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
Danny can hear Hallorann’s voice as he stands outside room 217, telling Danny to stay away. The door looks normal enough to Danny, like all the other doors in the hotel, and when he looks in the peephole, he can’t see a thing. Danny hears a voice in his head. “Why are you here?” the voice asks. After Danny’s hike with Wendy, she made lunch, and they ate in Hallorann’s kitchen. The family has stopped eating their meals in the big empty dining room, which they all decided was too depressing. Danny thinks that Wendy’s cooking tastes better in Hallorann’s kitchen, and he can feel the Hallorann’s friendly and comforting presence there.
Danny knows that he shouldn’t go into room 217—Hallorann told him not to, and Jack explicitly tells Danny to stay out of all the guest rooms. But Danny wants to know if the scary things in the hotel can hurt him, which he believes he can find out by going into room 217. Eating alone in the empty dining room again illustrates just how isolated and secluded the Torrances are at the Overlook.
Themes
Jack took the wasps’ nest from Danny’s room out to the hotel’s incinerator and burned it, and they haven’t had any wasps since. Wendy told Danny to go play after lunch, but he had instead come to stand outside 217 with the skeleton key in his pocket. “Why are you here?” Danny hears the voice again. As he stands in front of the closed and forbidden door, Danny remembers a story, “Bluebeard,” that Jack once read to Danny while drunk.
Given that the wasps’ nest is a symbol for the Overlook, the image of it burning in the incinerator suggests that Jack may similarly try to wreak havoc on the hotel and the dangers within it. “Bluebeard” is a story about a man who kills his wife, which is particularly disturbing given Grady’s story and Danny’s own visions of Jack chasing him with a mallet.
Themes
Danny hears Hallorann’s voice again. Hallorann had some terrible visions at the hotel, but he said that he doesn’t think such visions can hurt Danny. They are like pictures in a book, Hallorann had said. Danny reaches into his pocket and pulls out the hotel’s skeleton key. He slides it into the lock and stands there, staring at it. He promised Hallorann he wouldn’t go into room 217, so he pulls the key from the door and puts it back in his pocket. Danny turns and walks down the corridor, but something makes him stop.
Danny’s visions are more than just pictures in a book, as evidenced by the fact that many of them have proven to be accurate thus far. Hallorann’s insistence that they can’t hurt Danny, then, may not be true. Danny’s hesitation to go into room 217 seems to be equally about not wanting to disobey Hallorann and sensing that the room is inherently dangerous.
Themes
Danny remembers that the old-fashioned fire extinguisher is on the wall just around the corner. He knows the hose is coiled there, like a snake waiting to strike. Jack told him that the old extinguishers do not have chemicals and are instead hooked directly to the hotel’s plumbing. By turning a valve, the extinguisher turns into a fire hose. Danny peaks around the corner and sees the hose coiled up. The word “EMERGENCY,” which Danny is able to read, is just above it. Danny will have to pass the hose to get to the stairs, and he starts moving slowly toward it.
Once again, the fire extinguisher serves as a mysterious source of uneasiness for Danny despite not knowing why. Danny, Wendy, and to some extent, Jack, live in a constant state of fear at the Overlook—in this sense, the hotel itself seems to somehow intimidate and control them.
Themes
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Danny moves closer, about 10 steps away, and the brass nozzle falls from the top of the coiled hose to the carpet. Big deal, Danny tries to convince himself, the nozzle fell. He wipes at his lips and takes a hesitant step forward. It is just a hose, he tells himself, but he can’t help but wonder if it is full of wasps. He stops, frozen with terror, and knows he will never move if he doesn’t just run for it. He sprints by the hose and hears it giving chase behind him. Danny runs faster, the hose creeping across the carpet behind him like a snake. He gets to the stairs and catches himself just before he falls. Looking back, Danny sees the hose coiled at the end of the hall. It was all his imagination, Danny tells himself, and goes downstairs.
Here, Danny wipes his lips just like Jack does when he is feeling unstable and wants a drink. Danny has many of his father’s mannerisms—Wendy is constantly pointing this out—but the wiping of Danny’s mouth suggests that the hotel is getting to him, too. Given that Danny was able to see blood and gore in the Presidential Suite when no one else did, this possessed hose seems to be a similar kind of supernatural vision that only people who shine can perceive.
Themes
