I didn't like the ending...

Yeah...I don't know, I just didn't enjoy the ending.

I get that Jack kinda got closure and it shows how Jack has changed so much that he can barely recognize Room anymore, but I was expecting more. I didn't have something specific in mind, but I just wanted more of Jack learning and growing. It was clear how he was making progress, he was able to function without Ma, he was able to experience more of the world, and he even cut his hair.

It's great that he changed so much, but again, the ending felt a bit rushed, and so I really didn't like it. Then again, I just didn't really enjoy the book either, so maybe that's part of the reason why I didn't like the ending.

But other than me whining about the ending and the book in general, I want to look at how Jack's adventure fits into the hero's journey.

There's the call to adventure first. Jack starts out like all heroes do, in some "normal" situation. For Jack, being in Room is normal, because he's never experienced anything outside of Room. His call to adventure is when Ma tells him that they need to escape from Room, and Jack refuses at first. This is his refusal of the call, but once Jack agrees to it, he needs a helper. I think the helper is Ajeet, the dude with the dog that called the police. He scares away Nick and calls the police, who manage to find out where Room is.

Thanks to the help of Ajeet and the police, Jack is able to cross the threshold, learning how to live in Outside. This is probably one of Jack's biggest challenges. The other big challenges Jack must face are learning how to act in social situations and learning how to function without Ma. While these are difficult for Jack to learn, he does manage to become slightly more independent, he learns about proper ways to act towards others, and he does learn about living in Outside.

After this part Jack doesn't really follow the hero's journey as closely. He doesn't meet any kind of guardian deity who's been protecting him and he doesn't confront his father. However, he does face temptations for going back to Room. Every time he doesn't like something, like being stuck in the hospital or having to go smell flowers and all that good stuff, he wants to go back to Room. It's not unreasonable, he's a little kid who was technically tricked into leaving Room. The period of rest and fulfillment for Jack might be when he's living with Ma in their apartment, but that doesn't last very long so I don't know what to call that.

I don't think Jack follows the returning part of the hero's journey that much. I mean, he returns to look at Room and see how it isn't really Room anymore, but that's about it. I don't think Jack's a master of two worlds because he's already started to forget about things in Room, like where Plant used to be.

Anyways, that's just what I think about the ending of the book and of how Jack's adventure fits into the hero's journey.

I don't think I can handle this

So I'm just going to say it: I really hate the book. No, it's not because of the writing style, no it's not because of the little kid (though I don't really like little kids), it's because of the stuff being mentioned.

So this 5 year old and his 27 year old mom are stuck in this super tiny room. After doing a search on Google, I found a picture somebody had of what the room might look like: http://lhdreviews.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/room1.png and I'm just going to say, without that picture, I wouldn't have been able to even begin to imagine what the room would look like. If I were stuck in a room like that, I would go crazy, and I'm amazed the mother hasn't already.

It's been stated that they're both malnourished and the mom's teeth are rotting. I think it's stated that they're also in a tiny shed, so it probably gets ridiculously hot in there. I don't know, just the fact that there's people being kept (presumably against the mother's will) in a tiny room in what I think could definitely be considered sub-human (is it one word or hyphenated?) conditions. This is some pretty dark stuff, and I'm really uncomfortable reading this.

Then there's how Jack's innocence makes him view things in unique ways. He can only hear the sounds of Old Nick and his mom having sex, and he just describes the process as Old Nick making the bed squeak a lot and then makes a "gaspy sound"...This is also something that really bothers me, because from what I can tell, the only reason Jack's mom doesn't resist is because she can get the essentials for Jack, and hearing his "innocent" description of what she has to do just really...rubs me the wrong way. I'm not saying I hate Jack or anything, I'm just saying the depiction does make me very unhappy.

There was a mention today in class of whether or not solitary confinement should be considered torture. I think so. From my limited knowledge of human development and all that good stuff, I know that babies need to be touched at least once a day and have some sort of human interaction or they won't develop properly. I also know that people in solitary confinement can and will go crazy given enough time. Humans are social creatures, and so it makes sense that without social interaction, bad things can happen. I'm amazed that Jack's mom hasn't gone crazy, because I assume she's been in the room longer than Jack's been alive, and so she's somehow stayed sane. I think it might've been easier for her once Jack was born, because then she would have been able to have another human to interact with on a daily basis.

Actually, it's not really the book I hate. I'm amazed how the author's able to accurately portray a five year old and manage to show their point of view in a convincing way. But the plot is just really dark and I feel a bit disturbed when reading it. If I could get away with never reading the book I would, but since I can't, I'll just deal with it. So that's all I really have to say about the book so far...

Smithy is Literally Divinity

So I'm convinced that there's actually some god or goddess helping out Smithy. Either that or he's a god in disguise.

First off, he's survived everything thrown at him. The guy's been shot MULTIPLE times, and has survived it all. Sure, he had somebody to help him in Vietnam, but that meant he didn't die immediately, which is still impressive.

Then there's the fact that's he was some fat, chain-smoking, alcoholic who hadn't worked out in years. This same guy decided to get on his bike and start riding it across the country. I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure not doing any kinds of rigorous activity for a while and doing something really rigorous suddenly is a good way to give yourself a heart attack. Smithy wasn't even fit, yet doesn't get a heart attack. I blame it on Athena's divine intervention.

He also gets beaten so severely that he pees himself. I don't understand how he's totally fine. Is it luck? Or is Smithy just unable to get hurt too badly after having a bunch of holes in him? There's also the fact that he's hit by a car, and ends up totally fine. The people at the Emergency Room don't even do anything for Smithy, he washes himself off, goes into an examining room, and rubs antibacterial cream on himself. How doesn't he get caught? Obviously Athena was shrouding Smithy so nobody would notice him.

Lastly, in part of his journey, Smithy decides to take a nap. Okay, nothing wrong with that, but when he wakes up, THERE'S A BLIZZARD. You do not wake up during a Blizzard and come out totally fine, other than some cut on his neck from a bullet.

I don't know if I'm just being really anal about all of this, but I don't think Smithy should be perfectly fine. These incidents I listed, to me, seem to be instances where Smithy should have died. In each of these instances, Smithy comes out relatively fine. That's why I'm convinced there's only two explanations for this. Either Smithy is being helped every step of his journey by Athena, or Smithy is actually immortal, and so he doesn't need to worry about being injured because he can't die from the injuries.

Smithy's Luck is Like Anse's...maybe

I think Smithy's luck is like Anse's, because they both have terrible luck and even when they try to help out in a situation they make everything worse. It makes me pity both of them, except when I think of Smithy, I want his luck to get better, but when I think of Anse, I want him to go die in a hole.

As far as I can remember, Smithy's had two bad incidents when trying to help somebody.

The first time was with Carl. Sure, he came out on top in the end, but before that it was terrible. He was hit by the dude's car, had his bike broken, and had to patch himself up. Then, when he agrees to help the dying Carl, he gets the pee beaten out of him by a police officer and has to call Carl's loved ones to inform them about his death.

It kinda reminds me of Anse trying to fix the quilt on Addie, and how he kept on messing it up the more he tried. Both experienced such bad luck trying to help out. The difference here is that Anse's luck never turned around in this situation, and got worse but Smithy's luck turned around. He got new clothes and a new bike, which meant he could continue his journey.

The second incident that Smithy has is when he rescues the little boy from the river. That led to the other people, which included some guy with a gun, to come find the kid. Of course, with Smithy's luck, he gets shot.

While Anse doesn't do anything that injures himself (because he can't sweat or else bad things happen), he still makes situations so much worse. He insists on Jewel and Darl going to town right before Addie dies so their journey is harder because of the river. Then he also refuses to get Cash to a doctor and decides to use cement to make a cast. I mean, really? I understand there wasn't that many choices, but even when Anse tried to help Cash, he made the situation worse. Cash ends up losing the leg! What the heck?!

At least Smithy seems to be able to bounce back better than before, so I'm expecting him to survive being shot (he's the main character after all) so he'll probably be fine.

I mean, in a way I guess Anse also did bounce back in the end. He got his teeth and a new wife! That obviously shows that he didn't have terrible luck, but I don't know if I'd consider that good luck...

But yeah, that's just my thoughts. Smithy and Anse both have bad luck but bounce back (kinda) later on. So many Smithy's luck will be like Anse's and he'll get a wife by the end of the book.

Smithy as a Hero?

So this is probably a predictable topic to talk about, though kinda tough. Is Smithy a hero? He definitely has some heroic traits, but we haven't gotten that far into the book, so it's possible he can show more qualities of a hero or maybe he'll show qualities of a villain.

So first off, he's kinda his sister's savior, ignoring the fact that she's dead now. He's obviously close to his sister, and he's able to sorta calm her down when she has a breakdown and starts to scratch her face. So, Smithy is heroic in that sense.

However, he's also a fat 47-year-old who smokes a ton and drinks a ton. That's...kinda the opposite of what I expect in a hero. The people who are heroes usually are fit to varying degrees, young, attractive, and healthy. Smithy is none of those. Actually, past Smithy probably would have fit the criteria.

Yeah, actually maybe present Smithy will slowly become more like past Smithy. That could be his heroic journey, right? I mean, right now we just have Smithy riding his bike but it's definitely the start of a journey. He's going all the way to where his sister's body is. That's gonna be a really long journey, especially because it's an old bike and he hasn't used it in so long.

However, the image of Smithy riding his bike isn't that heroic, actually it's more laughable. An overweight guy riding on a bike? I know I'm probably being really mean by saying that but it's just so weird to see this. Of course, if I saw something like this in person, I wouldn't say anything to them.

Sorry, I'm getting off topic. So far, Smithy's been changing, he isn't drinking or smoking as much, and he's eating less and being healthier. Obviously it's because the Greek gods are giving him their blessing to miraculously survive anything that's thrown at him (or anything he's thrown at, like the lake).

So before I get off topic, I just wanna say I feel that Smithy's journey is going to help change him and, once he's finished, we'll have a guy that represents a hero. Either that or I'm gonna be really unsatisfied with him and will complain a ton.

So...the Ending...

Yeah...I was expecting a lot more from the ending of the book. Maybe I wanted the family to stay together, maybe I wanted Vardaman to get that train, maybe I wanted Cash to have two working legs, maybe I wanted Dewey Dell to get the abortion she wanted so desperately. I don't know. What I do know, is that I don't hate all of the Bundrens anymore. Just Anse.

This guy...I don't even know where to start. Okay, at first it looked like he wanted to just do one last thing for Addie and wanted the best for his family. Now, I'm not so sure. This moron has damaged his family in ways that could be considered torture. Because of his stubbornness, Cash is down a leg, Jewel is down a horse, and Darl is gone. Honestly, Anse shouldn't even be allowed to be a father. Maybe he likes to claim he's doing his best but it looks like he went to town just for new teeth and a new Mrs. Bundren. This makes it seem like he didn't even care for Addie. Now I'm not surprised that she didn't want to be anywhere near him. At least he helped bury her, so he could let her down one last time (I'm so sorry but I had to make that joke).

Now then, Darl. Oh man that was a shocker. Maybe he didn't seem to be the most normal person but he certainly didn't seem insane, just a bit creepy because of his all knowing powers. Still, there was nothing indicating Darl was insane enough to set a barn on fire. Maybe he really hated Addie? But that doesn't really seem to be a possibility, because there wasn't ever anything that suggested Darl hated Addie.

I also found Darl's last narrated chapter really disturbing. He always refers to himself in the third person and is laughing the whole time. If that's not creepy enough, near the end he suddenly refers to an "our". As in, "Darl is our brother." It's as if all of a sudden he has the ability to channel thoughts of all of his siblings or something. Really disturbing in my eyes. But I wonder, would Darl have turned out this way if he hadn't gone to town? Maybe, just maybe, he would've stayed being Darl the creepy guy who seems to know everything that's going on instead of Darl, the insane guy who burned down a barn.

Either way, weird ending to this book.

Now I Can Say I Hate Addie

So after that narration from Addie's perspective, I can add her to the list of Bundrens that I despise. I honestly find nothing to like about her, other than the fact that she was kind enough to die.

First on the long list of what I find completely messed up with her is how happy she was to punish her students. It's not normal to find pleasure in hurting kids so you literally leave your mark on them. I don't care what you think, there's no way to make that seem okay. You sick, twisted b....

Okay next point. Did she really hate Anse, or would you have hated whoever you married? She said she didn't like how her freedom was taken away from her. But really, she probably would have felt similarly no matter who she married. The second she had a kid she hated it. So really, she can't blame Anse for taking your freedom (I mean, she did so obvious she could, but that's not the point) because I'm pretty sure she would've blamed any guy she married and had at least one kid with.

Also, you cheated on your husband who loved you! To me, there's nothing Addie Bundren could say to excuse this behavior. Really, just because she gave Anse two more kids to balance out Jewel doesn't mean what she did was okay. It's quite ironic because it was shown that Addie taught her children to never be deceitful and now here she is doing exactly what she taught them not to do. Hypocrite.

Speaking of Addie's affair, what the hell, Whitfield? You were that focused on telling Anse the truth but took it as a sign from God that you didn't need to because she was dead? THAT'S NOT OKAY. IN FACT THAT WAS PROBABLY A SIGN THAT IF YOU DON'T TELL THE TRUTH YOU WILL BE STRUCK DOWN. I can't believe this! How stupid can you get?!

Now, after reading Addie's narration, I'm convinced she was mentally insane. Just the way her thoughts work doesn't seem even remotely normal to me. Maybe I'm just trying to find things wrong with her because I hate her. Maybe it's because she really is mentally ill. Either way, I still despise her and am glad she's dead, even though her being dead has nearly killed the rest of her family.