Answer the Call: About a Journey

Room has a lot of references to various literary works. I know I already went over some in class, but now that we're deeper into the novel I wanted to revisit some of the stories mentioned. Since most of the stories we had discussed had been about imprisonment, now seems about the right time to talk about the references now that Jack and Ma have escaped. The Count of Monte Cristo : Okay so most of you probably aren't familiar with this one. The Count of Monte Cristo follows a man named Edmond Dantès who is wrongfully accused of a crime and sentenced to prison on the dismal island penitentiary known as Château d'If. The whole story is about the revenge that the imprisoned Edmond Dantès enacts upon those who landed him in the prison. Now that Ma and Jack are out of the prison that Old Nick made for them, they are trying to take back their lives and caused Old Nick to be sent to a cell instead. I think this qualifies as a revenge plot, but Ma and Jack don't have much say...

When we started reading A Lesson Before Dying , we all knew it was a book about an African American who is sentenced to execution. If you had been part of African American Lit last semester, this plot may seem familiar. If you weren't, this is what it reminded me of. In African American Lit, the first book we read was Richard Wright's Native Son , where a young African American, Bigger Thomas, is convicted of raping and murdering a white woman (he never did rape her, but does end up accidentally suffocating her). Sound familiar? Jefferson is also convicted of a crime, and no matter what the trial is, the result can be predicted from the very beginning: the black man will be sentenced to death. A Lesson Before Dying  is a bit different than Native Son , as it is told from the perspective of someone who interacts with the convict, not the convict themselves like Bigger. Native Son  also deals with Bigger on the run from the police and the trial is towards the end of the ...