Emma Donoghue, the Author
One thing I was surprised and a little sad to find out was that Emma Donoghue based Room off of real events. In 2008 a woman named Elisabeth Fritzl and her children escaped from an Austrian dungeon. She had been held captive for over 20 years by her father, who physically assaulted, sexually assaulted, and raped her numerous times during her captivity.
Elisabeth Fritzl
Donoghue was curious about how Fritzl must have mothered under captivity, and how she must have dealt with a mother and child bond that felt like being trapped. Donoghue recognizes that she could have ended that book after Ma and Jack escaped, but she "...decided to write something much more peculiar. A fiction so unstable in genre - sliding between fairy tale and naturalism, domestic comedy and the gothic, social satire and philosophical inquiry..." (Donoghue, 2014).
Although a case like Jack's has never existed, Donoghue used the resources around her to create a plausible plot. She researched hidden and abused children, something she considered to be a very upsetting task, and used overlaps to create Jack's situation. Her goal was to "...avoid sentimentalising imprisonment, while exploring the ways some people do manage to rise above it. I kept tinkering with the balance of sunshine and darkness." (Donoghue, 2014). This balance between light and dark is show through Jack's many mood swings and the contrast between the good and bad in his life.
(This is a clip from the movie, which won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and many other awards)
Donoghue also took inspiration from around her. At the time that Room was being drafted, Donoghue's own son was five years old. She took inspiration from him, and he helped her personify a five year old boy in her writing. Of course one might think that writing as a child would be difficult, but Donoghue found that "... having a child narrator is very helpful in terms of point of view, because children are little Martians who see everything afresh and askew. The real technical challenge of the novel was representing Ma as a three-dimensional character, through Jack's lens, which is a very limited one not only because of his age but because she constantly tells him comforting lies" (Donoghue, 2014).
Overall, Emma Donoghue's ability to spin such a horrible yet beautiful story is incredible. I finished Room feeling uncertain yet very satisfied with the ending. Through all the trials and tribulations of the plot I watched Jack grow from an unaware child to a brave boy. This book lived up to my epectations completely, and I feel even more connected to it after reading up on Emma Donoghue's process. I truly would recommend this book... it's fantastic.
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