The Overlook Hotel By Stephen King Sparknotes

Yesenia Erazo-Tequianes

Pulsfort

Honors Western Literature

21 May 2023

Transformational Journey

Throughout the short time Jack, Wendy, and Danny spent at the Overlook Hotel, Stephen King illustrated worldview topics that people presently face today. In his novel, The Shining, The Torrance Family undergo supernatural events that only highlight the families’ pre-existing internal struggles. The novel unveils many hidden connotations as the horror novel progresses, leading the reader to compare the struggles faced by the characters to those of their own. As the story advances, the seemingly average family eventually exposes their hidden struggles which eventually leads to their demise. The question of the extent to which these struggles can

As he has another hallucinate episode where he envisions his friend, Tony, he is faced with another puzzling piece of information. Tony repeats, “This inhuman place makes human monsters. This inhuman place makes human monsters”. Tony was referring to the Overlook Hotel as the inhuman place, but it left me as the reader analyzing this idea in relation to my own life. I remember thinking about a famous psychologist, Zimardo, who theorized that people sometimes do bad things based on situations. As the Torrance family underwent the paranormal hotel activities, they were driven to behave in ways they never would have imagined. I questioned the ways in which the places I go through in my life might be subconsciously affecting the ways in which I too behave. Although Stephen King dramatically, and unrealistically, portrayed these thoughts through the actions of Danny, Jack, and Wendy, similar and much less dramatic parallels are seen in my own life. I thought about the ways in which I am the product of my own environment. The effects of the people I am around, the school I go to, and the choices I make daily all impact the person I choose to be. Evidently, Tony’s point that “this inhuman place makes human monsters” can thus be understood on a much smaller scale when compared to the everyday life of people today, myself

Wendy struggled with her marriage, Danny with his metaphysical mind, and Jack with his Alcoholism, all of which the Overlook Hotel attempted to meddle with. Eventually, the obstacles became too much for the family and caused them to behave in shocking ways after feeling that they could not overcome the internal and external battles they were facing. This feeling was seen in Jack when he softly said, “I can’t win (416) “. At this point in the novel, Jack had felt so helpless with his life and the uncertainty of what would happen if he lost his job that he felt everything was out of his control. This thought was easily compared to my own life, when I thought about situations in my life where I also felt that no matter how hard I tried, I would not be able to come out on top and succeed. This idea is also present in the world, as people as a whole also experience this feeling of learned helplessness. Although at the moment it seems as though there is no winning in the situation, Jack, and the rest of the world in general, eventually see that there is a solution, even if not plainly