Review Of The Shining By Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21st, 1947 in Portland Maine. King was the second son born to his parents, Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. Unfortunately, Stephen’s parents divorced at a profoundly young age (a toddler in fact). After the separation, Stephen lived with his mother and his older brother in the small town of Stratford, Connecticut and in the bigger city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Shortly after that, Stephen’s family moved back to their home state of Maine, in Durham, with the intention to reside there long term. Stephen attended the local elementary school in Durham and graduated in 1966 from the Lisbon Falls High School. Stephen by today’s standards did not have the best childhood, with his close family members providing them with a living situation and financial support.
Meet the Torrance family, an ex-alcoholic, abusive husband named Jack, a caring, young mother named Wendy and a uniquely gifted 5 year old named Danny. Due to Jack’s abusive and anger issues, he and his family are often being bounced around from time to time from Jack’s inability to be employed for long periods of time. After Jack is fired from his most recent job, a high school teacher, he moves hi family to Boulder, Colorado in hopes of finding an employer. While looking for jobs, Jack comes across the winter caretaker job at the grand Overlook Hotel up in the Rockies, as it is closed for the season. With Wendy contemplating a divorce and Jack’s family on the verge of breaking up, he reluctantly accepts in hopes of bringing his family back together.
Although Jack is warned about the Overlook’s negative passed events, he still does not want to pass up this once in a lifetime employment opportunity. As Jack and his family starts to settle in on opening day, young Danny is introduced to the hotel’s chef just as he is packing up. His name is Dick Hallorann and Danny instantly notices a similar trait within Dick. Mr. Hallorann notices this trait too and begins to explain to Danny that his grandmother used to call it the shining. The ability to almost read minds and speak to one another without physically speaking. Danny comprehends all of this and it all makes sense on how he was able to find his mother’s car keys or know his father’s thoughts without even really speaking to any of them. Through the shining, Danny finds out about the “bad thing”, which is his mother’s desire to divorce. Not wanting that to happen, Danny promises himself that he will do his best to love the Overlook, even though it brings a negative vibe. Dick notices this and tells Danny, if you ever are in trouble, just call for me (through the shining) and I will come.
As soon as the Torrances move in, strange phenomenes start to occur, Danny is starting to see people that do not exist or things that are appearing to be in places that they were not originally there. As the winter begins to set in, the isolation of being stuck up in the Rockies begins to set in, will cabin fever strike? Will the Torrances last the winter? Read The Shining to fill out the thrilling truth.
Reflection: I thoroughly enjoyed this story I thought it was extremely well written.
