The Shining

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1977

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-13

Part 3, Chapters 14-18

Part 3, Chapters 19-23

Part 3, Chapters 24-25

Part 4, Chapters 26-32

Part 4, Chapters 33-37

Part 5, Chapters 38-42

Part 5, Chapters 43-47

Part 5, Chapters 48-52

Part 5, Chapters 53-58

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 2, Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Closing Day”

Part 2, Chapter 11 Summary: “The Shining”

Outside, Hallorann tells Danny that he has the ability his grandmother called “The shining” (79), and that Danny has the strongest “shine” he has ever seen. Danny tells him about Mrs. Brant and the thought he heard. Hallorann laughs. Then, as an experiment, he asks Danny to think at him with as much force as possible. Danny thinks, “Hi Dick!” (81) as if he is flexing a muscle, and Hallorann twitches like he has been shocked. Danny says he can tell what other people are thinking, but only if it is loud or intense. When he tells Hallorann about Tony, he realizes that the cook is asking these questions because he is worried about Danny and his family.

Danny says Tony has been giving him nightmares about the Overlook, and Hallorann commiserates. Hallorann then tells him about the strongest shine he ever experienced. He was in the Army in 1955, stationed in Germany. He smelled oranges all afternoon, which usually signaled that a vision was coming. The mess hall kitchen exploded when a railway car jumped the tracks. Hallorann immediately knew that his brother Carl had died on the train. When he told his mother on the phone, she already knew, even though that was impossible. However, even though this was a legitimate premonition, Hallorann stresses that not every vision comes true.

It is true that Hallorann has seen nasty things at the hotel, and he gives Danny a sanitized version; a maid was fired for saying she saw something bad in Room 217, and Hallorann thought he saw something happen with the hedge animals once. He wants Danny to stay out of Room 217. Halloran admits that he looked in there and did see something, but he says it is not dangerous. Danny thinks about the story of Bluebeard and his forbidden room. Hallorann does not think that anything at the Overlook can actually harm them: “I don’t think there’s anything there that can hurt you” (87). Nevertheless, Halloran remembers what he saw in Room 217 and worries about the family as they prepare to spend the winter there.

Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary: “The Grand Tour”

Wendy asks what Danny and Hallorann talked about. When he shrugs, it reminds her of Jack. She does not like to admit it, but she is jealous of the closeness between Danny and his father. As workers begin to leave, Wendy finds the growing quiet oppressive.

Ullman gives them a tour. Upstairs in the Presidential Suite, Danny notices the wallpaper; it is covered in blood and what looks like brain tissue. He looks away, as Hallorann told him to, and when he looks back, the wallpaper is normal. The bloodstain quickly returns, however. Danny tries to be quiet; he does not want to disturb his parents’ peace.

While they are walking down a hall on the third floor, a fire extinguisher unnerves Danny for reasons he cannot explain. It is a normal object that he feels has something unnatural about it. He almost feels as if it is watching him. They pass Room 217 on the way to their lodgings, but Danny tries not to think about it. He is surprised to find that he actually loves his bedroom. Downstairs, Watson reminds Jack again to check the boiler pressure frequently. After Watson leaves, Danny feels lonelier than he ever thought possible.

Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary: “The Front Porch”

Ullman leaves the hotel, and the Torrances are finally alone. Jack feels as though the hotel has doubled in size now that they are the only ones there.

Part 2, Chapters 11-13 Analysis

Danny’s conversation with Dick Hallorann helps King lay out the rules for how the shining works. Hallorann also introduces the term “The shining,” which Danny did not previously have a name for. He also helps Danny understand that they are not the only ones with the power. Hallorann suspects that even Wendy may have some of it: “All mothers shine a little, you know, at least until their kids grow up enough to watch out for themselves” (87).

Hallorann also foreshadows the coming problems with Room 217, the aggressive hedge animals, and Danny’s eventual ability to contact him to summon him for help. He tells Danny that most of the things in the Overlook cannot hurt him; they are merely frightening. Danny reminds himself of this when he sees the bloodstained wallpaper, but the comfort it brings him is negligible.

When Hallorann tells him about Room 217, Danny immediately remembers the story of Bluebeard. Bluebeard married a woman but forbade her from entering one room in his house. Eventually, the wife could not resist. When she entered the secret room, she found the heads of all of his previous wives—doomed to his violence by their curiosity. Danny feels a similar pull for Room 217. His fascination with it—a single room among so many in the hotel—almost guarantees that he will eventually have to investigate it, even though he knows he should not. His attraction to the room unfolds similarly to Jack’s urge to drink; neither of them can resist forever. Bluebeard’s story also implies that whatever Danny finds in Room 217 will result in violence.

This attraction for harmful things runs throughout the novel. No one knows better than Jack that drinking is not good for him. Yet he reacts to all stresses with the impulse to drink. Wendy knows that her long-term prospects with Jack are not good, but she stays with him out of hope, against her better judgment. Some of these obsessions are born of human frailty and fallibility, but the Overlook knows how to exploit common weaknesses and turn them into violent calamities. This is evident in Danny’s peculiar encounter with the fire extinguisher. It is a completely common object that manages to seem threatening to Danny, even though there is nothing outwardly suspicious about it.