The Shining Summary and Complete Study Guide

Jack completely loses it and hunts Wendy and Danny through the hotel with a roque mallet. Danny's psychic scream reaches Hallorann in Florida, and he drives through a blizzard to help. Jack attacks Hallorann too. Danny has been seeing visions of the hotel's boiler that Jack forgot to dump—it's building pressure. In a moment of clarity, Jack tells Danny to run. The boiler explodes, destroying the hotel and Jack with it. Danny, Wendy, and injured Hallorann survive. King is exploring addiction, domestic violence, and how isolation amplifies our demons. The hotel represents temptation and past mistakes that haunt us. Jack's alcoholism and rage were always there—the hotel just gave them permission. The message? Your personal demons are scarier than any ghost. Violence is a cycle that can consume families. And sometimes places absorb evil and feed it back to vulnerable people.

Published 1977, King's third novel and first hardcover bestseller. The 1980 Stanley Kubrick film with Jack Nicholson became iconic but King hated it—he felt it missed the book's emotional core about addiction and family. King wrote it while struggling with alcoholism, and Jack's descent mirrors his own fears about hurting his family. The novel sold millions and established King as a master of psychological horror. The Overlook Hotel became one of fiction's most famous haunted locations. Doctor Sleep, the 2013 sequel, follows adult Danny. The book explores toxic masculinity, domestic violence, and addiction more honestly than most horror. King shows that real horror is what humans do to each other, not ghosts. The supernatural elements amplify Jack's existing demons rather than creating them.