The Shining: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Danny sits outside on the curb. He knows by the growing shadows that it is almost five o’clock, even though he can’t tell time yet. He thinks about Jack and Wendy—he understands a lot about his parents, but they often refuse to believe it. Soon, Danny thinks, they will have to believe. It is a shame that Wendy doesn’t believe him now, as she lays in bed crying. Danny knows that she worries about grown-up things that he doesn’t quite grasp, but right now she is worried that the car has broken down or that Jack is doing the “Bad Thing.” Danny knows that neither is true. Jack is nearly home now.

Danny knows all about the “Bad Thing.” A boy at his school in Vermont had a father who did the “Bad Thing,” and his parents got a “DIVORCE.” Danny can see the word in red letters in his mind. He knows all about “DIVORCE,” too: it is when you don’t see your daddy, except on weekends. To Danny, “DIVORCE” is the absolute worst thing in the world, and he can sense the word circling in his parents’ minds. Danny first learned about “DIVORCE” after Jack hurt his arm. He hardly remembers the accident, but he clearly remembers his parents’ thoughts of “DIVORCE.”

Wendy’s thoughts of “DIVORCE” after Danny spilled beer in Jack’s study were constant. The thought hung in her mind with a slow, pulsing beat like music, and it mostly came from what Jack did to Danny and the incident with George Hatfield. Jack’s “DIVORCE” thoughts, on the other hand, were “colored dark and violet and shot through with frightening veins of pure black.” Jack hurts all of the time, Danny knows, mostly because of the “Bad Thing.” Danny wishes he could tell Wendy now that Jack is fine and almost home, and that she can stop crying, but he knows she won’t really believe him.  

Danny has tried to explain to Wendy and Jack that if he concentrates really hard, he can see things. One day, while Danny was concentrating on Jack and Wendy’s “DIVORCE” thoughts, he lost his sense of time and woke up on the floor with his dinner in his lap. Danny told his parents he was fine, and that losing time happens when he concentrates, or when he sees Tony, who his parents call his “invisible playmate.” But Wendy was too scared to listen; she made Danny promise never to scare her like that again. Danny promised, and for a moment he concentrated on Jack’s thoughts and saw the words “DIVORCE” and “SUICIDE” floating around.

Sometimes when Danny concentrates, Tony will come to him, but not always. Tony has only appeared twice since moving to Boulder, and the most recent time was to show Danny a missing trunk under the basement stairs. The trunk contained the manuscript of Jack’s play, which Jack was worried the movers left it in Stovington. Danny told Jack that the trunk was under the stairs, and Jack was instantly angry that Danny was in the basement. The basement, Jack said, is dangerous and off-limits. Danny insisted that he didn’t go into the basement and that Tony had told him. Jack and Wendy shared a confused look. The basement was always locked.

Danny sits on the curb, imagining Jack’s voice and concentrating on Jack’s thoughts. Danny can hear Jack thinking about shingles and a guy named Watson. Suddenly, Danny hears Tony calling his name. He can see Tony from the corner of his eye, far down the street. Danny settles in on the curb and lets his mind wander down the street, in the direction of Tony’s voice. There is deep snow everywhere, and a huge building with lots of windows and a shingled roof. The shingles on a portion of the roof look much newer than the others, and Danny instantly understands that Jack had laid the new shingles. A skull and crossbones flashes into Danny’s mind. “Poison,” Tony says from somewhere in the darkness.

Several signs flash into Danny’s mind (but he can’t read them), which say “DANGER!” and “KEEP OUT!” The signs fade and Danny is in a strange room he doesn’t recognize. Snow is piled up outside the windows and there is a mirror that has “REDRUM” written on it in green fire. The room fades and another room appears. Here, the window is broken, and the furniture is overturned. Danny can hear crashing sounds and a familiar voice yelling, “Come out! Come out, you little shit! Take your medicine!”

The room again fades, and Danny is a hallway in which the carpet is bright blue with black twisting shapes crossing every which way. “REDRUM,” he thinks again and hears the booming voice: “Come on and take your medicine! Take it like a man!” A dark shape advances on Danny, “reeking of that sweet-sour odor,” swinging a huge mallet. Danny can hear the mallet cutting and hissing through the air, and he begs Tony to take him back. Suddenly, Danny is sitting back on the curb.

On the curb, Danny can just make out Tony’s figure in the distance. “Be careful, doc…” Tony says as he fades away. Just then, the Volkswagen comes sputtering down the street, and Jack parks at the curb. Danny runs to him, excited, but stops when he sees a mallet on the front seat, one end clotted with blood and hair. Danny blinks and the mallet is a bag of groceries instead. Jack lifts Danny and hugs him. Wendy comes outside to greet Jack and kisses him, and the three of them go inside together. For the moment, Danny is happy. He knows there is love in his family, and he is glad his father is finally home. Not everything Tony shows Danny comes true, and for now, things are alright. Still, a cold fear settles in Danny’s heart as he thinks about “REDRUM.” He has absolutely no idea what it means.