The Shining is also explicitly about America's general inability to admit to the gravity of the genocide of the Indians - or, more exactly, its ability to "overlook" that genocide. Not only is the site called the Overlook Hotel with its Overlook Maze, but one of the key scenes takes place at the July 4th Ball.
Stephen King's The Shining focuses on families and the way various forms of dysfunction—such as jealousy, insanity, abuse, and addiction—can rip them apart. At the center of the novel is the Torrance family—Jack, Wendy, and Danny—and they are fighting considerable odds.
The Shining explores themes of cyclical violence and abuse, and Kubrick's film is full of metaphors and symbolism that have led to countless interpretations of its true meaning, including theories about sexual abuse and the ghosts being representations of violence and abuse.
King struggled with alcoholism in the early stages of his career. In the late 1970s King claimed that he was “drinking, like, a case of beer a night.” He worried that he would lose control of his addiction and in some way hurt his family. The Shining voices this concern.
The family has to care for the hotel for the winter, but they cannot leave the mountainous area. In this isolation every day becomes the same for Jack as his writer's block becomes quotidian. The combination of isolation, monotony, creative frustration, and supernatural forces extract Jack's insanity.
THE SHINING Ending Explained: The Final Shot's TRUE Meaning
What mental illness does Jack have in The Shining?
The story presented Jack Torrance as a man who dislikes authority. He moved to an isolated hotel with his wife and his son in Colorado over the winter, hoping to improve and cure his poor writing. As the days passed, he began showing the symptoms of schizophrenia and attempted to kill his family.
Moments later, he would improvise the “Here's Johnny!” line, which was a reference to the intro of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Interestingly, Kubrick originally shot the scene with a fake door, but Nicholson – who once trained as a fire marshal – chopped it down too quickly.
The ending of The Shining, particularly the photo of Jack in the 1921 ballroom, suggests that Jack is a reincarnation of a former hotel employee, although this explanation is not explicitly stated in the film. The Shining explores themes of cyclical violence and abuse, and Kubrick's film is full...
As such, Grady has always been the butler, just as Jack has always been the caretaker insofar as they were both imprisoned in the future by the hotel, and their spirits became anachronistically part of history.
One of the creepiest theories of all is that mad genius Kubrick managed to imbue his film with so much ambiguous Freudian symbolism that it taps into essence of life itself. In other words, the whole film is about the bizarre coincidences of life.
In the novel, Danny is the Overlook's primary victim, and Jack Torrance is simply used as a conduit to get to Danny. The hotel wants Danny dead so that it can absorb his “shining” ability to add to the Overlook's plethora of dark energies, so it possesses Jack in his vulnerable state to try to kill Danny.
The novel The Shining has the settings of psychological conflicts. In novel Shining the influence of claustrophobia, alcoholism, sleepwalk, mismanagement, temper, frustration, isolation and abusive parental care are the reasons of tragedy.
On a basic level The Shining is a cautionary tale about the dangers of addiction. When he arrives at the Overlook Hotel, Jack is a recovering alcoholic. The novel details Jack's drinking days during his brief tenure as an English teacher at Stovington Academy in Vermont.
But the main problem lies with Jack Torrance. The Shining was meant to portray The Overlook Hotel's sinister effects on its inhabitants so that Jack descends into madness. He spirals out of control, loses touch with reality, and decides to kill his wife and child.
The camera quickly cuts to the next scene. It is morning, and Jack is dead, frozen in the maze, trapped in the Overlook Hotel forever. The final shot of The Shining is the real kicker as the camera zooms in on a photo hanging in the Overlook Hotel.
It is stated that the Overlook Hotel was made out of evil because it is composed of negative influence from a history of deaths, giving it moral agency issues. Its history of crime caused by the negativity is also confirmed, unlike the 1980 film adaptation and 2019 sequel.
The supernatural elements in The Shining are inspired by a real haunting in Colorado, adding a sense of authenticity to the story. The Overlook Hotel in The Shining was inspired by the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, which has a haunted history and provided Stephen King with inspiration for the novel.
It's made very clear from the beginning that he was a drunk and a violent husband and father. He seems to go to the closed down hotel in hopes to get sober, since there's no booze at the hotel when it's closed. However.. We also see how cold he treats his family during the ride up to the hotel.
The character of Jack illustrates the connection between alcoholism and abuse and simultaneously underscores the potentially devastating effects of isolation on mental health. Most of all, Jack represents the profound connection of family, which King implies can't be easily broken, by supernatural means or otherwise.
In the film, Jack Torrance vividly interacts with a bartender named Lloyd, who appears to serve him drinks, even though the hotel is otherwise empty. This hallucinatory experience is a clear indicator of his disturbed mental state.
By 2011, Dan has become an alcoholic to suppress his abilities. After moving to a New Hampshire town, Dan recovers through Alcoholics Anonymous. Working as a hospice orderly, Dan uses his shining to comfort dying patients, earning the nickname "Doctor Sleep".
The Shining: Danny's Imaginary Friend Tony Is Danny's Future Self. Near the end of Stephen King's The Shining book, it's revealed that Tony is actually Danny Torrance's future adult self. It's also revealed that Danny's middle name is Anthony, explaining why exactly Tony is called that.
