The Shining: Chapter 27 Summary & Analysis

At the sound of Jack’s screams, Wendy runs down the hall to Ullman’s office. At the top of the stairs stands Danny, motionless and staring into space with large purple bruises rising from his neck, but Wendy doesn’t look up. She runs through the door and finds Jack standing over the broken CB radio. She yells his name, and he looks at her, confused. He immediately begins to cry. Wendy has seen Jack cry before, but only when he was drunk and feeling bad about it. He comes to her, tears streaming down his face, and falls into her arms. She feels his breath hot in her face and smells no traces of alcohol. Not that she would, Wendy reminds herself—there isn’t any alcohol in the hotel.

Wendy asks Jack what is wrong, and he explains that he had been sleeping and was dreaming of his father. He heard his father’s voice coming through the CB in his dream and must have broken it in his sleep. Wendy asks why he was sleeping in the office, but Jack says he wasn’t. He fell asleep downstairs going through boxes and must have sleepwalked up to Ullman’s office. Wendy looks around and asks where Danny is. Jack says he thought Danny was with Wendy, and Wendy says she thought he was downstairs with Jack. Jack grows visibly angry and says that Wendy just loves to remind him about Danny’s accident any way she can. Jack swears that when he is on his deathbed, Wendy will lean over and remind him of Danny’s arm. 

Jack accuses Wendy of being convinced that Jack will hurt Danny again, but Wendy says she only wants to know where Danny is. “Go ahead, yell your fucking head off, that’ll make everything okay, won’t it?” Jack screams at Wendy. She turns and leaves the room, but Jack stops her. It is the dream, Jack says. He is upset and asks her to forgive him. She does, and they go to look for Danny. Wendy yells for Danny but is answered by silence. Suddenly, Jack stops in his tracks, sending Wendy crashing into his back. Wendy follows Jack’s line of sight to the top of the stairs and sees Danny standing motionless and sucking his thumb.

“Danny!” Wendy screams, taking the stairs two at a time. She reaches him and pulls him into her arms. Jack immediately asks what happened to Danny’s neck, pointing out the large bruises. “Don’t you touch him!” Wendy shrieks at Jack. “I’ll kill you if you lay your hands on him again!” Jack promises he didn’t touch Danny and says he is just as confused as Wendy is. But Wendy isn’t interested in listening to Jack, and she gathers Danny in her arms and runs to their room. Jack hears the door slam and the lock engage.

Alone in the room with Danny, Wendy hears Jack scream somewhere in the hotel. Wendy has no doubt that Jack has done this to Danny. She thinks Jack probably strangled Danny while sleepwalking, before he broke the CB. Still, Wendy thinks, she can’t possibly stay locked in the room forever. They will eventually have to eat. She wonders just how dangerous Jack is, and she knows that she will have to make a decision soon to find him. It isn’t like she can take Danny down to Ullman’s office and call for help on the CB.

Wendy curses herself for putting Danny back within Jack’s reach. She made the wrong decision to stay the winter at the hotel, and she made the wrong decision not to divorce Jack after he broke Danny’s arm. There isn’t a gun at the hotel, and Wendy has no way to protect herself and Danny. She decides she will stab Jack with a butcher knife if she has to, but while Jack is awake, she will have to assume that he is sane. While he is awake, she can convince Jack to help her get Danny down the mountain and back to Dr. Edmonds’s office.

Wendy opens the door and steps out. “Jack?” she calls out into the dark, but there is no answer. Instead, she hears Jack singing somewhere in the hotel. “Roll me over / In the clo-ho-ver,” Jack sings loudly. Wendy decides she doesn’t have a choice and starts down the stairs.