Blog Post #3: Book 1 Project: Fan Experience

Everybody, despite their background, upbringing, or current situation, gets horribly bored from time to time. It’s actually kind of ridiculous how often we can get bored with smartphones, tablets, computers, etc., but we do. In the book Room by Emma Donoghue, Jack lives in an 11 foot by 11 foot shed with his Ma, who was kidnapped at 19 by a mysterious and evil man named Old Nick. Jack, of course, doesn’t learn the truth of his situation until much later. At the beginning of the book, he has just turned 5 and doesn’t know of anything outside this shed he calls “room”. He doesn’t know about going to the park, malls, museums, or even LEGOS. So how does he keep himself preoccupied? Aside from watching TV when his mother allows it, doing physical activities, coloring, and reading, he plays with toys. Most of which he has made himself with the help of his Ma. One of these few toys is named “Eggsnake”.

                Eggsnake is exactly what it sounds like - eggshells formed in the shape of a snake. Every time Jack and his Ma eat eggs, they save the shell to put on the snake to make him longer and longer. Jack and his Ma had been building this toy since jack was three, and Jack plays with the snake a lot to pass the time. Eggsnake “lives Under Bed all coiled up”(21), keeping him and his Ma safe. Jack has many toys, but I feel that this toy is the most important because him and his Ma built it together over the course of two years.

 With Prince  JackerJack’s Kit For Eggsnake you never again have to worry about being bored! This kit will start you on your way to having the time of your life playing with a snake constructed of eggshells. The kit includes a couple eggshells, a needle, and some red string to get your snake started. As time goes on, you can keep adding to Eggsnake just like Jack and his Ma do. This item is perfect for the fans of Room who want to – in a sense – experience what Jack did. Of course, fans can’t always experience being raised for five years in a tiny shed, but playing with Jack’s toys would bring you one step closer to experiencing life as he did. There are hundreds of possibilities of what your individual snake can look like, but Jack’s snake had  “patterns on [it] from pencils or crayons or Pen or bits stuck on with flour glue, a foil crown and a yellow ribbon belt and threads and bits of tissue for hairs”(21). What his eggsnake looks like is all up to the reader’s imagination.

Building Eggsnake is simple! All you have to do is thread the needle and stick it through eggshells! Jack says that Eggsnake’s “tongue is a needle, that keeps the red thread going right through him”(21-22). Since the needle is a part of Eggsnake, it may not be safe for most children to play with. This would be a good way for fans to connect with the book because very seldom do you read a book and have the ability to buy the objects described in said book. Having Eggsnake curled up under your bed just like Jack had, will help you experience how it was to have to make the toys you play with. The only difference between you and him is that he didn’t know anything else.