Symbols, Imagery, Allegory
We use the word REDRUM throughout this guide to refer to killing and violence. If you really want to understand redrum, try this brief exercise. First, get some red lipstick (like Danny writes with...
Setting
The Overlook Hotel is one of the most famous and most scary fictional buildings ever, right up there with the Bates Motel. The Overlook was inspired by the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. St...
What's Up With the Title?
The title alerts us to the 'big idea' or central concept around which the novel orbits. It sounds like something that's somehow beautiful and horrible at the same time, like the novel itself.Shinin...
What's Up With the Epigraph?
It was in this apartment, also, that there stood … a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when … the hour was to be stricken,...
What's Up With the Ending?
The Shining is a tragedy, and we'd be remiss to classify the ending otherwise. Jack's death hurts because readers have probably built up considerable sympathy for him by the time he dies. There's t...