choke by chuck palahniuk

I think that Choke was a very interesting book because it was about a man named Victor whose mother is in a nursing home and has Alzheimer's.  Victor is very confused about his identity and who his dad is.  While Victor is on a mission to find out his true identity, he also has to pay a lot of money to pay for his mom's health care.  since Victor doesn't have enough money, he decides to go out to up-scale restaurants and pretends to choke on food.  People then save him, and feeling responsibly for his life, they pay for some of his health care bills.  

Victor is a selfish man and he only cares about himself so he really would want to just kill his mother, but his mother is the key to figuring out who he really is.  Eventually, Victor finds a small black journal that belongs to his mom victors mom wrote about how her son is Jesus, so Victor believes he's Jesus and goes and spends all his money, and then he goes crazy.  

In the book, everyone complimented Victor on how nice he was to spend most of the money he raised himself on his mom.  Really, they didn't know the truth.  No, it was not always obvious to other characters that Victor was scamming a bunch of people, including his mother.  The truth about Victor Mancini is that he is NOT Jesus Christ and NOT a trust worthy person according to one of the mom's nurses, Paige Marshall.  

Room by Emma Donoghue **SPOILER ALERT**

This week I read Room by Emma Donoghue.  It is about a 5 year old boy named Jack and his mom who are being held hostage in a garden shed.  The mom, who is just defined as 'Ma' in the story, has been held captive for 9 years and is a victim of sexual abuse.  Jack has grown up only knowing Room.  He also tends to call objects such as table, bath, and rug, proper nouns.  Eventually Jack and Ma make a narrow escape from Old Nick and make there way to a health care facility where they are reunited with old family. 

Jack often confides in his mother and wishes that he was back in Room.  Every time I read about Jack wishing for this I was thinking "Would it be better if Jack was back in Room with just his mother?"  Jack is only five and is very confused about how the real world works.  Even in room, Ma would often explain that there were tons of people in Outside.  I think Jack is very overwhelmed by all the things everyone is telling him. 

One place where I see Jack being overwhelmed is when he hops off of Old Nicks truck to find the police.  since the story is told from Jack's perspective, he is describing his emotions.  He is so overwhelmed that he can't even find the right words to describe his emotion.

I don't think it would be beneficial for jack to be in a confined space with Ma again.  There are two sides to the story.  Jack may feel like he wants the relationship with his mom to continue and he doesn't want to deal with Outside any more.  But the mother wants to be free. Jack didn't understand that Ma was forced to stay into the room, and he didn't know how bad everything really was.  Ma deserves to be free and raise her son normally.   

** SPOILER ALERT** Room by Emma Donoughue Answering SARQ#3

Question:  How does "Room" make you think about justice in the world?

Answer:  In Room, justice is not served because Jack still had to grow up in that room, and Jack and Ma will always remember that because it was a big part of both their lives.  This reminds me of justice in the world because even if we don't know about it there are still people being kidnapped, held hostage, or dead because of a kidnapping.  Every time you pick up the book, you are being forced to think about Jack and his mom being held hostage because that's the only thing the narrator knows.

Jack used to think TV wasn't real.  And yes, Dora isn't real, but he didn't know about the animals on National Geographic being real.  When his mother told him, he got upset and claimed that she was lying until he got a glimpse of Outside.

Old Nick is the one blocking justice.  He is the one who took Jack's mother when she was 19 and has her  kidnapped for 7 years.  I think that his motivation is enjoying holding them hostage and enjoying using Jack's mom for sex.

Jack and his mom really want to escape but since Ma has tried every way and Old Nick made the walls really soundproof and the glass extra thick and put a padlock on the door, they are ready to give up.  Jack tells his mom that he really wants to see Outside for himself so Ma gets motivated by her son and fines a way for them to escape.