The Trap of Voyeurism: Did Donoghue Manage to Escape?

Tabloid reportage of the Fritzl case

Emma Donoghue's Room undoubtedly has its basis in the real cases of abduction and imprisonment that are reported in the news every so often. But Donoghue claims that the Fritzl case served merely as inspiration for her book, not as a guiding influence over the story: "To say Room is based on the Fritzl case is too strong. I'd say it was triggered by it. The newspaper reports of Felix Fritzl [Elisabeth's son], aged five, emerging into a world he didn't know about, put the idea into my head. That notion of the wide-eyed child emerging into the world like a Martian coming to Earth: it seized
me."

This made me feel better about the book. Thinking that it was based off one particular story, whether it was the case of Elisabeth Fritzl, the Ariel Castro kidnappings (three women were victims in this case: Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight), or one of the other well publicized kidnappings that have occured over the last fifty years, was somehow not right. It seemed to go against the main message of the book.

From the portrayal of the vulture-like press in Room, coming to take candid shots of Jack and Ma while they were not expecting it at the clinic or sending a helicopter to get photos, it is clear that the press has no right to sensationalize Ma and Jack's story. People read about the case rabidly, so interested that Jack cannot be called loudly by his own name in public places. When he is recognized by the workers in the mall, they ask for his autograph--Jack becomes famous.

Had Donoghue's book been about the Fritzl case, or about any other real-life case, she would have faced several problems. First, it is incredibly difficult to write any real person's story accurately, and such a touchy and emotional topic would have been even harder to handle. More importantly, Donoghue would have become very much like the overly-curious, somewhat morbid readers of the news stories about Ma and Jack. She would have been like the press, scurrying to capitalize on another person's miserable situation, understanding how fascinating the story would be to the public. By writing about it, she would have been sensationalizing it, and the story would not have been as powerful as it is now. Donoghue recognizes this: "I was aware that my novel, by commenting on such situations, would run the risk of falling into those traps of voyeurism, sensationalism and sentimentality...I thought it was rather honester to include discussion of media representation in the novel itself than to cling to the high moral ground by merely avoiding scenes of voyeurism, for instance." For my part, I believe that while Donoghue may not have avoided voyeurism entirely, she did, in the end, do an excellent job of 'protectiong' Ma and Jack's story, of making it more than a tabloid-like thriller.

So, a question: Would it have ruined the story to make it explicitly about the Fritzl case (specifically about the five year old son of Elisabeth Fritzl, Felix) or could that story have been told just as gracefully?