Wasps’ Nests Symbol in The Shining

Part Three of The Shining is named “The Wasps’ Nest,” and wasps’ nests are symbolic of many things in King’s novel, including danger—especially the danger of the evil Overlook Hotel. When Jack is replacing shingles high on the roof of the Overlook Hotel, he finds a wasps’ nest under the flashing. Jack is lucky and is only stung once, but the wasps’ nest sparks a series of wasp references and stories, which can be found throughout the novel. Jack, who is first and foremost a writer, thinks of the wasps’ nest as a “workable symbol” for what he has been through in life—as well as what he has put Wendy and Danny through—and “an omen for a better future.” Jack’s future, however, isn’t better, and it ultimately ends in disaster, starting with the wasps’ nest. Jack neutralizes the wasps’ nest with a bug bomb and gives it to Danny, who puts it in his room and is later attacked in the middle of night by a swam of angry wasps. The wasps’ nest, in this case, symbolizes danger and Danny’s misplaced trust in Jack, and it proves instead to be an omen for a devastating future.

Danny isn’t the only character who has an experience with a wasps’ nest. Jack tells a story in which his own father smoked a wasps’ nest out of an apple tree and then torched it. “Fire will kill anything,” Jack’s father told him. Hallorann, too, has a story in which his brother incinerated a wasps’ nest with a lit firecracker. Near the end of the novel, Jack claims that “wits” are important in life, and that “living by your wits is always knowing where the wasps are.” Jack does not recognize the “wasps” lurking in the Overlook Hotel as the building and its paranormal inhabitants seems to overtake Jack and influence him to act out violently. In this sense, the Overlook Hotel is something of a wasps’ nest itself—a threatening presence full of danger, but one that is ultimately incinerated and destroyed when the boiler explodes.

Wasps’ Nests Symbol Timeline in The Shining

The timeline below shows where the symbol Wasps’ Nests appears in The Shining. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Fear, the Paranormal, and Reality Theme Icon

...he feels a wasp sting his right hand. He worried that he would disturb a wasps’ nest pulling the rotten shingles from the roof, and it looks like there is one situated... (full context)

...feel himself healing from the last three years. Jack moves down the roofline to the wasps’ nest . He pulls away the flashing and inspects the nest. He knows a little bit... (full context)

Jack looks at the wasps’ nest and thinks that it makes a good “workable symbol” for what he has been through... (full context)

...thinks to himself, and climbs down the ladder to get a bug bomb for the wasps’ nest . (full context)

...appointments for all of them, Jack says. Danny runs back from the porch with the wasps’ nest , and Wendy recoils. She asks Jack if it is safe to keep, and he... (full context)

...she decides to check on him. As she walks through Danny’s room, she notices the wasps’ nest sitting on the highest shelf and it makes her uncomfortable. She can hear the water... (full context)

...grabs a Pyrex bowl. He returns to Danny’s room and drops the bowl over the wasps’ nest . Angry wasps fly around under the bowl, pinging against the glass. (full context)

...sleep in Jack and Wendy’s bed. Wendy is obviously irritated with Jack for bringing the wasps’ nest into Danny’s room, but Jack could have sworn the wasps were all dead. He’d used... (full context)

Jack took the wasps’ nest from Danny’s room out to the hotel’s incinerator and burned it, and they haven’t had... (full context)

...caribou sighting, Wendy goes to the kitchen to make lunch and cries, thinking about the wasps’ nest left under the Pyrex bowl to freeze. Jack is teaching Danny to snowshoe, but Wendy... (full context)

...to look through the boxes, yelling that he will find “it,” and pulls out a wasps’ nest and a ticking timer that has a bundle of dynamite connected to it by an... (full context)

...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. (full context)

...remembers that more than 50 years ago, when he and his brother found a massive wasps’ nest . His brother threw a lit firecracker at it, and it exploded, followed by an... (full context)

The Shining

Stephen King

Wasps’ Nests Symbol Analysis

Wasps’ Nests Symbol Timeline in The Shining