The Shining Analysis

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The Shining is Stephen King’s third novel published in 1977, two years after Salem’s Lot, and three years after his debut in 1974 with Carrie. Stephen Edwin King (born 1947) started his career as a 26-year-old, and has now, 41 years later, sold more than 350 million copies worldwide. Multiple films based on his novels have become box-office successes; some of these include The Shawshank Redemption, Misery and The Green Mile. The psychological horror story, which is the genre best defining The Shining, starts with Jack’s job interview at the Overlook Hotel, far up in the Rocky Mountains. Meanwhile his wife and child is waiting for him at their small home in Boulder, Colorado, silently suppressing their opinion about the ongoing hiring. Nevertheless,…show more content…
His reason to stop drinking was understandable. Jack had been drinking, and came home drunk, as he often did, and found that Danny had spilled a drink on his writings, leaving them unreadable. Jack lost his temper and as he grabbed Danny, he heard a sharp sound similar to the one of breaking a pencil, as his toddler son’s arm broke. Since that day, Jack had not drank a drop of alcohol. Nevertheless, it did not make the withdrawal any lighter on him. The Excedrin pills triggered a familiar high comparable to the one he used to get when drinking. However, along with this came other old habits and behaviours. One thing that kept occurring to the family was the illusion of a party in the ballroom, in which Jack had become a regular guest. The thought ‘(and the red death held sway over all)’ occurs to Jack every time the clock in the ballroom hits 12. The snapping point for Jack was at one of these parties. He was drunk, even though the hotel was dry as a bone; this shows the gap between reality and illusion is growing thin. He talked to Grady, the previous (murderous) caretaker, who convinced a drunk and easily manipulated Jack into killing his…show more content…
Tony appears when Danny is thinking very hard, and as Danny faints in to the schizophrenia-like hallucination, he recognises a familiar voice saying: ‘“Danny… Dannee…”’. One example: Jack was at his job interview and Wendy was asleep, as Danny got a visit from a dear friend, as he often did when he was bored, only this time; it was far from a friendly visit. As his not so innocent, invisible playmate showed Danny frightening sights of a monster chasing Danny down what seemed to be an endless corridor, as he kept hearing the word ‘REDRUM’. At the time of the vision, he did not know what it meant, though he sensed it was far from good. He would later understand, as he read it backwards, though when he did understand the message, it was too late to

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