The history of writing the novel The Shining is well known. After two novels – Carrie and Salem’s Lot, which had brought the author glory and success, Stephen King went with his family to the mountain hotel “Stanley”, situated in Colorado. The author required new sources for inspiration, and the place became the perfect one. The hotel was not occupied, and the atmosphere of solitude had a significant role in the creation of the book. In King’s head, considering the the view of vacant rooms, a story, which later became bestseller, started to be born.
King wrote the first version of The Shining in few weeks. Inspiration did not leave the author, and every day he exceeded his norm of two thousand written words. King borrowed the book’s final title from John Lennon’s song Instant Carma, which had a refrain: “We all shine on.” The verb “shine” had to be replaced by the adjective “shining”, because of its association with the abusive designation of black-skinned people.
Today the novel is considered as one of the best written in the genre of horror, but it is not supernatural element that stuns the most. Realistic representation of the world through the life of Danny Torrance frightens more then any image of supernatural. Thus, the novel carries elements of drama.
The novel The Shining is a drama of a good, but a sinful person, who gradually turns into a monster by unknown forces. This is Jack Torrance, the protagonist’s father. Jack himself is a person with difficult childhood: life with a drinking father and a weak-willed mother is far from being happy. He was too pride to ask for help, and later had to pay for his outbursts of anger. But, in general, Jack is a good person. He sincerely is trying to be a good husband and a gentle father. He has something important to say to the world, and dreams to realize himself in the field of literature. But Jack is very easy to be manipulated, and the hotel uses it, cleverly presses on Jack’s dark sides, pushing him to a terrible decision.
The novel also shows a drama of a child forced prematurely to grow up. Five-year-old Danny had to deal with terrible things that would break an adult. What remains for this good, smart and sensitive boy to do? First of all, to understand: let the world be unfair, but there still are things to appreciate, and for Danny his mother becomes an object of love and gratitude. Danny’s morality is to appreciate what he has, and stay resistant, no matter what happens.
One more drama is of a woman, whose child is threatened. Wendy, as befits a good mother, does everything in order to protect her son. And if for this she has to grapple with the unknown, or even sacrifice her beloved man, she does not care. And, in fact, any normal mother should do anything, when her child is in danger.
And what is in the novel the hotel "Overlook"? It is an incarnate Evil. Ancient, powerful, irrational. It needs new victims and new ghosts. So it acts as it does.
Throughout the story, Stephen King deftly manipulates the reader’s mind. Each time, introducing another evil into the story, he tries to give it some logical explanation. Either Danny's manic visions, Jack's insanity, or just a game of imagination.
