Stephen King The Shining Analysis

In almost all films and novels of any genre, evil does not and cannot triumph. This is the case in both “Jekyll and Hyde” and “The Shining” wherein evil is represented as a force that ultimately causes its own demise. Both antagonists commit suicide due to being overcome by their better nature. In “The Shining” Jack Torrance is on the verge of murdering his son, until “the face in front of him changed” and “the mallet began to rise and descend, destroying the last of Jack Torrance’s image”. This suggests that violent people meet violent ends.

Overlooking Sanity Can isolation be the cause of losing one’s sanity, or could there be other reasons? The film “The Shining” shows how this question can be answered. In 1980, Stanley Kubrick produced a film recognized as one of the best horror films of all time. The main character is Jack Torrance alongside his family, Wendy and Danny. As they take care of the “Overlook” hotel, Jack starts turning into a psychopath and lose his sanity by the day.

“Identity cannot be found or fabricated, but emerges from within when one has the courage to let go”- by Doug Cooper. Circumstances, experiences and society are factors in an individual’s life which contribute to the formation of their identity. Identity is not found, instead, it’s made by conflicts, hurdles, societal pressures and obstacles in one’s life which come together in harmony to create one’s identity in its purest form. How individuals act and respond to challenging circumstances determines their values, goals and beliefs, thus, forms them as a whole. In the text name “The Shining Houses” by Alice Munro, a character named Mary experiences stresses in her life which attribute to not only her individuality but to her development as a character as the story progresses.

It has been suggested that the lyric’s meaning is in relation to drugs or about a journey through love and hopelessness. Another idea is that the entirety of it is an extended metaphor, some ideas including that it was an old church taken over by the devil worshippers, a psychiatric hospital, a prison, an inn run by cannibals, and even possibly that “Hotel California” is a representation of the Playboy Mansion. Nonetheless, as is true with most songs, the true interpretation can only come from one source, and that is simply the writer of the lyrics, Don Henley, himself.

FILM CRITICISM OF “THE SHINING” 1980 Directed by Stanley Kubrick and stars Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, the movie is an adaptation of a 1977 novel of the same name by Stephen King. Though a lot of significant changes have been made to the original work in terms of the characters and the plot. An example is room no. 217 had been changed to room 237 in the movie. Also, the character of Wendy is much weaker and subservient in the movie than in the novel. The treatment is very fresh and original.

Ray Bradbury’s, The Whole Town’s sleeping, is about a woman Lavinia Nebbs, who is going to the theatre with her 2 friends, Francine and Helen. On their way, they find a dead body, which was their other friend Eliza Ramsell’s. Assuming it was the anonymous serial killer, nicknamed “The Lonely One”, they call the police. After the theatre trip, the friends head home. However, Lavinia senses someone is following her.

In The Shining the main human body that becomes a source of horror is Jack Torrance. He is a more complicated issue than Regan. In a way, he is already dangerous from the start of the novel. One could argue even before the novel as his violent history such as the breaking of his own child's arm and the beating up of a schoolboy. He seems to be a complicated, human character, neither bad nor good, who struggles with drinking and domestic abuse.

In the film ‘The Shining’, Shelly Duvall plays the character ‘Wendy’ the stereotypical ‘woman in distress’ and a rather quite sexist outlook on women. In the beginning of the film, the way Jack behaved towards wendy already showed that he had some sort of resentment towards Wendy, some sort of grudge he was holding against her, “As long as I live, she’ll never let me forget what happened.” Wendy’s character plays the nurturing mother, a ‘good’ wife that fixes things around the hotel like a typical housewife would. This whole ‘typical’ female role as a wife and mother is considered ‘ideological’ and it is semiotic to the male dominated society nowadays.

Though unfamiliar with reading any of Stephen King’s work, I found that his memoir to his profession, On Writing, quite entertaining and at times worrisome. Within just the first few pages in the section titled “Part One” is that King, like many others, use sarcasm and comedy in form of a coping mechanism. One section that really highlighted this was the second anecdote about his babysitter, Eula-Beulah, who did not really last long, because of her inappropriate behavior of farting and hitting upside the head. What I found endearing with this is how he took what could’ve been a forgotten or repressed memory of his babysitter and toyed with it in a way of turning the horrid situation of Eula farting on him and his brother as a right of way

In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Mr. Antolini gives Holden Caulfield advice when he is at one of his lowest points. Already aware of Holden’s mental state and position on school, he quotes Wilhelm Stekel, a psychoanalyst, “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” (Salinger 188). Although Holden fails to grasp Mr. Antolini’s message, the quote applies directly to his life because of his relationship with death as a result of his younger brother, Allie’s, death. Mr. Antolini uses this quote specifically because he wants Holden take a step back and try to live for a noble cause instead of resorting to death.

Suspicion can be fascinating but haunting. Since Victorian times, the suspicious death case of Sir Charles Baskerville in The Hound of the Baskerville has intrigued/compelled vast amounts of readers. However, recent audiences are more compelled to stories with a modern twist of horror and gruesomeness. Because of less main characters, a fast-paced plot, and the differing point of view of Atwood’s The Hound of the Baskervilles film adaptation, the film has a frightening, intriguing mood with a new perspective compared to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original novel.

There are many similarities and common ideas between the short stories “The Shining Houses”, by Alice Munro and “The Interlopers”, by Saki. Both short stories are common classics. If you compare the two stories, there are certain aspects of the plot which are very similar to each other. You will notice that there are similar personality traits between some of the characters, there are similar conflicts and they both share similar messages. If you compare the protagonists from each story, Mary from “The Shining Houses” and Ulrich from “The Interlopers”, you can notice indistinguishable personality traits and beliefs between the two of them.

Unbroken reminds me of The Maze Runner because both main protagonists need to have perseverance and accomplishing a certain task against all odds. In The Maze Runner, the protagonist, Thomas, gets stuck inside the maze and has to survive all night against the grievers, similar to how Louie has to survive for weeks in the ocean against the sharks. Both characters are believed to be dead due to the seemingly impossible task of survival. Thomas has to find a way to the end of the maze to escape, while Louie needs to find land to have any hope of survival. Another book similar to Unbroken is the book Night by Elie Wiesel.

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”.

The Shining Path, led by Abimael Guzman, was a communist militant group, comprised of Mao Zedong followers, who were intent on dismantling the political regime in Peru throughout the 1980’s. Understanding the Maoist mentality of the Shining Path is essential in order to comprehend and recognize the reasoning for the Shining Path’s actions. Mao Zedong, a political leader in China in the twentieth century, believed that political revolution should stem from the peasant class. Abimael Guzman, upon seeing this method put into use internationally, thought it would be the most effective way to overthrow the elitist government of Peru at the time. The Shining Path, under the lead of Abimael Guzman, was able to start a national political, economic,