Stephen King's Insight To The Supernatural: The Shining And Carrie

Stephen King’s Insight to the Supernatural: The Shining and Carrie Stephen King is often known for his horror stories and sometimes the source of that horror is supernatural. Two stories that deal with the supernatural written by Stephen King are The Shining and Carrie. The Shining follows one man’s journey to insanity. In the 1970’s Jack Torrance and his family spend the winter in the Overlook hotel in Colorado. Due to the hotel’s isolation from the rest of the world, Jack begins to see and hear things that are not there. The family is only saved after the son Danny uses his mind powers to communicate with the outside world to get help. Carrie on the other hand is about a teenage girl living in Maine in 1979 who is always picked on. When Carrie goes to prom, a group of kids dump a bucket of blood on her, which causes Carrie to go crazy. Carrie then uses her telekinesis powers to get revenge. By writing two different stories, King shows that although supernatural powers can be

Jack Torrance was never a perfect man, but he never would have tried to kill his family if it were not for supernatural elements. Jack had been violent before he went to the hotel “ … that was when he had grabbed Danny’s hand and bent it … Danny had cried out a little… no … no … tell the truth he screamed”, but after breaking Danny’s arm, Jack completely changes by giving up alcohol (The Shining 23). At the hotel Jack is fine until he starts to see things quote. The ghost convince him to go after his son; “‘ But you must deal with him.’ I will.’ ‘ Firmly.’ ‘ I will’”( 521). Danny powers of shining, the ability to read others minds and to connect telepathy with others, does save him and his mother, however they would never be in that situation if it was not for supernatural powers in the first place, since Jack would not have got crazy and hurt his family if he had not seen supernatural