Character Analysis Of Jack Torrance In 'The Shining'

Jack also engages in fights with his best friend, which at first is truly disheartening and unfair from the reader’s perspective, is later sympathized with the knowledge and understanding that it is Jacks true best shot at gaining the approval of his abusive stepfather Dwight and protecting himself. Jacks life is driven with emotional neglect and constant abuse; Dwight being the largest cause. Jack is desperate to transform himself into the masculine and happy person he wants to be, a deluded image and way of thinking that he believes will solve all his problems and hardships. Readers eventually gain the knowledge that his lies and deceit are his way of achieving this and providing him with comfort and hope as well as relief and escpae from his currently tortuous youth. ‘I couldn’t help but try to introduce new versions of myself as my interests changed, and as other versions of myself failed to persuade.’

Jack was so obsessed with the past, to begin with, due to his rough and mysterious childhood, in which he didn’t know who his true father was, why the man he thought was his father left, and his colleagues' and friends’ deaths. Learning the reasoning behind these all provide a form of closure for him. Now satisfied with his past, he resumes his work on the Cass Mastern story, this time writing a book instead of a Ph.D. dissertation, a symbol of his closure as he is finally able to come face to face with history once again. He believes he knows enough of his past to move on, and work toward new things in the future. Similarly, earlier on in the novel, on page 467, Jack’s satisfaction with the requirement of accepting his past to move on is seen when he is speaking about his moments with Anne Stanton, “I had not understood then what I think I have now come to understand: that we can keep the past only by having the future, for they are forever tied together.

When first introduced, adorned in a golden badged choir boy cap, Jack sizes up the stranded children “and peered into what to him was almost complete darkness” (20). Because of the archetypal diction used in this quote, an assumption arrises supporting the assertion of Jack as an antagonist. The archetypal references continue throughout the quote. Jack peering into darkness symbolizes ignorance towards the situation, and the negligence with which Jack will accept its importance. As a result of Jack’s negligence, the young dictator turns into a monster of instinct “and for a minute became less of a hunter than a furtive thing, ape like among the tangle of trees” (49).As opposed to Ralph’s previous perception of Jack, this description of “the new Jack” juxtaposes the choirmasters previous appearance.

Inside his own tribe, Jack does not have to adhere to the rules of Ralph’s society, allowing himself to grow as a person and find who he truly is. As he remakes himself, he physically changes his appearance so that he can be the character that he wants. Jack feels resentment towards a society with order, and as a result, he chooses to create a society with almost no

The checkered past and symbolism of the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s novel ,The Shining, reflects the characters’ pasts and influences their actions in order to show the building as more of an antagonist (of sorts) than a setting. One example of support for the claim is when Jack Torrence is having a dream after discovering the blood and bits in the Presidential suite from a gang fight years prior, where he believes that he is killing an intruder of the hotel with a mallet, but as he threw the mallet down, “the face below him was not of the intruder but of Danny’s. It was the face of his son. Then the mallet crashed home, closing his eyes forever. Suddenly Jack awoke standing over Danny’s bed, his fists clenched tightly.”

But, as the story continues, the freedom the island has gets into Jack's mind and causes him to becomes power-hungry, evil and savage. His hunger for power starts off small with comments he makes like this one he says in the beginning of the book, "I ought to be chief, because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp" (chapter 8 page 21). But the hunger for power gets out of control and he

Jack is a recovering alcoholic who struggles with his thoughts, guilt and has flashbacks about his past transgressions. Wendy is a strong character and loving wife who has blonde hair. Danny is a five year old boy who is self-reliant whose vocabulary is way beyond his year. Furthermore, Jack friend Al Shockley hires him to watch the Overlook Hotel.

“He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy,” (Golding 31). “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages,” (Golding 42). (Ch)This is the turning point for Jack in the novel.

First of all, in Lord of the Flies, William Golding demonstrates selfishness from the theme of power. Power is one of the factors that can make people express their selfishness. In Lord of the Flies of William Golding, boys decide to elect their leader who will earn the power to control the group of boys. At the beginning of the story, Ralph is chosen to be the leader of the boys, while Jack is appointed to be the leader of the hunter. Jack and his hunters think that they are the special group of boys because they have the most significant duty.

Jack’s conflicts with humanity and himself heavily contributed to his corruption and the downfall of the society on the island. Throughout the time on the island Jack became motivated by jealousy and hatred. Ever since the very first day on the island, Jack has been jealous of Ralph. Jack’s resentment towards Ralph grew as the time on the island did.

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

Human behaviors are easy to be changed by the experiences and environment. As the time passes by, the changed behaviors can be worse or better than before. However, most people become worse because of the specific experiences in their life time. In Lord of the Flies, the changes of behavior are occurred obviously in the characters of Jack, Roger, and Ralph.

Although to begin with he may be a loving father to Danny, he still has some anger built up within himself. After moving into the hotel, he gradually begins to become more irritable with people interrupting him while he is working in the main lobby. At the same time Jack is writing his book, he appears to be seen in a red sweater, that once was worn by the previous caretaker who murdered his family at the Overlook hotel. Jack becomes overwhelmed by the isolation, in which he begins to change into the psychopath killer. The film would drag on with no change in a character, to make the movie

The want for power strengthens and his hunger increases, but what he was unaware of was the fact that he was destroying his own mind. He was brainwashed by his surroundings to think that in that situation, it was acceptable. Jack’s evilness has officially broken everyone's norms on the island. These young boys have been exposed to the wild and this has destroyed the minds’ of these kids and has turned the kids into

Golding characterises Jack as the primary representation of the instinct of violence through the use of a beast metaphor. In extract one from chapter one, Jack is not given a name, instead Golding describes him as a “creature steed from mirage on to clear sand”(line3,page15,chp.1). Jack’s first appearance and impression to the readers is