“Surely even the most malignant ghost is a lonely thing, left out in the dark, desperate to be heard” –Stephen King (xvii Introduction).
Steven King made no mistake when he named The Shining’s hotel The Overlook. Over+look. It’s watching you. It’s looking over you. It’s watching your actions, taking a tab on your fears and weaknesses, and it will take control of any remaining human, conscious soul in yourself that you want to prevail against the monster it attempts to make you. But, unfortunately, the hotel constantly overlooks Jack, not in the sense it ignores him, but in the sense that it constantly looks over him, plotting how to take over him. The hotel wins. Jack is looked over, and made into the hotel’s soldier.
The hotel is a controlling, manipulative presence. It seduces Jack because it constantly reminds him of his failure as a writer. It’s like Niki said in class on Wednesday: “Jack kind of allows himself to become this [monster]. He realizes how he’s ended up there, but he blames everyone but himself to explain his actions.” He blames society, his so-called meddling family, and the drink (not his love of the drink, but the drink itself) for making him prone to anger and such evil desires of revenge and murder (redrum). The hotel, however (unlike his family or so he thinks), tempts him with the possibilities of success that could come from writing a story based on the newspaper clippings in the scrapbook he finds at the hotel. Jack says with excitement in his voice, “God, what a story. And they had all been here, right above him, in those empty rooms” (244). Those hotel rooms that are over his caretaker’s quarters. Those newspaper clippings are watching over his desires to write a great piece of literature—a piece of literature that will break him into the world of upper-class, distinguish, and respect. It’s a world he wants, a world he thought he could never have. And the hotel is offering it to him. He loves being wanted finally admits, ‘”I’m the one who loves it here. They wanted to leave. I’m the one who took care of the snowmobile…went through the old records…dumped the press on the boiler…lied…practically sold my soul…what can they want with him?)’” (522). Just like Suzanne said, “They are Poe’s and King’s characters: they are both individuals obsessed with something—fears, objects, characteristics.” And as we soon see, Jack becomes obsessed with finishing his play and beginning work on the hotel story. It drives him up the wall.
Along those same lines, the haunted objects/monsters of the hotel (the list Suzanne gave us in class) are of a certain social class. Fire hose, elevator, radio, the woman in 217, the topiary animals, the scrapbook, the masquerade ball, and the mallet. All, if looked at more closely, are directly related to the high class status of The Overlook, a class Jack aspires to and to which he wishes desperately to be a member.
· Fire hose: Find me one normal house that has a fire hose in it. The Overlook is a high-class hotel where a fire hose in house would not be out of place.
· Elevator: Find me a home that has an elevator in it. The Torrences are living “posh,” and have access to an elevator, even though they don’t use it.
· Radio: Still not sure how I can swing this one…
· The Woman in 217: Although dead and creepy, she was a woman of higher class in her time, and even in her death she represents the posh, sophisticated person Jack can never become.
· Topiary animals: Well, they are only found in very polished, upper-class homes. They torment him. The tease him. They rack his brain and scare him. They torment him not only because of how terrifying they are in their real, animal-like movements, but because of what they embody: an upper-class lifestyle Jack can never attain.
· Scrapbook: Having the time for scrapbooking is a luxury—a luxury Jack should not have time for since he is constantly focused on writing the next great American novel.
· Masquerade ball: A ball, a masquerade ball, embodies the idea of privilege. Dancing, drinks, beautiful outfits, beautiful people—everything Jack wants but can’t have.
· The mallet: the mallet is associated with a sport of the upper classes, roque.
Kristina made a great point in class on Friday. “Because he [Jack] has been abused, he has learned to adapt to the hotel (or other situations) or the abusive situation to protect himself. To protect himself from the hotel, he becomes what the hotel wants.” He becomes obsessed with acquiring the social status he never could acquire as an author. His written works have been, for the most part, flops. He wants class, power, respect, and the tangible objects of posh living he never obtained when he was so-called weighed down by his failed works, family, and drinking. When Grady tells him, “’Certain other materials could be put at your disposal, if you wished them…,’ Jack responds with unrestrained eagerness that he wants those materials…a lot. He says, ‘I do. Very much.’ He tried to control the eagerness in his voice and failed miserably” (534).
Also, there is a very Marxist undertone to these objects and what they represent. In Lois Tyson’s book, the standard book for literary critical theory, the Marxism chapter states, “For Marxism, getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities” (Tyson 54). Interesting…these forces certainly seem to be driving Jack’s motives.
Also, there is a very Marxist undertone to these objects and what they represent. In Lois Tyson’s book, the standard book for literary critical theory, the Marxism chapter states, “For Marxism, getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities” (Tyson 54). Interesting…these forces certainly seem to be driving Jack’s motives.
This idea is furthered when Grady begins to taunt Jack’s conviction to kill Wendy and Danny. Grady begins to tug at Jack’s nerves and says, “’Will you indeed, sir? I wonder.’ Well-bred surprise was replaced by well-bred regret. ‘I’m pained to say that I doubt it. I—and others—have really come to believe that your heart is not in this sir. That you haven’t the…belly for it.’ ‘I do!’ Jack shouted. ‘I do, I swear it!’” (582). Jack is quite moved by Grady’s taunts. But, even more interesting is King’s choice of words to describe Jack’s transformation. “Well-bred.” Huh…just an interesting choice of words, Mr. King.
On a more personal, unrelated note (and to add some personal reflection to this), I loved what Suzanne said in class about the fears of mothering/fathering on Wednesday and how this fear could be one of the significant forces that unhinge Jack. It was something along the lines that anxieties of mothering or fathering and failing at the job can unhinge you. Huh…that got me wheels a-turnin’. Wednesday night’s class wasn’t a good day for me in my personal life, and all the sudden in class when Suzanne said that, I realized that my fears of mothering have begun to unhinge me already. Not unhinge in the idea that I’m going to go crazy like Jack, but I have always had qualms about motherhood. Nothing against you bringing that up, Suzanne. It was something that needed to be said, and it certainly made me begin thinking about how literature directly relates to real life. Any possibilities of me even becoming a mother are far off in the distance, but still, I’m scared for that future. I’m not sure I want kids. I don’t think I can do the parenting thing. I don’t think I have the patience. I don’t think I can multitask handling my own life and that of a kid’s. I don’t know…I really don’t know. I really have no clue what I want. Luckily, that talk is hopefully far off in the future. But still…when my friends talk about wanting to have kids someday, I feel inferior, infertile in a way when I say that I’m not sure I want kids. And they look at me like I’m nuts or inferior to them. I’m just not ready for that part of life and may never be. At least right now, I better not be; I’m 21 years old! But, I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready. And that idea of not wanting kids or fearing that I will fail at mothering have already begun to unhinge my idea of a future family life. I can sympathize with Jack in that respect. Now going all crazy on Danny…that I cannot sympathize with. That’s just wrong.
So, what is one of the driving forces that sways Jack to madness? The hotel tempts him with a class status and the posh lifestyle he never had. It makes sense. It makes sense, at least to me. The hotel takes on its own person hood and sure is good at figuring out how to manipulate a person. Creepy, but props to that hotel.
The wastebasket of Jack's failures
King, Steven. The Shining. New York: Pocket Books, 1997. Print.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.
