Author and Setting of The Shinning

As the story begins, the author describes the setting as being very isolated. The Overlook Hotel is located on a mountain in Colorado. The season in which the hotel is open for tourists is May through October, and for winter they close down because of harsh winter condition such as huge amount of snow and freezing temperatures. However, the Overlook Hotel hires someone for the winter to take care of it, so the pipes do not freeze and the hotel is maintained for next tourist season. This shows how isolated the hotel is and how far up the mountain it is located. The fact that during the winter the roads are crushed under the snow give this location a dreadful feel. The location of the hotel is sketchy because it looks like there might be something wrong with this place. It is very well described in the story when Mr. Ullman explains to Jack Torrance how isolated that place is during the winter. He uses an anecdote to over exaggerate how it looks over the winter. Ullman tells Jack that if his son perhaps falls down the stairs and breaks his leg, there will be no easy way to the hospital. Roads will be covered in a about twenty feet of snow, there will be a blizzard with freezing temperatures and closest hospital thirty miles away. At this point in the story the reader gets the sense of how isolated the Overlook is.

                Stephen King is playing mind games with the reader because he sets the hotel in this isolated place and the tension just keeps building because it is not clear what might happen next.  As the story progresses we find out some important things about the main character—Jack Torrance. We learn that he is a teacher who lost his job because he lost his temper with one of the students. Also, he is an alcoholic and he did not treat his family in the best manner over the past few years. The reason why the author chooses a character like that might symbolize his own personality in some way. Stephen King while writing The Shining, had a drinking problem, and even though he never physically abused his family, he had thoughts in his mind that were very wrong and he imagined what would happen if he could take physical action against his loved ones. Just like the Jack Torrance, Stephen King was a teacher at a local high school, and he was trying to become a full time writer. The author by portraying Jack Torrance the way he is also reveals his own character and lifestyle. With every sentence as we learn things about Jack, we also learn things about Stephen. Before King wrote The Shinning he went on vacation with his wife to a hotel like Overlook, also in Colorado. He got the inspiration and the idea of the hotel from the setting he was in. The rest of the story of course is made up, but he puts so much detail and tells such a great story, while including parts of his personal life in there.

                The Shinning tells a lot of things about Stephen King. It shows that he love writing, and he likes to drink but cannot control it. It shows that he did not enjoy teaching but he did enjoy making up his own work and hoped to make a living from it. The book and the character of Jack Torrance, shows that King even though loved his family, he could get frustrated with them. Personally, I believe that Stephen King intentionally wrote that book not only to tell a great story, but so the fans could get a peak into his life without him telling them directly how it looks like. Other books by King, are also very fascinating and they tell a great story, but The Shinning is special because of how the characters reflect on the author.