One aspect of the first few chapters of Room that stood out to me was the sort of twisted smartness that Old Nick was described with. Although most criminals would be smart enough to trick someone unknowing into getting into their car. It seems sort of strange that he would be willing to go to such lengths just to kidnap someone. The two situations that this would be realistic in would be if it was just a plot device to make Jack have to be the one who helped get out, or if he took pride in planning everything out and being able to utilize all his tools.
In terms of why he is smart, we see this first in terms of his renovations to the shed. He puts basically a foot of soundproof padding in, along with all the necessities for daily life and some more including a tv. He seems to take into account that the mental health of the person he kidnaps has to be sort of stable or none of this would be worth it, but we don't really know his motivations. The garden shed also has the fence so that you couldn't cut your way out of it and other protections including the door lock.
In addition to the physical restrictions that Nick has placed on these people, he also has a strong mental grasp on Ma and many cards to play if they try to deceive him or revolt against their capture. He can starve them, cut off the electricity, and not bring them and food or other necessities. He is also much stronger physically than the undernourished victims as can be seen in how Ma's wrist gets broken after she tries to overpower him. With Jack in the equation, the threat of him getting hurt is also a card that Nick can play and something that Ma is very worried about. He never really has to play this card, but the fact that it is there is such a large factor in how he keeps them in check. Ma is in such a state that she basically needs Jack to stay mentally functioning, and although Nick probably doesn't want her in a suicidal state, shes want Jack to stay alive and with her more than she thinks about Nick objectives and the fact that Nick would probably not hurt Jack to a very severe extent.
All of these above factor coupled with Nick also trying to get favor with Jack in some ways, as with the jeep, paint a very complex picture of the victims relationship with their captor. Although Nick is definitely in the wrong, he seems to be able to think through enough that he doesn't get caught until Ma uses Jack to outsmart him.
In terms of why he is smart, we see this first in terms of his renovations to the shed. He puts basically a foot of soundproof padding in, along with all the necessities for daily life and some more including a tv. He seems to take into account that the mental health of the person he kidnaps has to be sort of stable or none of this would be worth it, but we don't really know his motivations. The garden shed also has the fence so that you couldn't cut your way out of it and other protections including the door lock.
In addition to the physical restrictions that Nick has placed on these people, he also has a strong mental grasp on Ma and many cards to play if they try to deceive him or revolt against their capture. He can starve them, cut off the electricity, and not bring them and food or other necessities. He is also much stronger physically than the undernourished victims as can be seen in how Ma's wrist gets broken after she tries to overpower him. With Jack in the equation, the threat of him getting hurt is also a card that Nick can play and something that Ma is very worried about. He never really has to play this card, but the fact that it is there is such a large factor in how he keeps them in check. Ma is in such a state that she basically needs Jack to stay mentally functioning, and although Nick probably doesn't want her in a suicidal state, shes want Jack to stay alive and with her more than she thinks about Nick objectives and the fact that Nick would probably not hurt Jack to a very severe extent.
All of these above factor coupled with Nick also trying to get favor with Jack in some ways, as with the jeep, paint a very complex picture of the victims relationship with their captor. Although Nick is definitely in the wrong, he seems to be able to think through enough that he doesn't get caught until Ma uses Jack to outsmart him.
I think that there is no denying that Nick is smart in a villanous way, but he also seems so gullible when he let's Jack escape. Given that he had taken all of those precautions that you described, it seems uncharacteristic of him to be so uncautious about the dead Jack, and he doesn't even check to make sure Jack is dead before carrying him out! Perhaps he has some emotional attachment to Ma which clouds his villanous intellect, because she is crying and demanding that Old Nick doesn't look at the body?
ReplyDeleteI think he's just so completely shocked by such a sudden development that his brain more or less shuts down and goes into autopilot. I was pleasantly surprised that Ma's insanely dangerous plan managed to work so well, but I suppose after seven years she would definitely be able to work out exactly the subtle chinks in Old Nick's armor. She knew what she was doing more than he did.
DeleteI agree with what Andy is saying here. I think that anyone would be pretty shocked if something like this happened. He has been in the same situation for 6 or 7 years and nothing has ever really gone wrong that he couldn't plan for. I think that he probably thought that nothing could happen that he wouldn't be able to solve because so far nothing has really happened and he was comfortable with the situation so he just didn't know how to deal with it.
DeleteI definitely agree with Ben. He's very smart, and pre-cautious in terms of the kid-napping. I would say however that his one big achilles heel is that he likes to play the beleaguered husband with Ma and this gives her a certain power over him. It's for this reason that she is able to convince him to not burry Jack in the backyard. Ole Nick definitely put himself in a situation where he had all of the cards in his hand, but by getting emotionally connected to Ma he relinquished some of his power to her.
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