health under the worst imaginable circumstances. And I don't get the sense that she's overprotective--the sunblock and shades are insisted upon by the clinic, and they have good medical reasons for wanting Jack's skin and eyes to be protected. Comparing Grandma and Steppa to Paul and Deanna's parenting with Bronywn maybe is more fair: we get a kind of parody of the modern-day parent of the overcommitted, oversheltered child, and Grandma's more old-school approach comes off as preferable. I'd rather view a beesting as an ordinary hazard of life that a child needs to learn about than panic at the thought of a drum as a birthday gift since it's a "concussion hazard"!
ReplyDeleteI agree that Jack's grandparents have been doing very well "parenting" and disciplining Jack, and yet I do not want to discredit Ma. Ma had Jack at such a young age herself, and being able to cope with all the horrors that she faced in Room and take care of Jack at the same time is remarkable and admirable. In fact, considering the situation that Ma had to raise Jack, I would give much more credit to Ma as a parent. It is easier to be a good parent when you are living a nice life, as the grandparents are doing, compared to when you are going through unimaginable suffering and torture and trauma for years.
ReplyDeleteYah good post, but I do feel like this kind of topic is a bit hard to approach since we're neither 1) parents, nor 2) in any kind of living situation that has any kind of resemblance to what Ma and Jack were put through. I do agree that the grandparents have done a pretty damn good job of parenting so far, as I wrote in my most recent blog post. Ma has done a LOT for jack over the 5 years he's been held captive, so we can maybe cut her a little bit of slack for the more recent breakdowns she's had.
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