Alcoholism and Abuse Theme Analysis

Alcoholism and abuse go hand in hand in The Shining, and together they dominate much of the novel. When Jack Torrance is gets a job as the winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, he learns about Grady, the previous caretaker, who went insane and murdered his family before committing suicide. Grady had been an alcoholic, the hotel’s manager, Mr. Ullman, tells Jack, and the tragedy “came as a result of too much cheap whiskey, of which Grady had laid in a generous supply.” Jack has his own history with alcoholism and abuse, but at the time he takes the job at the Overlook Hotel, he has been sober for over a year. Jack’s father was also an abusive alcoholic who savagely beat Jack’s mother with his cane, and Jack is terrified that he is turning into his father. Jack sees the Overlook as an added layer of protection for his sobriety—the hotel’s supply of alcohol was cleared out after the season ended, and once the snow blocks the roads, Jack won’t be able to get any. However, the sinister hotel soon begins to manipulate Jack’s addiction, and he quickly slips back into his abusive ways. Through The Shining, King explores the relationship between alcoholism and abuse and ultimately asserts that one often leads to the other.

Jack’s history with alcoholism and abuse is well established within the novel, and his abusive behavior is fueled by his alcoholism. In Stovington, Vermont, where the Torrances lived before Colorado, Jack was a teacher at a private school when alcohol destroyed his life. There were plenty of heavy drinkers in Stovington, but Jack and his friend Al Shockley were alcoholics, and they “sought each other out like two castoffs who were still social enough to prefer drowning together to doing it alone.” Jack isn’t just a heavy drinker; he is an alcoholic in the extreme, and he spent all his free time in Stovington drinking with Al. Back in Stovington, after a three-year-old Danny spilled beer on a copy of Jack’s play, Jack grabbed Danny in a drunken rage and snapped his arm. Jack was instantly remorseful, but the damage was done. Danny now refers to his father’s drinking as “the Bad Thing,” and it is intricately linked with abuse in his young mind. Jack quit drinking after Danny’s arm, but he soon lost his job when his abusive rage caused him to strike a student named George Hatfield. After the Board of Directors demanded Jack’s resignation, he wanted a drink so badly that he wanted “to take it out on Wendy and Danny. His temper was like a vicious animal on a frayed leash.” Jack’s alcoholism is so severe that it leads to abusive thoughts even when he isn’t drinking.

As the sinister Overlook Hotel begins to destroy Jack and his family, it does so through Jack’s alcoholism. The symptoms of Jack’s addiction begin to manifest—even in the absence of alcohol—and Jack soon reverts to his abusive behavior, again highlighting the connection between alcoholism and abuse. At the hotel, Jack begins to display the telltale signs of drinking that Wendy has come to know so well. He constantly wipes his mouth with a napkin and chews Excedrin one after another. Jack’s temper worsens as well, and even Danny is reminded of “the Bad Thing.” After Danny is chased by the animal topiaries and tells Jack his unbelievable story, Jack accuses him of lying and slaps Danny across the face. Just as Jack did when he was drinking in Stovington, he again “loses his temper” and abuses Danny. Jack’s thoughts toward Wendy turn violent as well, and he is soon filled with thoughts of killing her. As Jack wipes his sore lips, he dreams of making Wendy “take her medicine. Every drop. Every last bitter drop,” in the form of his abuse. Even though Jack does not have access to alcohol, he shows all the symptoms of alcoholism, and his family suffers because of it.

When the Overlook Hotel finally convinces Jack to kill Wendy and Jack, it does so by getting him drunk. Lloyd, the bartender who mysteriously appears in the hotel’s haunted lounge, lines up gin martinis for Jack, and he immediately knocks them back. It is in this drunken stupor that Jack takes a roque mallet to his wife and threatens to kill his beloved son. Without alcohol, the hotel isn’t able to fully possess Jack and convince him to kill his family. With alcohol, however, Jack’s abusive nature appears, just as Grady’s presumably did, which underscores the deep connection between alcoholism and abuse.