The Shining: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

It is late at night, and Jack listens as Wendy and Danny pretend to sleep. He can still taste the Excedrin on his tongue and thinks about the call from Al Shockley that came earlier in the evening. When Jack picked up the ringing phone, Al immediately asked him what was going on. Stuart Ullman had called Al, upset about Jack and some book about the Overlook. Jack admitted that he only called Ullman to give him a hard time. Ullman had embarrassed Jack when he hired him, Jack told Al, and he only wanted a little payback.

Although, Jack admitted, he would like to write a book about the Overlook. It would be an amazing book, Jack told Al, but Al refused to allow it. Al plans to be associated with the Overlook for many years to come, and he said the idea of Jack writing a book to smear his hotel made him nauseous. Al was clearly angry. He’d tried to help Jack, Al said. He had the board at Stovington thinking about giving Jack tenure before he hit George Hatfield, and Al gave him a job at the hotel. Al asked Jack if this is how he treats his friends, and Jack said that he had no intention of hurting Al.

Jack asked Al if he is fired from the Overlook, and Al said that he isn’t, as long as Jack doesn’t contact Ullman again and promises not to write a book about the hotel. Before Jack hung up the phone, he asked if Derwent was still involved with the hotel, but Al didn’t see how that was any of Jack’s business. Jack hung up and told Wendy that everything was fine, that Al had just called to check in. Then he went to bed early, complaining of a headache, even though Jack knew he wouldn’t fall asleep.

At the same time Jack is thinking about the phone call, Wendy lays in bed listening to Jack breathe. She is incredibly worried about him. Many of his old drinking symptoms have returned: the wiping of his mouth, increased swearing and irritability, the constant chewing of Excedrin. Wendy is worried that Jack’s temper will return, too. When Al called earlier, Wendy noticed that Danny lost interest in the book he was learning to read and stared toward the office where Jack was talking on the phone. Danny seemed anxious during the call—wiping his lips and running his hands through his hair like Jack—and Wendy did not believe that Al had called just to see how things were going.

As Wendy watched Danny fidget during the phone call, she was convinced that Danny has more than the intuition Dr. Edmonds claimed. When she helped Danny get ready for bed, she causally mentioned that Al called, and Danny said he knew all about it. Al was angry, Danny said, because he doesn’t want Jack to write a book about the hotel. Wendy wondered how Danny could possibly know that, but she didn’t ask. As Wendy lays in bed, she decides it is time to have a serious conversation with Danny about the hotel. They are planning a trip to the Sidewinder Public Library tomorrow to see about keeping some books long-term over the winter, and she resolves to talk to him then. 

Danny is awake in his own bed, staring at the nightlight. He knows that things are much worse at the Overlook now than they had been before. Jack is thinking about drinking a lot more now, Danny knows, and he always seems mad at Wendy for no reason. Jack keeps wiping his mouth, and his eyes even look drunk and hazy.

Danny thinks back to his experience earlier with the fire hose. He considered telling Wendy about it, but he is sure that she will think he is going crazy. Back in Vermont, Danny had a friend whose father “LOST HIS MARBLES” and had to go the “THE BUGHOUSE.” His friend’s father tried to kill his whole family and then ate a bowl of dead bugs and grass like cereal and milk. Jack had tried to explain to Danny that his friend’s father was under stress and had a nervous breakdown. Regardless of what it was called, Danny knew that his friend’s father was taken away by men in white jackets and wouldn’t see his family again for a long time.

Danny badly wants to get away from the Overlook Hotel. He knows that Jack needs the job to get their lives back on tract, and until recently, it seemed he was succeeding. But ever since Jack found the scrapbook, things have changed. Still, Danny is afraid to say something to either Jack or Wendy, even though he knows things are worse at the hotel. It is beginning to snow now, and Danny knows it won’t be long before they will be unable to leave. Danny wonders what will happen then. “Redrum,” he thinks. Danny decides he must make Tony tell him what exactly redrum is, and he must do it as soon as possible.