Graeme Boland: The Shining

The Shining begins with our main character, Jack Torrance, driving up to the Outlook Hotel to interview for a job. We soon find out that the job Jack is interviewing for is to stay at watch over the Outlook Hotel with his family for the entirety of the winter to ensure that the hotel is not struck with catastrophic destruction. Jack is informed by the interviewer that the last man who accepted this job suffered a mental breakdown 2 months into the residency caused by isolation, axe-murdered his family, and then killed himself. Jack, of course, laughs this off and drives home to tell his family the good news about the job. The Torrance family proceeds to drive to the Overlook Hotel to begin their task.
When the Torrance family arrives at the resort, they are first given a tour. During this tour, we find out the son of the Torrance family, Danny Torrance, has some sort of telepathic power known to the audience at this point as “shining”. This is why he is able to hear the chef’s thoughts and speak to his “imaginary” friend, Tony.
One month into the stay, the resort is hit with a massive snow storm which begins the deterioration of Jack’s sanity. As time goes on Jack becomes increasingly more irritable with his family and constantly complains he is always being interrupted by his wife, Wendy, while he is trying to write (it should be noted that Jack’s occupation outside the Outlook Hotel is writing). We also discover along the way that the hotel is possibly haunted with the most obvious reason being there is a “woman” in the elusive room 237 that attempts the strangle both Danny first, then Jack. This causes Wendy to blame Jack for hurting Danny before she realizes what the actual case is.
Soon after this, Wendy wanders into Jack’s study where he has been writing. After being rejected from reading what he has written the whole movie, she has now found the study empty and decides to read what jack has been writing this whole time. It turns out, Jack has obviously been insane ever since he started writing here because every page she finds has “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” typed repeatedly for which seems like hundreds of pages. Wendy, realizing her husband has gone insane, attempts to convince Jack to leave the resort with her and Danny before she is forced to hit him over the head with a bat. When Jack awakes, he is ready to murder his family. He grabs an axe and starts to track them down. A chase ensues eventually leading Jack into the resort’s maze, mid-blizzard. Danny and Wendy escape in the snow cat that has been parked outside the whole movie and Jack is left to freeze in the blizzard when he cannot find his way out of the maze.

5 words: isolation, anger, sanity, deterioration, stubbornness
Thesis Statement: This film is a story about the effect that isolation has on the mind over an extended period of time.