The Shining Essay, Research Paper

When Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic, was hired to be the caretaker for the Overlook for the winter, he thought it would change the lives of his wife, Wendy, his son, Danny, and his own. He was right. The unusual happenings and sinister forces they faced in the Overlook would change their lives forever. They tormented the Torrance family.

The forces first struck Danny. In a daydream, Tony, his imaginary friend, brought him to the hotel, showing Danny the bad things that go on there. Danny is psychic and is able to see things before and while they happen. For example, when Jack came home from an interview, Danny saw a bloody mallet in the front seat in the car. When the family reaches the hotel, and was taking a tour with the janitor, Danny saw blood everywhere in an old room. One night, Danny was talking with his mom when he saw in blood writing on the wall. The word was RED RUM. As he looked away, the word appeared on the window. While in the hotel, voices called for him and tried to lure Danny into a room, Room 217. As entered the room, the door closed by itself behind him. As he explored the room and entered the bathroom, Danny noticed that there was a woman in the tub behind the shower curtain. Then, Danny ran to the door of the room, but it wouldn t open. The woman got out of the tub and came after him. Just as Danny got out of the room, the dead woman grabs him and pulls him back in. After that horrendous event, Danny was bruised but alive. While he was playing in the snow, the snow fell off the shrub animals and they started coming after the oblivious Danny. When he looked behind him, the animals were back to their original positions. Once again, he saw the word RED RUM, but this time he also saw the word MURDER. In later scenes, Danny was hiding from Jack when a ghost appeared in front of him with a shotgun and then just disappeared. The next family member to be haunted by the vile forces was Jack.

It all began with Jack s struggle with alcohol. That would come back to haunt him literally! While Jack was looking at an old photo album, a noise startled him. The noise was people yelling at each other. When shoveling the driveway of the Overlook, Jack heard the sound of snow fall off something. He looked back and saw that the snow was brushed off the shrub animals. The animals started to chase after Jack. As he ran to the steps of the hotel, the animals were back to their original positions. Jack went inside and went into the hotel office. There, a voice came from the CB radio in the office. It was the voice of his dead father. If that wasn t scary enough, the radio was not turned on! After the incident with Danny and Room 217, Jack went to see what was in that room. As he went into the room, with mallet in hand, then into the bathroom, he saw the woman behind the shower curtain. He dropped the mallet and sprinted out the door. After that, he went back to where Wendy and Danny were. Those two had decided that they wanted to leave the Overlook. Jack, at first, refused, but decided that they were right. In the shed, he looked for the snowmobile and found it. On the seat was a little note (from the manager) and the mallet. The note said that he must not go because he is the caretaker. He sided with the manager and took the engine from the snowmobile so no one could leave. Now that Jack was preoccupied with his job and the ghost situation, this was where his drinking problem came up. He wanted to relax, so he went to the Colorado Room. There, he saw, what he thought was, the solution. He saw liquor behind the bar. After a few drinks, he was relaxed. That s when he saw his first ghost while at the hotel. His name was Grady. He was making Jack drink more and more. When Jack looked up, Grady was gone, but he saw men and women (ghosts) all around him in the mirror. Grady appeared again, asking Jack if he wanted a drink before going to the ballroom. As he entered the ballroom, he saw many people in costumes. There was an old band with Stephen King as the conductor. Everyone was a ghost. A woman came up to Jack and started putting the moves on him. At one point her mouth became all wrinkled, in the eyes of Jack, but the wrinkles went away. As the two danced Jack looked in the mirror and saw what she really looked like; dead and creepy. Jack was imagining the party. He wake up in the middle of the room dancing by myself. Grady appeared and told Jack to get rid of Wendy and Danny. When Grady disappeared Jack saw a wolf mask and under it was a bottle of liquor. The ghosts began leaving bottles of the hard stuff everywhere. While in the freezer (where Wendy and Danny put him after they whacked him over the head with a bottle), Jack talked to Grady on trying to get out of it. When he got free from the freezer, Jack went after Wendy with the croquet mallet. He started pushing her and hitting her with the mallet. She got free and threw a croquet ball she found, which broke Jack s nose and killed him. Now he was one of the undead. Once again Grady appeared and told Jack that he had to end this. Jack came to the room where he and his family was staying. He broke down the doors in the room to get to Wendy. While doing this, he heard the voice of Dick, the cook. Dick was also psychic and Danny called him to come help them. Jack hits Dick with the mallet but doesn t kill him. Just then, the manager appeared and told Jack that Danny should be killed first. Jack came after Danny yelling his name and saying that it was time to take his medicine. Danny talked to Jack, trying to bring the good Jack back. Jack tricked Danny into thinking that he was all better, but he wasn t. Grady and the manager said that Jack forgot to check the boiler but there was still a chance to save it. As Danny, Wendy, and Dick escaped from the Overlook, Danny used his power to tell Jack that it wasn t right to save the hotel. Having heard this, Jack blew up the boiler, blowing up the Overlook and all the ghosts (and himself) in the process.

Even before they made their presence known to the Torrances, the ghosts made subtle hints during the film. Many doors closed by themselves but the characters didn t know. When the family was inside eating, a double rocking chair started rocking on its own. As Jack and Wendy went into the kitchen, the cash register on the front desk went KA-CHING, as if it was ringing something up. When Jack was in the yard, a seesaw was moving up and down. When the lights in the hotel flickered, the family thought nothing of it, but the audience knew something bad was going to happen. All these happenings can be summed up in two words. They are DRAMATIC IRONY. That is when the reader, or in this case, watcher is aware of something the character(s) is not.

Throughout the film, many strange happenings occurred that seriously changed the lives of Wendy, Danny, and Dick who were at the Overlook. The sinister forces that tormented these fine people were supposedly kill(if you can say that) when the Overlook was blown up. But thanks to the people of Colorado, The Overlook Hotel will be rebuilt on the same land. So, I guess you can say that the Overlook Lives!!!