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
Wendy and Danny get out of the hotel’s truck, and Danny immediately runs to Jack. Jack tells Danny that there is a surprise for him on the porch, and Danny runs to go see. As Danny runs away, he notices the new shingles lining the roof and shudders as he thinks about the vision from Tony. Jack kisses Wendy and asks if she is happy. Yes, she answers, the happiest she has been since they were married. They watch Danny as runs away, and Wendy remarks that he looks skinny. He is just getting taller, Jack says to reassure her.
Danny likely looks skinny because he is constantly scared and stressed out at the hotel, and his health is presumably suffering. The new shingles on the roof mean that Danny’s vision is coming true, at least in part, and he is terrified anticipating the rest of it. Wendy’s happiness, like Jack’s sense of comfort and healing, may be just an illusion that will be shattered if Danny’s premonitions do pan out.
Themes
Wendy says she is thinking about making Danny an appointment with the doctor in Sidewinder before the snow falls, and Jack agrees it is a good idea. She should make appointments for all of them, Jack says. Danny runs back from the porch with the wasps’ nest, and Wendy recoils. She asks Jack if it is safe to keep, and he says that he had one as a kid. He got it from his dad and kept it by his bed, and now Danny can do the same thing. It is plenty safe, he says. He sprayed it with a bug bomb. Wendy doesn’t like the nest, however. She hates anything that stings, she says.
Just as Jack believes he has neutralized the nest and that it is safe, he likewise believes that he has neutralized his alcoholism and that it can’t hurt Danny anymore either in the form of his abuse. Wendy’s comment that she hates anything that stings implies that she still resents Jack and his addiction, regardless of his current sobriety.
Themes
