The Shining (novel) - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

In 1976, Jack Torrence is an aspiring writer who is attempting to rebuild his marriage and career, both of which have been nearly ruined by two traits inherited from his late father: alcoholism and an explosive temper. During one occasion while drinking, Jack broke his son's arm. This incident shocked him into sobriety, but Jack's temper continued to plague him: he lost his teaching position at a Vermont prep school after assaulting a student. Jack eagerly accepts a job as a winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, an isolated resort in the Colorado Rockies. Jack hopes that the seclusion will help him reconnect with his family and give him inspiration and the peace and quiet to help him write a new play. Jack, his wife Wendy, and their five-year-old son, Danny—who has telepathic abilities unknown to his parents—move into the Overlook.

Danny's abilities make him immediately sensitive to supernatural forces within the hotel. Shortly after the family's arrival at the Overlook, Danny and the hotel's chef, Dick Hallorann, talk privately to discuss Danny's talent and the hotel's sinister nature. Dick informs Danny that he shares Danny's abilities (though to a lesser degree), as did Dick's grandmother, who called it "shining". Dick warns Danny to avoid Room 217, but assures him that the things he may see are merely pictures which cannot harm him. Dick urges Danny to contact him through the shining should trouble arise.

As the Torrances settle in at the Overlook, Danny sees frightening ghosts and visions. Although Danny is close to Jack, he does not tell either of his parents about his visions because he senses that the caretaking job is important to his father and the family's future. Wendy considers leaving Jack at the Overlook to finish the job on his own; Danny refuses, thinking his father will be happier if they stay. However Danny soon realizes his presence in the hotel makes the supernatural activity more powerful, enabling it to make what Hallorann described as 'pictures' dangerous. Apparitions take form and the garden's topiary animals come to life. Objects, such as a party hat in the elevator, mysteriously appear.

The Overlook has difficulty possessing Danny, so it begins to possess Jack, frustrating his need and desire to work. Jack becomes susceptible to cabin fever, and the sinister ghosts of the hotel gradually begin to overtake him, making him increasingly unstable. One day, after a fight with Wendy, Jack finds the hotel's bar fully stocked with alcohol despite being previously empty. As he gets drunk, the hotel urges Jack to kill his wife and son. Wendy and Danny get the better of Jack, locking him into the walk-in pantry, but the ghost of Delbert Grady, a former caretaker who murdered his family and then committed suicide, releases him.

Wendy discovers that they are completely isolated at the Overlook, as Jack has sabotaged the hotel's snowcat and smashed the CB radio in the office. Jack strikes Wendy with one of the hotel's mallets, breaking two ribs, a kneecap, and one vertebra in her back. Wendy stabs Jack in the small of his back with a large butcher knife, then crawls away to the caretaker's suite and locks herself in the bathroom, with Jack in pursuit. Jack tries to break the door with the mallet, but before he unlocks the door she keeps him back by cutting him with some razor blades.

Hallorann, working at a winter resort in Florida, has heard Danny's psychic call for help and rushes back to the Overlook. Jack leaves Wendy in the bathroom and ambushes Hallorann, shattering his jaw and giving him a concussion with the mallet, before setting off after Danny. Danny distracts Jack by saying "You're not my daddy," having realized that the Overlook has completely taken over Jack by playing on his alcoholism. Jack temporarily regains control of himself and tells Danny, "Run away. Quick. And remember how much I love you". Soon after, Jack is quickly possessed by the hotel again. He violently bashes his own face and skull in with his mallet so Danny can no longer recognize him as his father. Danny, realizing that his father is now gone forever, tells Jack that the unstable boiler is going to explode. In response, Jack rushes to the basement. Danny and Wendy reunite in the lobby, and they flee the Overlook with Hallorann. Though Jack tries to relieve the boiler pressure, it explodes, destroying the hotel. The building's spirit makes one last desperate attempt to possess Hallorann and make him kill Danny and Wendy, but he shakes it off and brings them to safety.

The novel ends with Danny and Wendy summering at a resort in Maine where Hallorann, the head chef, talks with Danny and comforts him over the loss of his father.