Preview

Alcoholism in the Shining

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
621 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Alcoholism in the Shining
Alcoholism in “The Shining” In “The Shining”, written by Steven King, the reader is exposed to an issue that a lot of families face in the real world that of which is alcoholism. The story’s main character, Jack Torrance, struggles from this issue due to his troubled past regarding an abusive and alcoholic father as well as his struggle of becoming the very man he loved, yet hated as a child. By exposing the reader to alcoholism, they are instantly aware of the outcomes of it and how it can affect someone. King uses this method to help enhance the story, to allow the contents of the book to become real and relatable to the reader, and most importantly, to allow the reader to actually sympathize with the main characters.
Throughout the novel, we grow to be very fond of the Torrance family and how they attempt to cope with living in the Outlook Hotel. The reader learns of Jack Torrance’s troubled past and how he is attempting to stay sober for the sake of his family due to how uncontrolled his temper can be while abusing alcohol (“Landscape of Fear: Stephen King’s American Gothic 105”). The reader also learns of Wendy who is Jack’s wife, and how she struggles with Jack’s abuse and the inability to leave her marriage due to the problem of not being able to support her and Danny by herself, and lastly, Danny, who is the son of Jack and Wendy and who also struggles with Jack’s abuse due to alcohol. In my opinion, Stephen King uses these three different, yet similar standpoints to emphasize alcoholism and how it manages to affect other people, not just the individual who has the issue. “We all know men like Jack Torrance who carry the vicious Mr. Hyde beneath the veneer of their cultured and educated Dr. Jekyll, separated only by a few martinis that serve to blur the line between beast and civilized man” (“Stephen King: America’s Storyteller” 93).
Later in the novel, we progressively notice Jack’s state of mind change for the worse and how violent he starts to slowly



Cited: King, Stephen. The Shining. New York, NY: Pocket, 2001. Print. Magistrale, Tony. Landscape of Fear : Stephen King 's American Gothic. Popular Press, 2004. Print. Magistrale, Tony. Stephen King : America 's Storyteller. Praeger Publishers, 2009. Print.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    I think the reason he became a drunk was because of his mother. She was probably abusing him sexually as a child .He never went to a therapist to talk about the abuse so he doesn’t know how to cope with it. He just turns to alcohol to forget about what he had to deal with at home. Jeanette and her siblings used to look to their father, but as they got older they realized how unreliable and…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Laura struggled in school, never went to college, and had troubles at home with her father. Laura and her family had a normal life when she was growing up. She had four siblings, and her mother and father were together and both held stable jobs. To everyone else they looked like a normal happy family. But when her father got home from his job as a bartender, he was a completely different person. He drank throughout his shift every day and came home late at night drunk and angry. Although he never hit the children, he hit his wife and verbally abused his children every night. He was the hardest on Laura’s little brother, Frankie: “…Frank would be sound asleep, and my father would appear in his bedroom… He would scream and curse at the boy, as if Frank were a man he held some mortal grievance against…five minutes of yelling. Ten minutes. It seemed like it would never end” (Schroff and Trensniowski 77-78). When their father was sober, he was the perfect dad. He loved his kids and treated them well. But once he drank, he turned into a monster that everyone in the family got used to fearing. This created conflict because the children never knew which mood their father would be in. The last conflict present in this novel was the relationship between Maurice and…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Simple Gift -Alcoholism

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Alcoholism is a secret destroyer of Australian homes,” this statement is shown in the text The Simple Gift. Many characters are affected by alcoholism in the text The Simple Gift. This essay will be about, how characters were affected by alcohol, why Old Bill drank so much and uniting three characters together.…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To conclude, Jack spends nearly the whole book trying to get power over Ralph, and when he finally does, he uses it for evil instead of actually helping his tribe like he promised. Jack knows that he has to be leader and makes that goal happen for himself. Even if that means a little murder here and…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Story of Tom Brennan

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In 'The Story of Tom Brennan', J.C. Burke has emphasised the consequences of drinking and driving, and has communicated the impact it can have on the people directly involved in the accident and the wider community. Drink driving is becoming increasingly common in modern society and the consequences can be very difficult to deal with. Daniel is the character who takes a lot of the blame for the accident. Through his reckless behaviour, there have been two deaths and one boy who will be a paraplegic for the rest of his life, not to mention the psycological effects on all involved. This impacts upon the families of all of these people, and the whole community. Drink driving is a part of the culture in Australian urban areas, but…

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tom Finder

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages

    One instance that demonstrates effects of drugs on family relationship is when Tom's step father Bruce, takes his anger out on Tom's mother due to the overuse of alcohol. When Tom's stepfather took his anger out on Tom's mother it caused eruption, anger, and violence. These were things that caused an unstable environment in toms home, which is the reason why he moved out. He could not handle the constant arguing and fighting. The fact that his mother took this abuse from Bruce, also brought out anger inside of Tom. Watching his own mother take the abuse day after day was frustrating for him and he believed that his mother could of moved out and created a better life for both him…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alcohol was the father’s weakness. Although he disagreed with his family all the time, the children…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charles Bukowski, an American poet, novelist, and short story writer, once said “If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.” Many people around the world struggle with alcoholism. They will find any reason just to slip a drink into their daily routines. Some people drink to forget the guilt and shame, some drink as a way of celebration, and others drink because of they are physically dependent on it. The addiction to alcohol is an illness and the people surrounding an alcoholic can be negatively impacted by their ways. The many consequences that come with the addiction can often lead negative outcomes such as death and crumbling relationships.…

    • 273 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alcohol abuse creates unhealthy situations and also brings out a defiant side in many individuals. April Raintree, the protagonist in the novel In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier, challenges the adverse effects of alcoholism; however, Mosionier proposes that hope can be found in situations where alcohol is abused. Alcoholism has destructive effects on families and the inner-workings of the familial relationships, but overcoming these hardships allows opportunity for individual growth.…

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Don The Drinking Analysis

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In addition to the physical and mental health issues, alcohol affects how Don behaves socially. How Don interacts with people while sober is entirely different then when he is drunk. Don describes this to Helen as him being two different people; “Don the drunk” and “Don the writer”. The writer half of Don is the successful and loving person he wants to be. Don the drunk is completely irrational and inconsiderate, doing anything to gain access to alcohol. Don speaks of the two halves as if they are fighting each other and that Don the drunk is winning. This drunk side begins to take over his social life, changing how he acts and thus how others see him. Mary Valmas mentions in her study on alcoholics that “alcoholism has been associated with…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mr. Bradshaw drew on his unhappy childhood as the son of an alcoholic father, his own drinking problems and his work as a counselor to develop a set of explanations for myriad psychological ills.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alcoholism is one of the most common disorders in the world today. It is a disease, a sickness that harms the body and the mind in the most violent ways possible. The body is racked by a need to suffice its desire, and this leads addicts to do anything to get the alcohol into their systems. In Angela 's Ashes, alcoholism is a major theme, and becomes the destroyer of the families and loved ones that are involved.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In James Joyce’s Counterparts, Farrington battles with alcoholism. James Joyce perceives the main character as drinking away his problems by having a drink any time a petty statement or dig is referred toward him. Since his boss constantly pushes at him since he is so focused on having another drink rather than getting his work done, he succumbs to both his wished and faults. While his lunch break occurs he has one with what little money he has to try and fill his desires and agitation towards his boss. This is what clouds his judgment on time and prevents him from finishing his work. Obviously he doesn’t realize this, but his boss does and therefore his boss is fed but with constant tardiness and focus that his employer demonstrates. Alcoholism starts with one drink, just as the main character did, and then continues to drive a desire until it becomes an unbearable point. James Joyce demonstrated how alcoholism not only doesn’t fulfill the alcoholic itself but also hurts the people around them.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Man Loves a Woman

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I believe that the message of the movie is to show that anyone can become and alcoholic based on their choices alone. It also shows how easy it is to let someone that you care about continue to do things wrong because you don’t want them to be hurt by you in the short term, but this can result in long-term damage than sometimes can’t be fixed.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Effects of Alcohol

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In some of the first steps of alcoholism the image of drinking is no longer to socialize and have a good time it becomes a necessity to cope with life to escape from stress, inhibitions and anxiety. Early in the disease of alcoholism the person with the drinking problem starts to…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays