Rambling Heroes

I think the cutest thing for me in Room has been how Jack talks about God. He calls the sun "God's yellow face" and the moon "God's silver face," which is such a fun way to combine the idea of God creating the world and the classic drawing that gives the sun sunglasses and a smile (8; 26). Like a lot of the stuff in Room , it's not entirely clear whether Ma gave Jack these descriptions or if Jack created them himself based on his understanding of the world. Either way, it's still a fun description to read. But Jack's connections to deities don't end with the sun and the moon. Baby Jesus is thanked for every meal because food comes from him "in the fields in Outside" (80). The concept of Baby Jesus making all the food Jack ever eats in a field is a fun combination of thanking Jesus for food and a basic understanding of farms (also, it's adorable that Jack says "Baby Jesus" -- perhaps Ma explained Jesus as Baby Jesus t...

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't too fond of the reverend when he first joined the team to help Jefferson. It might have been a bit of my own prejudice against religion -- I'm not religious, so I personally can't understand the benefit of meeting with a reverend and preparing to enter heaven if you know you'll be dying soon. And Jefferson didn't seem particularly interested in meeting with the reverend, so I viewed him as more of a nuisance than anything else at the beginning of the book. If Jefferson didn't want that kind of help, why should he get it?  Besides, the reverend wasn't exactly making much progress with Jefferson. Perhaps I'm biased because we didn't really see the reverend's meetings with Jefferson, but the biggest changes we saw in Jefferson's attitude came when he was focused on being a person/man with Grant, not prepping for heaven with Reverend Ambrose. But after reading chapter 27, I've come around to the rever...