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
At 6:55 a.m., EST, Hallorann boards a plane to Denver. He takes his seat next to a sour-faced woman reading a book. At 7:05, takeoff is delayed. Hallorann curses audibly. He spent all night at the airport trying to find a flight, and he even called the Rocky Mountain National Park Authority and told the ranger on duty that there was big trouble at the Overlook Hotel. The ranger said he didn’t receive any kind of mayday call from them, and Hallorann tried to explain that this didn’t matter. There is a family there, and the caretaker has gone insane. It has happened before, Hallorann warned, and they need to get there quickly.
Around the time Hallorann boards his plane, Jack decides to go to the Colorado Lounge for a drink, which again underscores time’s relativity. Since a ranger found Grady’s family dead at the hotel just 5 years earlier, it seems like this ranger should know all about the hotel’s history and take calls of insanity at the hotel a bit more seriously.
Themes
The ranger didn’t believe Hallorann, and since Hallorann wasn’t in Colorado and not within CB range, he didn’t believe that Hallorann could possibly know anything about the family at the Overlook. Hallorann convinced the ranger to try to call on the CB, and there was no answer. The ranger reasoned that they had gone to bed (it was after 9:00 p.m. then), and claimed that the Overlook wasn’t a priority. Two amateur climbers were stuck up on the mountain, and all the rangers and their two choppers were already gone on a rescue.
The fact that the Overlook isn’t a priority to the ranger further isolates Wendy and Danny. The rangers are busy on a rescue mission, and there are no available helicopters. It could be sometime before anyone gets there to check on them, and by that time, Wendy and Danny might be dead.
Themes
The plane takes off at 7:31, and Hallorann is suddenly rocked with another cry for help from Danny. He recoils in his seat from the power of Danny’s shine, but the message is gone, as if it is cut with a knife. The sour-faced woman in the seat next to him asks Hallorann if he always acts like this at takeoff, and Hallorann blames a metal plate in his head from Korea. The woman asks if that is true, and Hallorann confirms that it is. She eyes him and goes back to her book.
The message is cut off because the hotel is not letting Danny communicate with Hallorann. Like the snowmobile, Hallorann is a threat to the hotel’s plans. If Danny is successful in calling Hallorann, he will come and save them, and the hotel will come up short.
Themes
