Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shining, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fear, the Paranormal, and Reality
Precognition, Second Sight, and the Shining
Family
Isolation and Insanity
Alcoholism and Abuse
Time
Summary
Analysis
As Jack sits high on the roof of the Overlook Hotel, he feels a wasp sting his right hand. He worried that he would disturb a wasps’ nest pulling the rotten shingles from the roof, and it looks like there is one situated just under the flashing. He waits for the swarm. It is some 70 feet to the cement below; if Jack is overcome by a swarm of wasps, he will surely fall to his death. He waits a moment, and when the air remains still, he continues on with his work. Wendy and Danny have gone to Sidewinder in the hotel’s truck to get some milk and do some Christmas shopping. It is only October 20, but they don’t know when the snow will come to stay.
Wasps’ nests represent lurking danger within in the novel. The nest lies in wait, and could easily kill Jack. The Overlook, too, seems to be a lurking danger—as per Danny’s visions—that is lying in wait as the Torrances get settled. Once the snow comes, the roads to Sidewinder will become impassable, further isolating the Torrances.
Themes
The view from the roof of the Overlook is so spectacular, it puts the view from the Presidential Suite to shame. Jack enjoys the mindless busywork of the hotel’s upkeep, and he can feel himself healing from the last three years. Jack moves down the roofline to the wasps’ nest. He pulls away the flashing and inspects the nest. He knows a little bit about wasps from a childhood experience. The wasps are sluggish from the falling temperatures, but they can still hurt him.
Again, the wasps’ nest is a parallel to the Overlook. Although wasps within the nest seem to be pacified by the cold, they are still dangerous—and the hotel, too, still poses an unknown danger despite seeming like a harmless empty building. At first, Jack finds the hotel a therapeutic place to recover from his alcoholism and the abuse he put his family through. But if Danny’s visions are any indication of what’s to come, this illusion of tranquility won’t last.
Themes
Jack looks at the wasps’ nest and thinks that it makes a good “workable symbol” for what he has been through in life and is “an omen for a better future.” Jack always thought of his life in a passive way. He didn’t do things; things were done to him. But Jack knows that he and Al had been alcoholics and drifted to each other because of it, and Jack knows that he is still an alcoholic. He has been an alcoholic since he first took a drink in high school, and he will always be an alcoholic.
Jack is finally admitting to himself that he is an alcoholic, which he seemed unwilling or unable to do earlier in the novel. The wasps in the nest is an appropriate symbol for the lurking dangers of Jack’s alcoholism (like the abuse that goes along with it), but he it remains to be seen whether the hotel—like the wasps’ nest—really is an omen for a better future.
Themes
Alone on the roof, Jack thinks about George Hatfield. George was a good-looking kid and exceedingly popular, and Jack always doubted that he had any trouble with the girls. George actually reminded Jack of the lead in his play. The other characters in the play are often envious of the lead, but Jack never felt that way about George. Jack rather liked him, in fact. George was a jock, but he tried out for the debate team on his father’s insistence. George’s father wanted George to be a corporate lawyer just like him, and debate looks good on college applications. George was a talented debater. He was always prepared and could argue anything—and either side, too, which is a rare trait. George’s problem was that he stuttered, badly, and only during debates.
The fact that Jack thought about George’s good looks and advantages in life—like plenty of girls and his rich, successful father—suggests that Jack was jealous of George. Having already witnessed Jack’s resentful attitude toward Ullman and others, the reader can infer that Jack’s resentment of George’s good fortune likely played a role in Jack’s violence toward the young man—even if Jack insists otherwise.
Themes
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At one debate in particular, George stuttered through the whole thing, and when the clocked stopped, he accused Jack of setting the timer ahead. Jack assured George that he had done no such thing, but George insisted Jack had cheated his time. Jack denied it, and told George it was his stutter that was taking up time. George became irate, and told Jack that he never stutters. He insisted Jack had set the timer ahead, and implied that Jack had done it because he was jealous George. Jack thought the boy ridiculous. He didn’t envy George at all.
Of course, Jack did set the timer ahead, and he does envy George. Jack hates George because he has everything in life that Jack wants—money, popularity, a bright and successful future—and this is exactly why he treats George so unfairly during the debate. Given George’s stutter, Jack could have just waited for that to be the cause of his failure at debate, which was sure to happen sooner or later. But Jack’s hate for George is too strong, and since Jack isn’t drinking at the time, his pent-up aggression and abuse is released on George.
Themes
Jack cut George from the team immediately after this incident, and when Jack went out the parking lot after practice, George was slashing the tires on the Volkswagen. Jack’s temper got the best of him, and the next thing he remembered, one of the other teachers was holding him back. He looked down at George, who was bleeding from a cut on his forehead. George also had blood coming from his ear, and Jack feared he might have a concussion. He told the other teacher to call the school doctor. Jack didn’t hate George at all, and if he did set the timer ahead, it was just one minute out of pity. “I’m getting better,” Jack thinks to himself, and climbs down the ladder to get a bug bomb for the wasps’ nest.
Again, Jack’s treatment of George is extreme and is evidence of his abusive nature. The blood from George’s ear suggests that he has a serious brain injury—and it means that Jack hit George very, very hard. Notably, Jack comes to his senses quickly and tries to salvage the situation by ensuring George gets the help he needs, but it is already too late. Jack may think he is “getting better,” but he clearly isn’t—he still can’t admit his true motivations for attacking George, which are closely tied to his alcoholism. Jack’s alcoholism itself is much like a wasps’ nest, lying in wait and ready to strike.
Themes
