The Shining: Jack Torrance Story
The Shining is about a man That wants a job at a hotel as a head custodian, Jack Torrance becomes wintercaretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer’s block. He settles in alongwith his wife, Wendy, and his son, Danny, who is plagued by psychic feelings. As Jack’s writing goesnowhere and Danny’s visions become more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel’s dark secrets and beginsto unravel into a homicidal maniac content on terrorizing his family.
One of the central uncertainties of The Shining is whether Jack goes mad or is possessed by the evils of the hotel. Wendy tells the doctorwho comes to see Danny after his first vision about Jack’s history of alcoholism and accidental violencetowards Danny. Later, we see that Jack’s resentment of Wendy for failing to forgive him for suchmistakes, and for holding him back from his destiny as a successful writer, were present long before thefamily’s move to the haunted Overlook Hotel. However, the hotel’s ability to ‘shine,’ as Dick Hallorannputs it, also seems to push Jack over the edge, suggesting that he is not going mad but rather is possessedby the traumatized spirits of the hotel’s past. This conclusion is supported by the increasingly realpresence of the hotel’s ghosts, beginning with Jack’s first encounter with Lloyd, the Gold Room bartenderof yore, and Climaxing in Wendy’s hustle through the hotel at the end of the film, wherein she finally seeswhat
Jack and Danny have seen throughout the film: the hotel’s partying skeletons, the Grady twins, andthe bloody elevator. This theme is discussed directly when Dick Hallorann confronts Danny about theirshared ability to ‘shine.’ When Danny asks Dick if something bad happened at the hotel, Dick tellsDanny that some events in the past leave marks on a place like when ‘someone burns toast.
‘ This works as an extended metaphor throughout the film as the hotel’s past infects Jack’s psyche. This occurs inproportion to Jack’s fascination with the hotel’s ‘good old days,’ when the Gold Room’s stylish partiesgave the hotel its luxurious reputation. This fascination becomes fantasy when Jack visits Lloyd at the barand witnesses an exuberant ball being thrown in the Gold Room.
In conclusion The Shining is a horror-based book on the mind and actions of Jack Torrance, and how he reacts to the true evils of thehotel. How he affects the people around him. Also how he responds to the obstacles of the hotel as well.Jack reacts all to all of this by going psycho and trying to murder his family. Nobody knows whether jackwas going psycho because of the darkness he was experiencing, or the evil of the hotel.
