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Chapter 56
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
The hotel shakes, and the hedge dog that is advancing on Wendy and Danny runs off. Hallorann gets to his feet and sees the rabbit beating itself on the fence around the playground. He can hear breaking and snapping twigs. Danny is trying to help Wendy to the snowmobile, but their coats and gloves have been scattered. Hallorann gathers their coats and meets them at the snowmobile. He tells them to get on, but Danny says they will freeze to death. Hallorann says there are blankets in the equipment shed.
At the same time the hotel explodes and burns, the topiaries are destroyed as well. The rabbit, which doesn’t start on fire destroys itself instead. Without the hotel to sustain it, the topiary animals cannot survive.
Themes
Piled on the snowmobile, Hallorann drives around to the shed. He looks up at the Presidential Suite and thinks he sees a large dark mass in the window. Hallorann remembers that more than 50 years ago, when he and his brother found a massive wasps’ nest. His brother threw a lit firecracker at it, and it exploded, followed by an angry mob of wasps. Hallorann pulls up to the equipment shed and aims the headlight at the door. It is open. Danny refuses to go in and urges Hallorann to hurry.
Hallorann’s vision of the dark mass in the Presidential Suite and his sudden memory of the wasps’ nest implies that Hallorann, Wendy, and Danny are still in some sort of imminent danger. The have burned down the nest—meaning they have burned down the hotel—but the wasps are still swarming, and the threat is not yet neutralized.
Themes
Hallorann rushes into the equipment shed and grabs the blankets. He stops, noticing that one of the roque mallets is gone. It doesn’t really matter, Hallorann thinks. It isn’t like they will be playing roque, but an odd curiosity drives him to the remaining mallet. He thinks of the dull sound it would make connecting with something, and he thinks about bone and blood. Danny yells from outside for him to hurry up, and Hallorann’s grip tightens around the handle. All of this is Danny’s fault, Hallorann thinks. And he killed his own father. “Pretty goddam low,” Hallorann says.
Just like Jack’s early thoughts, Hallorann’s head is suddenly flooded with violence. He thinks of the sound the mallet makes when it connects with flesh, and he thinks of broken bones and blood. Hallorann is even turning on Danny, and calls him low for killing Jack. In a last ditch effort to get Danny, the hotel seizes on Hallorann.
Themes
With increasing terror, Hallorann becomes aware of his thoughts. The voice of the hotel enters his mind and tells him to kill Wendy and Danny. Hallorann throws the roque mallet and runs back to the snowmobile. Even if the Overlook burns to the ground, Hallorann realizes, it will still be evil. He wraps Danny and Wendy in the blankets and gets on the snowmobile. The animal topiaries have returned to their positions near the playground and are fully scorched and singed. “They’re dead!” Danny screams happily. As they ride off, again squeezing through the front gate, the Overlook’s roof caves in.
The hotel wants Danny so badly that it is still trying to get him, but Hallorann is able to resist and throw out the mallet. This implies that the hotel is not destroyed—that it can never be fully destroyed. However, it does appear to be weakened considerably as the animal topiaries are dead.
Themes
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20 miles out from Sidewinder, the snow stops, and the moon appears. Up ahead, single lights bounce in the darkness. Soon, the buzzing of snowmobiles can be heard, and Hallorann feels himself relax. Danny, Wendy, and Hallorann are saved—help has finally come. They have brought clothes, brandy, and Dr. Edmonds.
The snow continues to reflect the isolation of the Overlook. Now that Wendy and Danny are finally safe and off the mountain, the snow finally stops.
Themes
