A Review of The Shining by Stephen King
Holy moly. What a sucker-punch of a novel. It’s a whirlwind of abuse, addiction, the dreadful and frightening story of alcohol addiction. Despite the monsters and ghouls that haunt this novel, I find that the true horror of this story is the way alcohol impacted the main antagonist: Jack Torrance.
Throughout the story, we see the cravings Jack is facing. Additionally, we also see some of the darkest days of his life: when he broke his son’s arm in a fit of rage and the day he lost his head, beating up a high-school student in the parking lot. The worst, however, was when he and his drunkenly impaired buddy, Al, decided to test out their driving skills, consequently killing a student riding his bike home. The duo urgently proceeded to drive away, turning a drunk accident into a hit and run.
These memories haunt him as he lives in the Overlook. At least at first. The more time he’s trapped in there with his family, the more he is thinking about “just one drink.” He thinks about it so much that the Overlook actually hears him, and knowing his past (wanting it to come true, as the Overlook lives for violence), it grants him that drink. Many of them, to be sure.
The past repeats itself — but instead of some poor student caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is his wife and son who are catching the wrath of his rage. Once he gets that drink, we see the considerate father drift away under the hand of something horrific: violence, rage, selfishness and bitterness. Alcohol turned him into that monster. Once it was consumed, these dark emotions consumed him. It’s then we see the violence, the gruesome scene where he wailed on his wife like she was a rodent in wack-a-mole, where he chased his son around yelling and screaming, and where he tried to murder the single person that came to assist them: Dick Hallorann.
The concept of horror in this novel — its more than just the creatures and creepy spirits whom still exist within the hotel. It’s the way these substances get a hold of a person and turn him into those very same monsters we all fear. Alcohol is what masked his problems throughout his entire life. It’s evident that the anger was there all along and it was alcohol that served as the water that hydrated the poisonous plant. His cravings for alcohol turned him into the true monster of the book.
In the end, it was Jack Torrance who was the horror of the story. The Overlook was fuel to make him drink and once he did… that’s where we see the most horrific things: violence, misogyny, racial slurs, and an attitude of male supremacy. Personally, seeing these things unfold in the novel is what really terrified me. Sure, ghosts are frightening, but to see someone you love turn into a monster looking to murder you and the child you had together (and knowing its real in endless places) well, that is something I’m not likely to forget any time soon.
Fictional or not, this is one hell of a story and I would not be surprised if something like this turned out to be true. After all, fiction does it’s best to get close to the truth, with a pinch of drama to add to the punch.
