The Shining: Chapter 49 Summary & Analysis

It is 1:45 in the afternoon when Hallorann slides off the road in his rental car, still hours away from the Overlook. The roads are snow-covered and at times impassable, and several accidents have already been reported. Hallorann is scared, and he knows he shouldn’t be out on the roads, but he has a strong compulsion to get to the hotel. He fears something has happened to Danny, and the snow is just something Hallorann will have to deal with. He skidded off the road when he passed the snow plow, its orange and blue flashing lights barreling down at him. He thought for sure they would collide. They didn’t, but Hallorann lost control of the car in the process.

Hallorann’s rental car comes to a stop at the guardrail, and the plow driver, a man named Howard Cottrell, gets out to help. Howard quickly pulls Hallorann’s rental car from the snowbank with his plow truck and asks what Hallorann is doing out on a day like this, unless he wants to die. Hallorann says that he has urgent business at the Overlook Hotel, and Howard says the hotel is closed. Hallorann explains that there is a family there, and the caretaker’s son is in trouble. Howard says there isn’t any way to get to Sidewinder. The roads are closed, and Hallorann will never make it up the mountain in his rental car.

Hallorann insists that he must try to get to the Overlook, and Howard recognizes his urgency. He gives Hallorann a pair of gloves for when he gets stuck again and tells him to send them back to him when he is done—the address is sewed in the lining. Howard’s wife made the gloves, and they have sentimental value. He tells Hallorann that if he gets to Sidewinder, he should go to the gas station by the library. He tells Hallorann to show the proprietor, Larry Durkin, the gloves and tell him that Howard sent him. That way, Hallorann can get a good deal on a snowmobile rental to make it up the mountain. 

Hallorann takes the gloves and thanks Howard. Howard comments that there isn’t any way that Hallorann could know there is trouble at the Overlook. The phones are down, and they aren’t in CB range, yet Howard still believes Hallorann. “Sometimes I get feelins,” Howard says. Hallorann says he gets feelings, too, and Howard says that he knows. Howard wishes him luck, and Hallorann gets back in the car, not quite believing that he met two “shines” in one day.

It is a rough ride, but Hallorann makes it to Sidewinder. It takes him over four hours, and every time Hallorann glances at his watch during the ride, the hands are flying around the face. Just like Howard said, the roads up Sidewinder pass are closed, so Hallorann looks for Larry Durkin’s gas station. Suddenly, he smells oranges and a message comes through, loud and clear, warning Hallorann to stay away from the hotel. The message isn’t in words, but in images, and Hallorann is rocked by the force.

Hallorann accidentally drives the car into a snowdrift and puts the car in park. He covers his face with his hands and just sits. Danny might be dead by now, and things are definitely dangerous. In one of the images there is a “dull whacking sound, like a hammer splatting into thick cheese,” and it really disturbs Hallorann. He puts the car in low gear and backs out of the snowbank. It is 6:30.