ipl-logo

The Shining Research Paper

1371 Words6 Pages

The horror genre is typically defined as a genre of fiction whose purpose is to create a feeling of fear, repulsion, or disgust in the reader. Although common, horror is not always brought about by gore and blood. The Shining is the fictional story of Jack Torrance and his family as they spend the winter in the Overlook Hotel. He struggles with instability which causes other issues regarding his family’s safety. Stephen King’s work embodies a more realistic approach to traditional horror; he uses blood and gore but also brings in real-life problems that many readers can relate to. This untraditional approach to a very traditional genre is different, yet highly effective. In The Shining, King creates terror by highlighting real-life issues …show more content…

Jack’s son Danny is subject to his abusive behaviors caused by alcohol and rage. Also, it comes from past trauma in Jack’s life, as his father was a raging alcoholic and abused him as well (Hornbeck). At the beginning of the novel, Wendy explains that, in a drunken rage, Jack hits Danny, causing him to break his arm (King). As well as being physically injured, Danny is also psychologically damaged by these actions. Because of Danny’s shining abilities, he knows what is going on in his father’s mind, but doesn’t know the reasons why; this causes confusion for an innocent child. Avinger states, “Painfully, Danny is torn between his love of Jack the good father and his fear of Jack the punishing father guided by the hotel” (5259). This also contributes to King’s ideas about the characters roles. In this moment, readers feel sympathy for Danny, as he is confused by his father’s actions. However, some readers may feel sympathy for Jack, as he can’t control his actions because he was possessed by the hotel. Later, King explains that the reason Jack was fired from his previous job was because he assaulted a child after getting into an altercation with him, so the reader’s feelings towards Jack become negative again. Readers tone towards Jack may change however when Jack allows Danny to place a wasp’s nest in his bedroom, knowing there would be no way to get him to a doctor if we would’ve been stung (King Chap. 15). This negligence, although it may not be purposeful, is an extreme case of child

Show More
Related
798 Words | 4 Pages

Even at that age Jack felt as if his life is over “The pediatrician smiled like he got off destroying a child’s life…like children frequently went to sleep and woke up monsters who couldn’t keep their damn bodies still” (1). Jack often blames his biological father James Keegan who he inherited his “cursed” genes from, as a person with Tourette’s “Has a 50% chance of passing that disorder to their offspring” (raredieseases.info). Tourette’s is a disorder that is for life and cannot be treated currently and so jack having felt that he will never be accepted is mistrusting of others and

Read More
1063 Words | 5 Pages

One of the most common themes in horror literature is fear; fear of the unknown, fear of the powerful, fear of death, and more. There are so many aspects that pertain to something being fearful. Often the time period plays a huge role in this as well. There also are many different stigmas of what “fear” is in each time period. This creates a different meaning of “fear” in each story, as each story is unique and has many different factors like time period influencing what exactly is conderied fearful.

Read More
916 Words | 4 Pages

The door was locked. Does Jack have the ability to “shine”? Could be as he is able to talk to Grady and be released by Grady from a locked storage room. Or could it be Danny have so much power the hotel “comes to

Read More
1044 Words | 5 Pages

Danny's early life

Read More
621 Words | 3 Pages

Jack is to uncover his past traumas. The loneliness of the Hotel uncovered his alcoholism and his traumas. Along with this came his violent tendencies. In the book we hear from Wendy that Jack has a history of violence. She retells of a time where Jack had pulled Danny’s arm so hard that it had dislocated his shoulder.

Read More
158 Words | 1 Pages

King was not impressed by Kubrick’s intellectual approach to the material. He considers it as “a film by a man who thinks too much and feels too little.” King’s novel is a multiple perspective narrative that switches between interior monologues of Jack, Wendy, and Danny, as they wonder in isolation at The Overlook Hotel. King acts as the omniscient narrator, so readers follow the evolution of the family’s exasperations, despondencies, and nightmares. King’s The Shining is composed mostly of the traditional hauntings: shadows from the past, residual caretakers, and a corpse in the bathtub.

Read More
1444 Words | 6 Pages

In all three texts, the parent’s lives have been drowned in alcohol because it is a way for them to cope with their own issues in life. However, their child is deeply affected by this because of the toxic relationship that they and their parent shares. When the child is older, they struggle with their dark memories but eventually finds understanding and a sort of forgiveness to their past. In The Shining, Jack is aided by alcohol to control himself as he believes because at times there is a urning to lash out and hurt his family. His way of helping himself only results in him physically hurting his three-year-old son Danny, by breaking his arm.

Read More
651 Words | 3 Pages

Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic and drug user, struggles to keep his family happy. He accepts a job as a hotel caretaker, hoping that the time alone with his family will help their relationship. Throughout the novel, flashbacks return the reader to the days when Jack was in his stupors, and when he was having his binge sessions. While

Read More
361 Words | 2 Pages

Stephen King had read horror stories and seen horror movies while he was a child which created a spark in the writing. The most commenly asked question for Stephen king is “Why do you write scary stories?”, which is actually a question he is not a fan of. King read many scary stories which added

Read More
1034 Words | 5 Pages

Jack is a very traditional man, and any shift, in both his home and his family’s values, could mean even more of a loss of control for

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
397 Words | 2 Pages

Stephen King is considered the greatest writer of frightfulness fiction, to obtain his target of leading us into the

Read More
885 Words | 4 Pages

Parents teach children, to treat others the way they would want to be treated, and at times they forget. But if no one points it out, what they did wrong and no one stops it, it is not going to get better. Jack is an example of how he did not care about anyones feeling but his own, and he feels no remorse of hurting anyones feelings, because of his mask. People teach children at a very young age to remember who they are, like names and addresses, so if they forget who they are and where they are from they, they can still remember who they are . Percival is one child who forgets who he is and where he is from.

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

Unlike other movies, The Shining forms its horror through psychic power. One of the most important example would be Danny’s supernatural ability to “shine”. Danny's ability to "shine" was a main reason that cause Jack getting insane and the supernatural events to happened in the hotel. This ability “shine” is what brings the hotel to life. Shine was an powerful ability and reason that brings all the scary event and ghost in the hotel, which they are able to materialize themselves due to the “shine”.

Read More
720 Words | 3 Pages

This is until Jack’s interaction, that is. Inside the Gold Room, Jack meets a bartender with whom he shares his troubles with. Though the man seems rather friendly, the only off-putting factor of this scene is his presence at all, considering that the family is supposed to be alone. Then, when the mother enters the room in hysteria about another person being in the hotel, the bartender disappears. In fact, the mother is the only character in the family that fails to interact with a “spirit" within the film, meaning that both Jack and Danny have the shining—Jack just does not know how to control it.

Read More

More about The Shining Research Paper

Related Topics

Open Document