Room: Dying Summary & Analysis

In the morning, Room is warm again. There is some food on Table and in Refrigerator, and Jack springs around the room excitedly at the thought of having so much good food to eat again. Ma, however, isn’t eating and doesn’t even seem happy. Instead, she’s touching Plant—who has shed three more leaves and died during the cold spell. Jack is devastated and attempts to tape Plant’s leaves back on, but he begins crying as he realizes that Plant is really dead.

After breakfast, Jack and Ma take their first hot bath in days and then do some laundry while they watch TV. Even though things are better today, Ma still isn’t happy and “her face is flat.” Jack wonders if she misses Plant. Ma goes back to bed after Phys Ed, and Jack amuses himself by playing with Eggsnake and creating imaginary games, but when he tries to get Ma to play along, she insists she’s busy “thinking.”

Later in the day, Ma admits to Jack that she’s been thinking all day of ways to escape. None of her methods over the years have worked—playing Scream, flicking Lamp on and off, and hiding notes in the trash have all proved ineffective. Ma says she’s worried that no one will ever rescue them. Jack tells Ma that she doesn’t “know everything,” and then asks to breastfeed. Ma feeds him, and when she’s done, she tells him that they need to get out of Room—all by themselves. Ma tells Jack she needs his help in figuring out a plan. Jack begins brainstorming crazy tricks he’s seen on TV such as explosions and smashing down the walls with a bulldozer, but Ma tells him to think seriously.

Jack suggests the two of them pull off a “cunning trick” just like the one Old Nick used to lure Ma to his truck years ago. Ma tells Jack he’s “brilliant”—the two of them could pretend Jack is ill with a terrible fever that requires a hospital visit. Jack says he’s nervous about getting “cutted open” at the hospital, but Ma assures him that the doctors wouldn’t have to touch him because he won’t actually be sick. The illness will just be a ruse to get him to the hospital, where he can ask for help. Jack says he’s afraid to go alone, but Ma says her voice will be in his head the whole time. Jack starts getting agitated. Ma crankily tells Jack to forget the idea—he’s clearly not ready.

Later that afternoon, Ma calls Jack over to the bed, asking if he wants “some.” Jack hungrily accepts and begins breastfeeding—while he’s feeding, Ma asks him to remember a documentary they saw on TV once about people escaping from the Nazis. She reminds him that the escapees had to be very brave and go through a tunnel “one at a time.” She tells Jack that if he wants them to escape Room, he will have to be brave and go to the hospital alone so that he can bring the police back to Room. Ma tells Jack he’s the only one who can save them, and she asks if he’ll try. He agrees.

Ma and Jack eat a snack while they iron out the specifics of their plan. Ma compares the sequence of events Jack will have to remember to a Dora adventure: Sick, Truck, Hospital, Police, Save Ma. Ma goes over the plan with Jack again and again, drawing out the steps on a piece of paper and even making a visual map of what will happen to Jack.

Ma tells Jack that in order for him to be pretend-sick, she will have to make his forehead very hot with a bag of water. Worst of all, Jack will have to let Old Nick touch him—just once—to see how high his “fever” is. Ma has Jack get into Bed and practice “being all floppy” without laughing.

While eating dinner, Ma asks Jack if he’s ready to go through with their “Great Escape” tonight. Jack doesn’t feel ready, but Ma says there’s no way of predicting what Old Nick might do to them next. Jack begs Ma to wait a couple days. Ma relents, agreeing that she’s putting too much on Jack too quickly. Jack says when he’s six, he’ll be ready. Ma becomes upset and asks Jack if he wants to escape or not. Jack says he doesn’t “really” want to leave Room. Ma says they have to leave—Jack can’t even see what Room is doing to him. She says Jack needs to see grass, have more room to grow, and meet real people. Jack says he doesn’t want to. Ma tells Jack that she’d give him more time if she could—but there simply isn’t any. They’re not safe any longer inside Room.

Ma wakes Jack up in the middle of the night and pulls him out of Wardrobe to show him the huge moon outside of Skylight. Ma explains that the moon is different shapes all the time. Jack says that only happens on TV, but Ma insists it’s real—she tells Jack he’s going to love being in the world.

Jack asks if Old Nick came tonight—Ma says he did, and that she told him Jack was coming down with something in order to lay the groundwork for their trick. Jack is angry at Ma for putting their “stupid dumbo plan” in motion. Ma gets angry, and, “nearly roaring,” says that she’s Jack’s mother—which means sometimes she gets to choose what happens for the both of them.

The next morning, after Jack and Ma both have bowel movements, Ma doesn’t let them flush—she breaks their stool up in the bowl with a wooden spoon so that it looks like diarrhea. There are no games to play today—Ma makes Jack practice being floppy and quiet all day. Jack says he’s feeling scared, but Ma insists he’s being brave—she tells him “scave,” or “scaredybrave,” is how he’s really feeling.

Jack worries that when he gets to the hospital, he won’t be able to get the right words out. Ma admits that she keeps forgetting Jack has never talked to a living soul other than her. She agrees to write a small note that Jack will keep tucked in his underpants—the note will explain everything, and all Jack needs to do is give it to the first person he sees. Jack is surprised that “TV persons can read,” but Ma reminds Jack that the people he’s going to see in the world are real, just like them. Jack remains skeptical of this. Jack examines Ma’s note and sees that it contains her “Outside” name—the sight of it makes Jack unhappy.

That night, at 8:41—twenty minutes before Old Nick’s arrival—Ma fills a plastic bag with hot water and presses it against Jack’s face. Jack protests, claiming the bag hurts, but Ma insists that if their plan is going to work, he needs to keep it on for just a few minutes. Jack begins crying not from the heat but from fear—Ma encourages him to keep crying because it will make him “look sicker.” Ma begins to panic that Jack doesn’t look or smell bad enough. She sticks her finger down her own throat and forces herself to gag into her hand, then covers Jack’s hair with her bile. Jack tells Ma she’s “mean.”

The door beeps. Ma pulls the blanket up over Jack and hides the bag of water beneath the bed. As soon as Old Nick walks in, he comments on how bad it smells in Room—Ma tells Old Nick that Jack has “had it coming out both ends” for over thirty hours. Jack cowers as Old Nick approaches him and places a hand on his cheek. Old Nick says he’ll pick something up from the pharmacy, but Ma hysterically states that Jack is too sick to keep anything down—he needs to go directly to the ER. Old Nick refuses to bring Jack in. Ma begs Old Nick, stating she’ll “do anything,” but Old Nick enters the code into the keypad and leaves Room.

Jack sits up and sees Ma sitting on the floor, “staring at nothing.” Jack asks if he messed up and says he’s sorry—but Ma is almost gleeful as she tells Jack he gave a “star” performance, and things are going to work out just fine. Ma admits that she knew “Plan A” was a risk all along—but she has a Plan B waiting on deck. Jack accuses her of lying to him and refuses to listen to Plan B. They get into Bed, but Jack has trouble “switch[ing] off” to fall asleep.

The next morning, Jack asks Ma if he can take a bath and wash the smell out of his hair, but Ma says Jack needs to keep smelling bad. She begins to tell him Plan B, which is based on the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo. Ma wants Jack to pretend to be dead. She will roll him up inside Rug and instruct Old Nick to take him far away to be buried. During the drive, Jack will wriggle out of Rug, leap from the back of the truck at the first stop sign, and ask the first person he sees on the street for help.

After breakfast, Ma helps Jack pretend to be dead. She tells him that while yesterday, he had to be “floppy,” tonight he will have to be rigid as a robot. Ma rolls Jack up inside of Rug and has him practice wriggling out, then attempts to describe to him the feelings of the different stages of a car being in motion so he’ll know when to jump out. Jack doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the plan, but Ma explains that because Old Nick has lost his job, his house may be taken away from him. If that happens, Ma says, he’ll do something terrible to them. This is their last chance at escape, and Ma is determined to get Jack out of Room—because she is the one who brought him into it.

Ma runs through the rest of the plan, trying to make it sound like as much of a game as possible so that Jack will be more amenable to attempting it. Ma walks Jack all the way through, from start to finish, and instructs him to tell the first person he sees he’s been kidnapped. If he’s unable to make the words, she says, Jack should show them his note. As the hours pass, Ma and Jack go over the plan several times. They try to play Checkers and eat dinner, but neither of them can focus. As it gets later, Ma helps Jack put on a pair of thick socks to protect his feet from the pavement, and he tucks Bad Tooth deep inside one of them.

As dark falls, Jack begins begging Ma to do the plan the next day, but Ma insists it’s now or never. She tells Jack that she’s sorry for putting him in such a predicament and sending him out alone, but she urges him to remember that she’ll be with him in his head every step of the way.

As 9:00 approaches, Ma and Jack share a long, tender hug before Ma rolls Jack up inside Rug. The two of them sit in silence waiting for Old Nick to come. He is late, but soon enough, they hear the beep beep of Door. Jack makes himself extra stiff, even though his heart is beating wildly in his chest. As Old Nick enters, Jack can hear him handing Ma a package he tells her is antibiotics. Ma slowly tells Old Nick that Jack got worse in the night last night and wouldn’t wake up in the morning. Old Nick tells Ma what a “poor girl” she is, and then says that if Jack was sick enough to die, no pills would have worked anyway.

Old Nick tells Ma he needs to take Jack away. Ma warns Old Nick that if he buries Jack in the backyard, she’ll be able to “hear him crying.” She begs Old Nick to take Jack far away—and not to unwrap Rug and “look at him with [his] filthy eyes.” Ma threatens Old Nick one last time, saying that if he buries Jack in the backyard, she’ll know—and will “never be quiet again.”

Jack feels himself being grabbed and lifted up—he knows Old Nick has him. As Old Nick carries Jack out the door, Jack urinates and defecates in his pants because of how scared he is. He tries to calm himself down by counting his teeth.

Jack falls down onto “something hard,” and within a few seconds feels a metallic rattling beneath him. He realizes that he must be in the truck bed—and the truck must be on the move. Jack wonders briefly if he’s still himself even though he’s not in Room.

Jack starts trying to wriggle out but struggles to do so. He feels the car come to a stop and realizes he has already missed the first stop sign. As the truck rattles to life again, Jack continues wriggling—but it takes him so long to get free that he misses yet another stop sign. Finally, Jack is able to free himself from Rug, and takes a deep breath of the night air. As he looks around at trees, houses, lights, and other cars, he feels he is inside “a cartoon […] but messier.”  

When the truck rolls to a stop, Jack is too scared to jump out—but as he leans over the edge of the truck bed, he falls out and screams. He begins running, even as he hears Old Nick exit the truck and start following him. Jack runs as fast as he can, unable to hear Ma’s voice in his head. He sees a dog followed by a baby pushing a stroller and a tall man following both of them. Jack keeps running toward the dog and is stunned when it bites him on the finger. While Jack freezes, the owner of the dog chastises the animal—and Old Nick comes up behind Jack and scoops him up.

Jack begins screaming wordlessly and hitting at Old Nick, and the owner of the dog intervenes, asking Old Nick if his “little girl” is okay. Old Nick insists everything’s fine. The dog owner attempts to apologize for the dog having bitten Jack, but Old Nick tries to walk away as quickly as possible, telling the dog owner to mind his own business. The man, uncomfortable with the situation, begins calling the police. Jack is happy that he has reached the Police step of the plan—but he’s perturbed by how “backwards” the path there has been.

As Old Nick keeps walking towards the truck with Jack in his arms, the dog owner shouts that he’s got Old Nick’s plates and begins reading them off into his phone. Old Nick drops Jack and runs towards the car—Jack marvels at the “magic numbers” that have saved him. Old Nick drives away quickly, leaving Jack immobile on the ground.

The dog owner approaches Jack and asks him what his name is. Jack answers very quietly. The dog owner introduces himself as Ajeet, then explains that his dog is called Raja and his little girl is called Naisha. Ajeet tells Jack he looks sick—Jack replies that Ma threw up on his shirt. Ajeet asks Jack to repeat himself because he’s talking too quietly, but Jack is too scared to get any sound to come out. Ajeet assures Jack that the police will arrive soon. Jack wants to run away, but he is afraid of Raja biting him again.

Soon, a cop car pulls up—Jack recognizes what it looks like from TV. Two officers emerge: one is a woman with dark hair, and the other is a man with blond hair. The female cop approaches Jack and introduces herself as Officer Oh. She asks Jack his name and age, and he answers her shyly. She asks him something “about a dress”—Jack doesn’t understand that she is asking for his address. Officer Oh asks Jack where he sleeps at night—he replies simply, “In Wardrobe.” Jack says that his Ma is the one who has dresses. Officer Oh asks Jack where Ma is. Jack responds that she’s “In Room.” Officer Oh asks where Room is. Remembering Ma’s words from earlier in the week, Jack quietly replies that Room is “not on any map.”

As the male cop talks into his radio, Officer Oh continues asking Jack questions, such as whether Old Nick is his father and how he got scraped up. Jack answers in his peculiar way of speaking, stating that “The dog is a vampire” and “The street, it hit me.” The male officer, frustrated by Jack’s inability to respond to their questions, suggests calling Child Protective Services, but Officer Oh insists on a little more time with Jack.

Officer Oh tells Jack that she bets he’s great at telling stories. She asks him to tell her a story about what happened tonight. Jack, answers, slowly and clearly, that he and Ma “did a trick.” Jack explains the plan he and Ma came up with, including the part where he was supposed to jump out of the truck at the first stop sign—but admits that he didn’t get to jump out until the third time the truck slowed down. Officer Oh decides to work backwards to find the location of Room. She calls into her radio for her fellow officers to search certain streets, and then helps Jack into her own patrol car.

While her partner drives, Officer Oh asks Jack more questions about Room in order to try to narrow down its location. Jack is quiet and overwhelmed, but eventually is able to tell Officer Oh that Room has a skylight and is freestanding. Using this information, Officer Oh and her partner pull up satellite images of the neighborhood and are eventually able to work out the potential location of Room. Officer Oh’s partner turns on his lights and speeds towards the address while Officer Oh assures Jack that they are going to rescue his ma.

Soon, the car pulls over, and Officer Oh and her partner step out. They leave Jack with a new officer and assure him everything is going to be fine. Jack is intensely nervous as he waits and waits—and soon hears a “terrible noise.” Jack looks out the window for “hundreds of hours” until he sees Officer Oh walking back towards the car with Ma at her side. Ma rushes up to the vehicle, opens the door, and scoops Jack up in her arms, thanking him for saving her.

Ma smiles at Jack and tells him that they can do “anything now”—they are “free.” Jack replies that he wants to go to Bed. Ma says the officers will help them find a place to sleep soon. Jack replies that he wants to go to Bed in Room—he has seen the world, he says, and he’s “tired now.” Ma tells Jack that they are never going back to Room. As the police car starts moving, Jack begins sobbing.