The Shining: Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

Jack sits at the Sidewinder Public Library looking through old issues of the Sidewinder Gazette and the Boulder Camera. After 1965, all newspapers are on microfilm, and the distorted screen of the reading machine is giving Jack a screaming headache. Wendy asks how much longer Jack will be; Danny is at a nearby playground, and she doesn’t want him outside too long. She asks what Jack is looking for anyway, and Jack says he is doing some research on the Overlook’s history.

Wendy asks Jack if he is finding anything interesting, and he responds pleasantly, but Wendy’s questions are seriously irritating him. It is just like when she would ask him a million questions during his drinking days with Al. She drove him to drink, Jack thinks. She certainly wasn’t the only reason, Jack admits, but sometimes Wendy nags him so much that he just wants to hit her to shut her up. Wendy asks if he is feeling okay and comments that he looks pale. “I am fine!” Jack yells at her suddenly.  

Wendy begins to walk away, clearly upset by Jack’s sudden explosion, but he stops her and apologizes. It is his headache, Jack says, that’s making him cranky. He asks Wendy if she has any aspirin, and she hands him tin of Anacin from her purse. Jack is disappointed and asks if she has Excedrin instead. She stops and stares at him. Jack hasn’t had Excedrin since he quit drinking and swore that the medication was the only thing that could cure a hangover. Wendy tells Jack she doesn’t have any Excedrin, and Jack says the Anacin is fine, but Wendy knows it isn’t.

Wendy asks Jack if he would like some water, and he tells her he will stop at the drinking fountain, but in his head he is screaming at her. “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” Jack thinks. Wendy tells Jack she and Danny will be waiting at the playground and leaves. Jack looks back to the microfilm but can’t ignore his headache. He goes to the circulation desk and asks the librarian if she has a payphone, and she directs him to a drugstore down the street. Jack goes immediately to the drugstore and buys a bottle of Excedrin on his way to the payphone in the back.

In the phone booth, Jack opens the Excedrin and lines up three pills before picking up the phone and asking the operator to connect him to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The line rings once at the Surf-Sand Resort, and Jack asks for Ullman. Jack pops one of the aspirin into his mouth and tastes the familiar bitterness. He chewed aspirin habitually back in his drinking days, but he hasn’t done it since, having read somewhere that chewing aspirin can be addictive. Ullman picks up the line and is instantly worried that something is wrong. No, Jack assures him, everything is fine. The boiler is holding, and Jack hasn’t killed his wife yet. He is saving murder for after the holidays when things get boring, he jokes.

Ullman doesn’t think Jack is funny and asks him what he wants. Jack says he just has some questions about the hotel’s history and Horace Derwent. Ullman didn’t tell him that Derwent had ties to the mob, Jack says, nor did Ullman tell him about the shooting in the Presidential Suite. Ullman argues that the hotel’s history has no bearing on Jack’s ability to do his job as caretaker, but Jack cuts him off. Ullman didn’t tell him about Gienelli and the woman who bought the hotel after his murder. Ullman tries to speak, but Jack keeps going. He didn’t tell Jack about the U.S. senator who died of a heart attack at the hotel wearing a garter belt and patent leather high heel shoes. Ullman screams that such rumors are lies, but Jack isn’t so sure.

Ullman says that there is no way he’s going to share the hotel’s scandals with the caretaker and asks who Jack thinks he is. Jack reminds Ullman that he dragged Jack’s personal history into the interview and embarrassed him, and Ullman threatens to fire him. Jack says that Al Shockley wouldn’t like that, but Ullman says that Jack overestimates his importance. Jack ignores Ullman and asks who owns the Overlook now, but Ullman refuses to tell him. Jack continues to push, and Ullman says that Al Shockley owns 35 percent, but Ullman won’t reveal the other major stockholders. Jack tells Ullman about the scrapbook and asks if he knows who it belongs to, but Ullman assures him that he doesn’t. 

Jack says that he is considering writing a book about the Overlook Hotel, and Ullman tells him that would be a major mistake. Jack pops the last of the three aspirin into his mouth, feeling an instant high. Ullman claims that he would fire Jack right now if he was convinced he wouldn’t lose his own job in the process, and he promises to call Al Shockley immediately. Jack tells Ullman not to worry—there will be nothing in the book that isn’t true. Ullman begins to yell that he wants Jack out of his hotel. “It’s not your hotel!” Jack screams and hangs up the phone.

“You lost your temper again,” Jack thinks to himself. He wipes his lips with the back of his hand and thinks about how badly he needs a drink. There is a bar down the street, and he considers going there and ordering a martini. He doesn’t even know why he called Ullman in the first place, and now it seems likely that he has just lost his job. Had Jack called Ullman simply because he embarrassed Jack during the job interview? Jack isn’t sure, but he knows calling him was stupid, like the kind of stupid thing one does when drunk. But, of course, Jack is sober.

Jack walks outside and is met by Wendy and Danny. It is beginning to snow, and the street is already dusted white. Wendy asks if Jack thinks this is the snow that will finally block them into the hotel, and Jack admits that he would like another week or so before that happens. As they get into the trunk to head back to the hotel, Jack realizes that even though he is intrigued by the hotel, he doesn’t actually like it very much. Maybe that is why he called Ullman, Jack thinks to himself, so he could get fired before the snow falls.