A sneak peak to my project had been prepared! I am deeply sorry to all of my readers that have long awaited this great moment. A special shout out to Alice Hu for pushing me to get this done!
Jack: hero or not?
After seeing a couple of blogs on this, as well as different views on this topic, I decided to address it, even though, I know I know, this is pretty old. So, when Jack comes out of the house and escapes, is he a hero, or not? To answer this question, I will list out all of the possible reasons from both sides and then provide my own reasoning.
First, the positives. What does Jack do that could make him conceivable as a hero? First and foremost, Jack acts sick and then dead. For someone who hasn’t ever “acted” before, and doing it on such short notice, he does a pretty believable job. If he would’ve messed this up at the beginning, then all would have been finished. Jack leaves Room and has the courage to go Outside. He really doesn’t have any idea of what he’s getting himself into, but he’s willing to take up the challenge. Although it hurts him (and as we learn later, it isn’t just a small injury) when Old Nick drops him in the back of the pickup truck, he remains quiet for the sake of the mission. He makes the right decisions without Ma being around when he runs away from Old Nick. He eventually gets his Mom freed and Old Nick captured.
Now for the not exactly heroish thingys. He’s just following orders. Ma tells him what to do and he does it. Sure he makes a couple of decisions on his own, but they were kind of the only options he had, and he acknowledged that. In this notion, Jack is but a “pawn” in Ma’s crafty maneuver of intelligence (Quintin). Also, Jack doesn’t really help the Police While they do figure it out in the end, Jack could have very easily told them.
While it is true that Jack could have told the police, we have to understand that he hasn’t met any other human being apart from Ma and Old Nick, He is unaware of their existence and it creeps him out. We can cut him some slack on that one. On the topic of Jack being a pawn, I agree, Jack is a pawn in the whole scheme of things. But the heroic part in that is that he’s doing everything that he should do, as well as making the right decisions when needed. He remains silent even when he is hurt. He talks when he feels safe and does get Ma out and Old Nick captured. Sure there was luck involved in that, and it is true that Jack isn’t a marvelous hero in this. But there are many heroic aspects seen in this whole escape. And don’t forget, he’s only five.
Wednesday, December 3
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