Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
This is basically my childhood. Spirit is a wild mustang who gets captured by humans. They cage him up and attempt to tame him, but his wild Spirit can not be broken in. He moves from being in the hands of American men to Indian men. Please, if you have not seen the movie, watch it. I'm on Christmas break right now, and if you're looking for a Christmas movie, this is totally...not Christmas themed. :P
But still, I totally recommend it for those who have a little extra 83 minutes in their life. ;)
But still, I totally recommend it for those who have a little extra 83 minutes in their life. ;)
Anyways, he is caged in by this Indian man who tries to tame him with kindness, but it doesn't really work either. He ends up accepting the fact that Spirit is the "Spirit-Who-Could-Not-Be-Broken." He allows him to run free and opens the gate, and Spirit is thrilled. He wants to run away and live his wild, free life with his new found horse partner called Rain. She on the other hand, never experienced the wild life and she just wants to stay back and live with the Indian man. She is reluctant to leave, but ends up going with him anyways. In the end, Spirit brings her to his own herd and they live a joyful life together with all the other horses.
Aww :')
Now sub the name Spirit for Ma, and Rain for Jack, and you have a new story called Room.
Or...okay, maybe not exactly the same, but at least the general story themes are similar.
Jack and Ma get saved, or escape, from Room and Jack is reluctant at first. The world is all new to him and he keeps attaching his memories to Room, connecting his experiences to Room, and comparing his lifestyle to Room. Much like Rain, when she was first set free she didn't want to leave. Being surrounded by the fences of the Indian village was much more comforting to her than going out and exploring the new world out there. She had never lived the free life, like Spirit had, so she had trouble letting go of this lifestyle she was so used to.
It's the same thing for Jack. Although we read the text and wonder why Jack holds Room so close to his heart, you have to realize this is his lifestyle. No matter what kind of change, good to bad, or bad to good, undergoing a lifestyle shift is difficult to embrace.
Jack is "like a newborn in many ways, despite his remarkably accelerated literacy and numeracy. As well as immune issues, there are likely to be challenges in the areas of, let's see, social adjustment, obviously, sensory modulation-filtering and sorting all the stimuli barraging him- plus difficulties with spatial perception" (Donoghue 182). In the first two chapters of the book, the problem Jack had was how to deal with the insane amount of new knowledge his mom had poured out to him. Now, in these next two chapters, Jack has to actually deal with real life situations and applications of his newly acquired knowledge. It's like I teach you how to roller-blade:
-Glide with one foot, then with the next while keeping your balance
Now go!**push**
I'm likely NOT going to see you on the other side anytime soon.
Or, people say they learned how to swim when someone pushed them into the pool. Either way, everything, when thrown to you all of a sudden like that, comes as a shock.
For Jack, when he first say Outside, there was a "huge dazzling." "Outside [was] real and so bright" (139). It's like he splashed into the Outside world, forced to adapt but barely treading water to keep himself together. Sometimes people really do learn to swim when they are pushed into the waters. It forces people to overcome their fears and rely on their basic survival skills to stay above water and survive. But for other people, their fears overpower their ability or willpower to survive and they don't manage to conquer the ambiguous waters; swimming turns into a huge fear. Since Jack is young, I think forcing him to jump in the water will result in the former; he will be forced to let go of his attachment to Room and adapt to life in Outside. For his Ma, her desire to go live in Outside was much stronger than Jack's desire, but she turned out like the latter; at the end of chapter 4, she was overpowered by her fears, uncertainties, and anxieties. She relied on pills and wanted to end her life because her sudden immersion into Outside was so immediate and her life in Room ended so abruptly. Of course she wanted to get out of Room, but the lack of a gradual transition caused her to waiver and turn to a drug overdose. Ma's fate is revealed in the last chapter. If she survives, then she will have overcome one aspect of her hardships in the world. If she dies, then she will have surrendered to her fears in the world.
Surrendering is easy, dying is always an option; it's a very depressing, but sad truth. Drowning is always an option; when pushed into the water, it's always possible to give up and just let the water overtake you.
Aww :')
Now sub the name Spirit for Ma, and Rain for Jack, and you have a new story called Room.
Or...okay, maybe not exactly the same, but at least the general story themes are similar.
Jack and Ma get saved, or escape, from Room and Jack is reluctant at first. The world is all new to him and he keeps attaching his memories to Room, connecting his experiences to Room, and comparing his lifestyle to Room. Much like Rain, when she was first set free she didn't want to leave. Being surrounded by the fences of the Indian village was much more comforting to her than going out and exploring the new world out there. She had never lived the free life, like Spirit had, so she had trouble letting go of this lifestyle she was so used to.
It's the same thing for Jack. Although we read the text and wonder why Jack holds Room so close to his heart, you have to realize this is his lifestyle. No matter what kind of change, good to bad, or bad to good, undergoing a lifestyle shift is difficult to embrace.
Jack is "like a newborn in many ways, despite his remarkably accelerated literacy and numeracy. As well as immune issues, there are likely to be challenges in the areas of, let's see, social adjustment, obviously, sensory modulation-filtering and sorting all the stimuli barraging him- plus difficulties with spatial perception" (Donoghue 182). In the first two chapters of the book, the problem Jack had was how to deal with the insane amount of new knowledge his mom had poured out to him. Now, in these next two chapters, Jack has to actually deal with real life situations and applications of his newly acquired knowledge. It's like I teach you how to roller-blade:
-Glide with one foot, then with the next while keeping your balance
Now go!**push**
I'm likely NOT going to see you on the other side anytime soon.
Or, people say they learned how to swim when someone pushed them into the pool. Either way, everything, when thrown to you all of a sudden like that, comes as a shock.
For Jack, when he first say Outside, there was a "huge dazzling." "Outside [was] real and so bright" (139). It's like he splashed into the Outside world, forced to adapt but barely treading water to keep himself together. Sometimes people really do learn to swim when they are pushed into the waters. It forces people to overcome their fears and rely on their basic survival skills to stay above water and survive. But for other people, their fears overpower their ability or willpower to survive and they don't manage to conquer the ambiguous waters; swimming turns into a huge fear. Since Jack is young, I think forcing him to jump in the water will result in the former; he will be forced to let go of his attachment to Room and adapt to life in Outside. For his Ma, her desire to go live in Outside was much stronger than Jack's desire, but she turned out like the latter; at the end of chapter 4, she was overpowered by her fears, uncertainties, and anxieties. She relied on pills and wanted to end her life because her sudden immersion into Outside was so immediate and her life in Room ended so abruptly. Of course she wanted to get out of Room, but the lack of a gradual transition caused her to waiver and turn to a drug overdose. Ma's fate is revealed in the last chapter. If she survives, then she will have overcome one aspect of her hardships in the world. If she dies, then she will have surrendered to her fears in the world.
Surrendering is easy, dying is always an option; it's a very depressing, but sad truth. Drowning is always an option; when pushed into the water, it's always possible to give up and just let the water overtake you.
But Ma didn't give up after 7 years. I just want to tell her this:
Abraham Lincoln didn't give up: Michael Jordan didn't give up:
This is why we have history. This is why we have a future.
We won't give up.
This is why we have a life.
We won't give up.
This is why we have a life.
