Escape rooms
When I was reading Room and the first time I realized that Ma was kidnapped and held as a sex prisoner, I first thought of escape rooms, which started becoming popular around the world starting around 2015. In an escape room, you are stuck in a rule filled with objects (some are hidden), and some of these objects are clues to how to escape the room.
Room however has no hidden objects (at least according to Jack), and no clues to escape the room (except the code, but there are no objects that can help crack the code). And in a "regular" escape room, you have a time limit (less than 1 hour in most escape rooms) to solve the puzzle, and if you can't solve it in time then you just lose, and you just leave the escape room and mope for the rest of the day. However, if Ma and Jack are not capable of escaping Room within a time limit (which is the time Old Nick leaves the Room and the time Old Nick arrives again), then Ma has to suffer another night with Old Nick and Jack has to sleep in Wardrobe. Another key difference is that in an escape room you are not allowed to manipulate the people who control the escape room, while Ma and Jack was able to trick Nick into thinking that Jack is dead and they were able to escape Room as a result.
So what do you guys think? Is Room an escape room (at the worst difficulty with cruel punishments)? Will you look at escape rooms with a different perspective? Comment down below!Don't forget to donate money to my PayPal because I am broke.
Room however has no hidden objects (at least according to Jack), and no clues to escape the room (except the code, but there are no objects that can help crack the code). And in a "regular" escape room, you have a time limit (less than 1 hour in most escape rooms) to solve the puzzle, and if you can't solve it in time then you just lose, and you just leave the escape room and mope for the rest of the day. However, if Ma and Jack are not capable of escaping Room within a time limit (which is the time Old Nick leaves the Room and the time Old Nick arrives again), then Ma has to suffer another night with Old Nick and Jack has to sleep in Wardrobe. Another key difference is that in an escape room you are not allowed to manipulate the people who control the escape room, while Ma and Jack was able to trick Nick into thinking that Jack is dead and they were able to escape Room as a result.
So what do you guys think? Is Room an escape room (at the worst difficulty with cruel punishments)? Will you look at escape rooms with a different perspective? Comment down below!
Good points. Escape rooms and Jack and Ma's ordeal are pretty similar, but there are a few more key differences. All escape rooms have a solution, and the escapees know there's a way out, a solution to the puzzles. Ma, however, knows they have to escape, but isn't sure if they can.
ReplyDeleteI think a hugely significant difference is that people voluntarily participate in escape rooms while Ma was put in room with no form of consent on her part. Additionally, people in escape rooms know that they will eventually escape but Ma has no such comfort. But I think that it's possible that Ma thought of Room as some sort of puzzle in that she had to work with what she had in order to somehow escape, which she eventually did.
ReplyDeleteI mean, I guess you could say, with evidence through Old Nick's mocking of Ma after he discovers her attempts at escape, that Ma's situation is the ultimate cruel twisting of the fun social activity of escape rooms. It's an interesting observations.
ReplyDeleteOk so I sorta was reminded of an escape room situation but as we continued to read I found more differences. But I still think it is a valid connection. There is the obvious difference of fun vs being trapped as a prisoner but the very general over arching ideas are similar. Escape rooms now make me squirm because I am reminded of Room and Ma in particular.
ReplyDeleteI think a key difference is that Ma's "escape room" is set up so that it's impossible (or as close to impossible as you can get) for her to escape. Normal escape rooms are set up so escape is possible, and the stakes are obviously much lower if they can't do it. The comparison is interesting though, and I hadn't thought of their situation like that before.
ReplyDeleteI mean its a room that they need to escape so its similar in that way, but otherwise i think its different because an escape room you are supposed to escape on your own through clues, but in Room they depended on Old Nick to escape.
ReplyDeleteI don't think room qualifies as an escape room. To me their are too many differences and Room more resemble a prison cell to me. Somewhere with almost no hope of escape and no clues or anything of the sort.
ReplyDelete