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 sits outside on the curb. He knows by the growing shadows that it is almost five o’clock, even though he can’t tell time yet. He thinks about Jack and Wendy—he understands a lot about his parents, but they often refuse to believe it. Soon, Danny thinks, they will have to believe. It is a shame that Wendy doesn’t believe him now, as she lays in bed crying. Danny knows that she worries about grown-up things that he doesn’t quite grasp, but right now she is worried that the car has broken down or that Jack is doing the “Bad Thing.” Danny knows that neither is true. Jack is nearly home now.
This passage reveals that Danny is able to read the minds of the others—in this case, he knows what Wendy is worrying about and where Jack is. Wendy and Jack have noticed Danny’s strange power, but it makes them uncomfortable, so they deny and ignore it. They won’t be able to deny Danny’s ability at the hotel, however, and Danny already knows this—even if he doesn’t know the specifics yet. The “Bad Thing” is how Danny refers to Jack’s alcoholism. Jack’s addiction is the reason why Jack broke Danny’s arm and why Wendy is sad, so to Danny, it is a very negative thing indeed.
Themes
Danny knows all about the “Bad Thing.” A boy at his school in Vermont had a father who did the “Bad Thing,” and his parents got a “DIVORCE.” Danny can see the word in red letters in his mind. He knows all about “DIVORCE,” too: it is when you don’t see your daddy, except on weekends. To Danny, “DIVORCE” is the absolute worst thing in the world, and he can sense the word circling in his parents’ minds. Danny first learned about “DIVORCE” after Jack hurt his arm. He hardly remembers the accident, but he clearly remembers his parents’ thoughts of “DIVORCE.”
Danny’s extreme fear of his parents getting a divorce suggests that he is still close with Jack despite his abuse, and can’t imagine being away from his father. The fact that Danny barely recalls Jack breaking his arm but remembers reading his parents’ thoughts about divorce shows that he is more traumatized by the thought of his parents’ breaking up than he is by Jack’s violence—Danny is focused on what could go wrong in the future rather than what has already occurred in the past.
Themes
Wendy’s thoughts of “DIVORCE” after Danny spilled beer in Jack’s study were constant. The thought hung in her mind with a slow, pulsing beat like music, and it mostly came from what Jack did to Danny and the incident with George Hatfield. Jack’s “DIVORCE” thoughts, on the other hand, were “colored dark and violet and shot through with frightening veins of pure black.” Jack hurts all of the time, Danny knows, mostly because of the “Bad Thing.” Danny wishes he could tell Wendy now that Jack is fine and almost home, and that she can stop crying, but he knows she won’t really believe him.
Wendy is afraid of Jack’s abusive nature, which is her primary reason for wanting a divorce. The language used to describe Jack’s thoughts reflect his inherently abusive nature. They are “dark and violet” with “veins of pure black,” which connote images of bruises or blood. Danny knows that Jack isn’t off drinking somewhere—which is what Wendy is always afraid of—because he can read Jack’s thoughts as well.
Themes
Danny has tried to explain to Wendy and Jack that if he concentrates really hard, he can see things. One day, while Danny was concentrating on Jack and Wendy’s “DIVORCE” thoughts, he lost his sense of time and woke up on the floor with his dinner in his lap. Danny told his parents he was fine, and that losing time happens when he concentrates, or when he sees Tony, who his parents call his “invisible playmate.” But Wendy was too scared to listen; she made Danny promise never to scare her like that again. Danny promised, and for a moment he concentrated on Jack’s thoughts and saw the words “DIVORCE” and “SUICIDE” floating around.
Since Danny can’t read yet, he doesn’t know what divorce is, exactly—it is simply a jumble of letters that means the end of his family. Words that Danny cannot read (which are always in capital letters throughout the novel) reflect just how young and innocent he really is, a reality that makes his thoughts of adult topics like divorce and suicide particularly disturbing.
Themes
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Sometimes when Danny concentrates, Tony will come to him, but not always. Tony has only appeared twice since moving to Boulder, and the most recent time was to show Danny a missing trunk under the basement stairs. The trunk contained the manuscript of Jack’s play, which Jack was worried the movers left it in Stovington. Danny told Jack that the trunk was under the stairs, and Jack was instantly angry that Danny was in the basement. The basement, Jack said, is dangerous and off-limits. Danny insisted that he didn’t go into the basement and that Tony had told him. Jack and Wendy shared a confused look. The basement was always locked.
Tony seems to be a part of Danny’s consciousness rather than simply an imaginary friend, as his parents assume. Tony is a presence that aids Danny in his precognitive abilities, bringing him visions of what might happen or what has already happened. Jack’s insistence that their basement is off-limits hearkens back to Ullman’s insistence about Danny not being allowed in the attic at the Overlook, a parallel that suggests Jack may similarly lash out at Danny if Jack finds him where he isn’t supposed to be at the hotel.
Themes
Danny sits on the curb, imagining Jack’s voice and concentrating on Jack’s thoughts. Danny can hear Jack thinking about shingles and a guy named Watson. Suddenly, Danny hears Tony calling his name. He can see Tony from the corner of his eye, far down the street. Danny settles in on the curb and lets his mind wander down the street, in the direction of Tony’s voice. There is deep snow everywhere, and a huge building with lots of windows and a shingled roof. The shingles on a portion of the roof look much newer than the others, and Danny instantly understands that Jack had laid the new shingles. A skull and crossbones flashes into Danny’s mind. “Poison,” Tony says from somewhere in the darkness.
Danny always sees Tony from the corner of his eye. Keeping Tony in Danny’s periphery allows Danny to stay in the dark about who or what Tony really is, an understandable tendency given the disturbing notions with which Tony presents Danny. Here, the heavy snow and enormous building (which Jack has reshingled) is clearly a vision of the Overlook—Danny is seeing his future at the hotel, which Tony warns is “poison”—obviously very dangerous.
Themes
Several signs flash into Danny’s mind (but he can’t read them), which say “DANGER!” and “KEEP OUT!” The signs fade and Danny is in a strange room he doesn’t recognize. Snow is piled up outside the windows and there is a mirror that has “REDRUM” written on it in green fire. The room fades and another room appears. Here, the window is broken, and the furniture is overturned. Danny can hear crashing sounds and a familiar voice yelling, “Come out! Come out, you little shit! Take your medicine!”
It’s unclear what, exactly, is happening in Danny’s vision beyond its obvious setting at the Overlook. The signs of “DANGER!” and “KEEP OUT!” suggest that something terrible and violent is happening, as do the broken window and overturned furniture. Particularly ominous is fact that the voice Danny hears is “familiar,” given that he and his parents will be the only people who will be in the hotel. This foreshadows the fact that Jack may, in fact, hurt Danny again.
Themes
The room again fades, and Danny is a hallway in which the carpet is bright blue with black twisting shapes crossing every which way. “REDRUM,” he thinks again and hears the booming voice: “Come on and take your medicine! Take it like a man!” A dark shape advances on Danny, “reeking of that sweet-sour odor,” swinging a huge mallet. Danny can hear the mallet cutting and hissing through the air, and he begs Tony to take him back. Suddenly, Danny is sitting back on the curb.
The “sweet-sour odor” Danny speaks of here is alcohol, which is another clue that the advancing figure with the mallet is Jack. It also suggests that Jack may begin to drink again while the family is staying at the Overlook. The mallet will come to be an important symbol of Jack’s rage, and the fact that Danny sees Jack coming at him with this weapon along with the thought of “REDRUM” suggests that Jack may try to hurt Danny in real life.
Themes
On the curb, Danny can just make out Tony’s figure in the distance. “Be careful, doc…” Tony says as he fades away. Just then, the Volkswagen comes sputtering down the street, and Jack parks at the curb. Danny runs to him, excited, but stops when he sees a mallet on the front seat, one end clotted with blood and hair. Danny blinks and the mallet is a bag of groceries instead. Jack lifts Danny and hugs him. Wendy comes outside to greet Jack and kisses him, and the three of them go inside together. For the moment, Danny is happy. He knows there is love in his family, and he is glad his father is finally home. Not everything Tony shows Danny comes true, and for now, things are alright. Still, a cold fear settles in Danny’s heart as he thinks about “REDRUM.” He has absolutely no idea what it means.
Tony’s message to “be careful” is obviously a warning of what is to come at the Overlook Hotel, just as Danny’s split-second vision of the mallet on the front seat of the car is a warning—but Danny hasn’t put this together yet. Still, Danny seems to subconsciously know through Tony that Jack is inherently dangerous. However, the Torrances are at least superficially happy here, and there is seems to be love within their family, despite the stressors they must endure. In fact, the Torrances’ ability to stay together after what they have been through is a real testament to the strength of their family.
Themes
