Previous
Chapter 39
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shining, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fear, the Paranormal, and Reality
Precognition, Second Sight, and the Shining
Family
Isolation and Insanity
Alcoholism and Abuse
Time
Summary
Analysis
Jack is in the basement looking through boxes again, when he suddenly remembers the boiler. He has been in the basement all night looking for clues and information about the hotel, and hasn’t checked the boiler in nearly 12 hours. He runs to the boiler. Jack has grown thinner since coming to the hotel, and his face is covered with stubble. The pressure gauge on the boiler is at 210 psi, and Jack remembers how Watson claimed he wouldn’t stand next to it at 180. He considers letting it go and blowing the place sky high. He knows that Wendy and Danny will have time to get out.
Jack again has a moment where he seems to break the hotel’s control of his thoughts. He knows the only way out is to kill himself and destroy the hotel by exploding the boiler, but he isn’t able to break the hotel’s control long enough to actually do it. Jack’s forgetting to check the boiler here foreshadows the fact that he may again forget to check it as his mental state continues to deteriorate, possibly spelling disaster for him and his family.
Themes
Jack can see the explosion in his head, and he visualizes flames and flying metal. A gas explosion follows, and the whole building is gone in 12 hours. He watches as the gauge rises to 212. This is it, Jack thinks, the last chance. He remembers the life insurance he and Wendy took out when Danny was born: $40,000, and it pays out double if he dies in a fire. Standing in front of the boiler, Jack thinks about the wasps’ nest in the apple tree when he was a kid.
Given Jack’s demonstrated ability to shine (at least to some extent), it’s possible that this vision of the boiler exploding could come to pass. Like his father was, Jack is heavily insured and knows that Wendy and Danny will receive a hefty sum if he does end up dying in an explosion. In this way, Jack feels more useful to his family dead than he does alive.
Themes
Jack’s father had smoked the wasps out with a smoldering pile of wet leaves placed under the nest, and then he knocked it down and started it on fire. “Fire will kill anything,” Jack’s father told him. With the pressure gauge rising to 220, Jack thinks about all the secrets and evil of the hotel burning, and he starts to fall asleep. He snaps awake, suddenly alert. It is his job to protect the hotel. He grabs the boiler’s release valve and hits the damper. Mist begins to rise from the boiler and the gauge drops.
Jack’s memory of the wasps’ nest here connotes danger. The boiler’s pressure is building, as is Jack’s insanity, and the explosion is imminent. Like the wasps’ nest, Jack and the hotel can only be destroyed by fire, which, like Jack’s father says, “will kill anything.” Jack and the hotel are the ultimate danger, and they must be destroyed.
Themes
Blisters begin to form on the palm of Jack’s hand, and he thinks about how badly he needs a drink. A drink will dull the pain in his hand, Jack thinks. It is medicinal. He thinks about the bottles he swore he saw in the Colorado Lounge. Jack has just saved the hotel from a fiery death, so it probably wants to repay him and buy him a drink. Just one drink. Jack takes the handkerchief from his pocket and wipes his raw lips. It is 5:20 a.m., MST.
The evil forces of the hotel send Jack to the Colorado lounge to get drunk because Jack has to be drunk in order to act out violently. Jack is usually only abusive when he is drunk, so to get him to hurt his family, and particularly Danny, the hotel gives him alcohol—or makes him feel as though he is drunk, at least.
Themes
Get the entire The Shining LitChart as a printable PDF.
