The Shining Research Paper

838 Words2 Pages

Laura Burleson
FYE Pop Culture of the 1980’s
November 18, 2014
The Shining Horror movies have always been amongst the most popular of movie genres. The gripping suspense and paralyzing scenes thrill moviegoers and make the viewer feel the stress and anxiety that the characters themselves feel. A classic horror movie is The Shining, which was originally a novel by Stephen King, and was created into a movie in the 1980’s. The director, Stanley Kubrick, worked with Stephen King and stayed true to the novel and created one of the most realistic horror movies the world has ever seen. The movie is set in Colorado in the winter time. The Torrence family; father Jack, son Danny, and wife Wendy, all move to the Overlook Hotel in the mountainous region …show more content…

Most people are so busy with the hustle and bustle of daily life, they have no time for themselves. This is the case of Jack Torrence, the father of the shining family. When presented with months of alone time, Jack realized that “me time” is not really all it is made out to be. Jack’s slow, painful fall into mental instability is easy to see from the middle of the film on. Jack, being a writer, spends most of his time brainstorming in the Colorado lounge. His brainstorming activity is usually throwing a tennis ball against a wall creating an eerie and monotonous sound echoing through the halls. Jack begins typing. Whenever he is interrupted from typing, he is thrown into a fit of rage and lashes out on whoever is around. The final straw is when Jack, following the steps of the Grady family, tries to kill his family with an axe. Jack is convinced to kill his family while meandering around the hotel. According to the film, Jack finds an open bar with a sketchy bartender named Lloyd, who encourages Jack to “correct” his family. After watching the movie a thousand more times, it is made clear that Jack is in a world all of his own, and is having a hallucinogenic fit, maybe induced by drinking too much alcohol. After being sober for five months, Jack’s drinking problem came back and had detrimental effects on the

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