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Chapter 29
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shining, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fear, the Paranormal, and Reality
Precognition, Second Sight, and the Shining
Family
Isolation and Insanity
Alcoholism and Abuse
Time
Summary
Analysis
Jack takes the elevator up to the second floor, which feels strange because Wendy hasn’t let anyone use it since Ullman took them in it their first day at the hotel. Wendy worries that the three of them will get trapped in the elevator and have to eat each other like those rugby players did. As the elevator climbs, Jack takes three aspirin from the Excedrin bottle. He isn’t afraid of the hotel at all. Jack and the Overlook are in sync with each other.
Here, Jack is further becoming the hotel. He is in sync with it, like they are one. Jack’s mention of the rugby players is a reference to the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes Mountain in 1972. 45 people were on board, but only 28 survived. When they were rescued 72 days later, only 18 of them were left, and they survived by consuming those who died. Jack’s reference to the rugby players again underscores their complete isolation at the hotel.
Themes
Jack steps off the elevator on the second floor and walks in the direction of room 217. He can see that the door is slightly ajar, and the skeleton key hangs from the door knob. Jack is suddenly irritated. He specifically told Danny to stay out of the guest rooms—all of them—and Jack will definitely be having a talk with him when things settle down. Most fathers would do more than talk, and Jack thinks that might be just what Danny needs.
This again speaks to Jack’s abusive nature. Danny was scared to death in room 217, which seems like punishment enough, but Jack is determined to punish him further. Jack doesn’t just want to scold Danny, he wants to physically punish him. Jack’s sudden irritation again points to his building insanity. His moods are unstable, and he goes from one extreme to the next.
Themes
Jack goes to the door of 217 and removes the key. He puts it in his pocket and enters. He isn’t exactly sure, but Jack bets that this is the room where Mrs. Massey killed herself. The light is still on, but nothing looks disturbed. The bed is zipped in plastic and covered with a bedspread, and the door leading to the bathroom is slightly open. Jack pushes through the mirror-backed door into the bathroom. The pink shower curtain is drawn, so he pushes it back. The tub is empty and completely dry. He looks down and notices the bath mat. Strange, Jack thinks. All the linens were put away at the end of the season. A maid was probably in a hurry, Jack decides, and turns and walks back into the main part of the room.
Jack’s intuition tells him that this is the room Mrs. Massey committed suicide in, which again suggests Jack might be able to shine on some level. Earlier in the novel, Watson said that hotels are superstitious about mirrors on doors, yet one hangs here. Mirrors are often considered portals, or entrances to other dimensions and planes of existence. The mirror on the bathroom door, then, suggests that Mrs. Massey is able to slip back and forth between the Overlook Hotel and whatever dimension she occupies in death.
Themes
As Jack enters the main part of the room, he catches the unmistakable smell of disinfectant and soap, the scented kind, like Camay or Lowila. He hears the sound of the shower curtain moving along the metal bar, so he turns back to the bathroom to have a look. The shower curtain is completely closed, but Jack can make out a shape behind it. There is definitely someone in the bathtub, he realizes, and feels a headache begin at his temples. Jack tells himself to and rip the curtain back, but he instead turns and walks back out to the main part of the room. The door leading into the hall is closed.
Jack isn’t so in sync with the hotel now, and he is most certainly terrified. He is smelling Mrs. Massey’s scented soap and hears her get into the bathtub. Jack’s headache, which is also linked to his drinking, is a clear response to his terror, and he can’t force himself to look in the tub. The closed door (it was opened when Jack came in) seems to lock him in, as if the room, or Mrs. Massey, wants to hold him captive.
Themes
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Jack walks across room 217 to the door and fears that it won’t open, but it does. He turns off the light and closes the door. He can hear wet sounds inside, like someone getting out of the tub quickly to answer the door. Jack clumsily reaches in his pocket for the key and slips it in the lock. He turns the key and step back, relieved. Jack thinks he is losing his mind. He closes his eyes and hears the unmistakable sound of the doorknob turning. Jack squeezes his eyes shut and waits. There is only silence.
As time is relative at the Overlook, there is no telling how long Jack stands with his eyes closed. Clearly, there is something in room 217, and it has the ability to bruise skin and turn doorknobs. Again, the fact that Jack is having this experience at all suggests that he can shine. Danny didn’t seem to think that Jack would see anything in the room, but he was obviously wrong.
Themes
Jack finally opens his eyes to an empty hallway. He turns and walks away, his feet moving quickly on the bright blue and black carpet. He passes the old-fashioned fire extinguisher and thinks that it looks different. Jack swears the nozzle was facing the other direction when he went into room 217. Jack keeps moving down the hall to the stairs; he doesn’t take the elevator this time.
King draws attention to the carpet, which is the same carpet from Danny’s vision in which Jack chases Danny with the roque mallet. Jack is clearly terrified, which is reflected in his decision not to take the elevator. He was brave on his way up to 217, but now Jack has completely lost his nerve.
Themes
