Labyrinths Of Historical Ruin In The Shining By Stanley Kubrick

The Shining (1980), directed by Stanley Kubrick, tells the story of one family’s demise at the hands of a hotel. This film is often analyzed for its commentary on gender, capitalism, sexual repression, cinematography, and race. This paper will focus on race in The Shining in order to better understand the scene of Dick Hallorann’s murder.

The appearance of Native American artwork on the walls behind Hallorann as he walks from the front door to the stairs invokes the history of Native Americans with the hotel. In “Seeing is Digesting: Labyrinths of Historical Ruin in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining”, Amy Nolan asserts, “Although they are never the main focus within the film, these [Indian] artifacts command our attention and demand from the

viewer a deeper reflection on the brutal history of a still-young nation” (187). Ullmann tells the Torrances, on their initial tour of the hotel, that it was built on an old “Indian burial ground” and the hotel had to endure “a few Indian attacks during construction”. The death of these Native Americans causes the viewer to wrestle with anxiety the further Hallorann gets into the hotel. There is a fear for Hallorann’s life that brings historical trauma to the forefront of the scene and highlights those “Navajo and Apache” designs on the walls and the rugs on the floor.
Alongside the Navajo and Apache designs scattered throughout the scene, the howling wind is integral to this scene.

The viewer is first introduced to the sound as the Snowcat machine, driven by Hallorann, climbs over the hill down to the hotel. At first this sound is interpreted as howling winter wind, nothing unexpected in a harsh Colorado winter. However, as Hallorann enters the hotel, this sound intensifies and becomes indistinguishable as the wind or a sorrowful moaning. This moaning, along with the Native American motifs in this scene, reminds the viewer that Native people were laid to rest in the grounds of the hotel or died at the hands of the hotel. The whipping winter wind becomes distinct as the moaning of these dead Native Americans. Though never shown in human form, the rugs and tapestries in the hotel serve as the ghosts of these people whose mournful voices we

hear.
This mournful moan and the Native American designs remind the viewer that the origins of the hotel were possible only by the historical disenfranchisement of non-white people in the area now occupied by the hotel.

As Hallorann, an older Black male, moves through the hotel, the viewer’s sense of anxiety increases until it is beyond bearable and settles into an uncomfortable sensation of terror in the pit of the stomach. This uneasiness and queasiness in the stomach reminds the viewer of Hallorann’s position as a cook at the hotel. It brings to the forefront Grady’s earlier racist description of Hallorann to Jack Torrance as a “nigger cook”. With the use of one word, an entire history of slavery and oppression is invoked. Hallorann and the Native American ghosts share a history of ancestral suffering at the hands of white

people.
Historical trauma brings the sounds, the designs, and Hallorann’s exposed black body together. For a moment, the viewer can see and feel overwhelming emotion at the imminent death of Hallorann. Nolan explains this sensation as “a rich bodily experience, in that viewers comprehend Kubrick’s vision of American history through the intimate lens of largely nonverbal, lived, imagined, and felt moments” (181). This dread that rests in the stomach surges and frightens as Jack leaps from behind the last pillar and plunges the ax into Hallorann’s chest. Although the audience has expected this moment it still shocks and horrifies. Hallorann’s status as an employee of the hotel and the presence of Native American spirits show the viewer the cyclical suffering non-whites will have at the hands of the hotel. The Native American spirits have bared witness to another death of a non-white person. As Hallorann screams the mournful moaning grows louder and transforms into chants heard in later scenes within the hotel.
Dick Hallorann’s death in The Shining serves as an apex of the racial aspects of historical trauma in the Overlook Hotel. Fortunately, Hallorann’s arrival at the hotel secures an alternative opportunity for Wendy and Danny to escape jack’s murderous rampage. Although his death was unnecessary, tragic, and deviates from Stephen King’s novel, it allows Kubrick to create a space for discussing his “vision of American history” (Nolan 181). A history marred by the bloodshed of non-white people.