Book Report: The Shining by Stephen King

The title The Shining is a very strange one to say at least. The Shining has been mentioned throughout the story. The Shining is basically the power/ability that Danny has that can help him see certain things or fright him. The Shining relates to Danny’s supernatural ability to read the minds of others and the only way he can talk to his imaginary friend.The author of The Shining is Stephen King, the genre of the book is psychological horror, horror, gothic novel. The events of The Shining happen at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado from September 30 through December 3rd. Which the Overlook Hotel is inspired by the Stanley Hotel. Stephen King himself also stayed in the Stanley Hotel during his visit he got the inspiration to write the book The Shining that he would later be published in 1977 and 3 years after in 1980 The Shining had a theatrical release.

The story follows the Torrence family as they settle in Jack’s new job at the Overlook Hotel. Jack (Father), Wendy (Mother), Danny (Son) Dick Hallorann is an employee of the Overlook hotel when it’s in the operating season. Delbert Grady was the caretaker of the hotel before Jack. Grady worked at the hotel 5 years before but during the interview Jack was informed that the last caretaker killed his family with a hatchet but Grady eventually killed himself with a shotgun. Jack was fired from his old job back home at Covington.,' Danny said candidly, 'my daddy got fired from his teaching job and that's why we're in Colorado, I guess.' (King pg 59) Jack didn’t have a job anymore but being the caretaker of the hotel was the job he can land but there was a fair warning during the interview that would foreshadow the events that are to come.

The more time that passes at the Overlook Hotel. Danny and Wendy begin to notice that Jack’s everyday behavior is changing and it's not any good. As time passes Jack descends into insanity. Wendy notices that her Jack’s drinking habits begin to come back and that Jack is getting rather violent and causing him to lose his cool easily. Wendy is determined that it was Jack who hurt Danny again, as he did two years prior in a drunken rage when Danny accidentally ruined a bit of his work. Their history of bad times in their marriage and bad experiences causes Jack and Wendy to destroy the relationship between them. As the family is in the hotel severe snow made them stay inside thus making the family isolated from the world outside of the hotel. An internal conflict is Tony because he creates the episodes that Danny goes into, even though they do help him see things. It's like an eye that looks into the future either showing great fortune like when they took Danny to the amusement park for his birthday. The looking eye Danny has also showed him great despair that scared him immensely, that is what Dick calls The Shining.

Danny is seeing multiple awful dreams from the shining. His imaginary friend Tony keeps showing him what bad things are going to happen. Everything is getting worse. Danny and Wendy are hoping that Dick Hallorann to come to the hotel immediately, but he is having many difficulties to get through the awful storm that has slightly delayed his flight. Jack has now become a lunatic because the previous caretaker Grady has complete influence over Jack. The only way the hotel could get Danny is if Jack killed him, and that is what he was going to do. One afternoon, Danny was hiding because Jack was chasing him armed with a roque mallet. Jack also seems to have to be influenced by past guests of the hotel and hallucinates that there are people there and talks to people who aren’t there. Jack really believed he was talking to a man named Grady for reals but it wasn’t real at all. Grady influenced Jack to finally carry out the killing of Wendy and Danny just like what Grady did to his daughter’s with a hatchet and a shotgun for his wife and himself.

The climax occurs when Jack is fully possessed and makes the decision that he must murder Wendy and Danny. Using a roque mallet. A couple of nights before Jack and Wendy were in a bit of a fight in which Jack got a couple of good blows on Wendy and she hits Jack back, but that night if it wasn’t for getting a good hit to knock Jack out Wendy most likely would’ve been dead. The family did not have much time on their hands if Dick was stuck in a delay during air travel or a crash alone could’ve sealed the fate for the family. However, due to his timely arrival, Jack could not finish the job. While Dick leads Jack's wife and son away from the Overlook, the boiler blew because of the collected steam that Jack had forgotten to empty.'The boiler!' Danny screamed. 'It hasn't been dumped since this morning! It's going up! It's going to explode!'. If Jack found Danny, he would’ve beaten him down with a mallet until he was dead. The same can be said for Wendy but due to Dick arriving at the nick of time to save them, they were available to see the sunrise over them again.

The conflict has not really been solved as now the family has to deal with reality and how the future is going to play out. This was Jack's last attempt at killing Wendy and Danny. Jack died in the explosion, but everyone else got out safely. Wendy and Danny now live without a husband/father, and Hallorann got a job as a chef at a different hotel. Every summer, Wendy and Danny come to the hotel to visit him. Their lives would never be the same, and they had many horrifying images of the hotel. They struggle to keep those horrifying images out of their heads, and the rest of their lives were affected daily. As that day was just a new as it has just begun Jack failed to maintain the boiler so as soon as the elevator fell Jack could’ve survived the fall, but the explosion was the finishing blow to Jack. Words turned into a shriek of triumph, and the shriek was swallowed in a shattering roar as the Overlook's boiler exploded. (King pg 297) Dick’s timely arrival to the hotel saved Danny’s and Wendy’s life. Jack’s failure to maintain the boiler caused him to lose his life while in the pursuit to take the life of his wife and son.

The book calmed down in terms of action, as Wendy and Danny made it out of the Hotel before the explosion that claimed Jack. They had their coats and rode off with Dick Hallorann on a snowboard. Hallorann and Danny and Wendy reached them fifteen minutes later. They would escape and watch the hotel explode, while relieved that the nightmare is over. It's summertime about 2 years have passed since the hotel incident when he was 5. Danny will be turning 7 pretty soon. Wendy, Danny, and Dick Hallorann enjoyed a summer evening as what it seems to be at a lake or river having a swell time fishing as an avid fisher would have with their own child. Wendy, Danny, and Dick miss Jack but they are relieved that the nightmare at the overlook hotel is over. They all sit down beside Danny as he’s reeling in a catch slowly, as Dick, as it seems, is giving a little lesson. The three characters sit on the dock grazing in the afternoon sun, looking into what possibly to future can uphold for the three of them.

Danny Torrance is a unique and overall smart kid for his age with a great gift. He is also the protagonist of the book. He loves his father so much and thinks the highest of him and believes he’ll change into the best father he can be. Danny has a special ability, Dick calls 'The shining.' This power comes out through Tony, who helps Danny see visions of events that can possibly happen in the future. By the end of the novel Danny eventually comes to terms with Tony and the reality of his father. The shining is a unique power that allows you to see into the future and read minds. However, the shining ends up being a curse for the whole Torrance family at the Overlook Hotel. I believe that Danny is the main character because he has a special insight that Dick insights that’s it's called the shining, its kinda like a vision sort of thing and is well to Dick a blessing in disguise a great and unique gift.

Jack Torrance is a character in which you see his problems set into place that develops him to become the antagonist of the book. At the beginning of the novel, he is a sober, loving father and husband, who is just looking for work. All Jack wants to do is take care of Wendy and especially Danny. He wants to be the best father he can, and control his temper, to not end up like his father. When Jack takes the job to be the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, He begins to be his old self and begin his terrible habits. As weeks pass on the isolation of the hotel and how Grady has been influencing him slowly drives Jack into insanity.

My favorite character in the story is Wendy Torrance because she is a very dependent wife and a loving mother to Danny. When Jack takes the job at the Overlook hotel. Jack wouldn’t be a drunken mess but instead a loving caring husband. At the hotel, she does her daily duties that a housewife will do like clean and do laundry also being loving and caring to make sure that Jack is focused on when he is at work. Wendy becomes very independent and tries to take matters into her own hands when Danny is in danger or is in need of care. Wendy is very caring and is a perfect motherly figure just as she calms Danny down after a nightmare. Wendy is a perfect motherly figure looking out and only giving Danny the best she can and offering great care to him.

All three members of the Torrance family believed they had responsibilities to do, when at the end that was what hurt their relationships. For example, Jack was hired to take care of the hotel. Hiring Jack to the hotel was a responsibility he couldn’t run away from. The Overlook Hotel was a responsibility Jack had to take on since he did lose his previous job and of course he needs to bring home money to support his family. Towards the end of the story, it was his attachment to the hotel and how Grady influenced jack that made him attack his family. This shows that taking care of the hotel was a responsibility they couldn’t ignore, but at the end of it all, the Overlook Hotel hurt the Torrance family greatly.

I would totally recommend my friends to read to what I believe is Stephen King's best work. When I read the book after a long time I really got into reading it I struggled to put the book down and the hesitation to stop doing classwork and read the book during class, in which I know I shouldn’t be doing that cause well I could be missing out on valuable class time and miss out on notes that I will need to copy down in order to do well in my test or quiz. The book is very thrilling as the suspense builds up and tension rise between Jack’s psychological thinking. My friends may enjoy the book due to the fact they enjoy Stephen King's other brilliant storytelling like the book IT.

Works Cited

• King, Stephen. “The Shining (Novel).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_(novel)#cite_note-companion-5.
• Shmoop Editorial Team, Shmoop. “The Shining What's Up With the Title?” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/shining-stephen-king/title.html. Wiki, Stephen King. “The Stanley Hotel.” Stephen King Wiki, stephenking.fandom.com/wiki/The_Stanley_Hotel.
• King, Stephen. “The Stanley Hotel.” The Shining Pdf, 2009, businessbuildersbanquet.com/software/shining.pdf.
• Shmoop Editorial Team, Shmoop. “The Shining Setting.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008,
• Johnson, Megan. “The Shining.” Prezi.com, 1 Apr. 2014, prezi.com/yqagffiufakh/the-shining/.
• Weebly.com, Weebly. “Themes.” The Shining, theshiningnovel.weebly.com/themes.html.
• Centner, Bob. “The Shining Book Report.” Prezi.com, 31 Mar. 2014, prezi.com/9agyzb_rteg1/the-shining-book-report/.
• “The Shining (Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_(film).