The Shining

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1977

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-13

Part 3, Chapters 14-18

Part 3, Chapters 19-23

Part 3, Chapters 24-25

Part 4, Chapters 26-32

Part 4, Chapters 33-37

Part 5, Chapters 38-42

Part 5, Chapters 43-47

Part 5, Chapters 48-52

Part 5, Chapters 53-58

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 5, Chapters 43-47Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5: “Matters of Life and Death”

Part 5, Chapter 43 Summary: “Drinks on the House”

Jack returns to the Colorado Lounge, where he orders a martini from Lloyd at the bar. Lloyd tells him that the manager has paid for Jack’s drinks, and that the manager will see to Danny’s well-being. When Jacks asks why they want Danny, Lloyd ignores the question and encourages him to drink. Jack realizes the conversations around him have stopped. Everyone is watching him. They urge him to drink, and he does. He has several more and assures himself that he would never hurt Danny.

Part 5, Chapter 44 Summary: “Conversations at the Party”

Jack is dancing with a lovely woman. She invites him upstairs as he notices Derwent observing them. A man in a dog costume performs degrading tricks for everyone. Jack keeps drinking, and then he meets Delbert Grady.

Grady says he has no memory of killing his family. When Jack reminds him that he was the caretaker, Grady disagrees; he says Jack has always been the caretaker. He says Danny must be corrected, as he corrected his daughters—one of them tried to burn down the Overlook. He also tells Jack that Danny is bringing an “outside party” (353) in to help.

In time, Grady believes that Jack could be at the top of the hierarchy. Jack realizes that they expect Danny to be a sacrifice. As he thinks, Jack goes to the clock. This time, the figures beneath the dome are a father and son. The man hits the boy over the head with a mallet as blood fills the dome. Suddenly the room is empty, but the bar is still stocked. Jack shouts for Lloyd, but he is alone. He collapses onto the floor.

Part 5, Chapter 45 Summary: “Stapleton Airport, Denver”

Hallorann endures a rough flight and landing. He rents a car and arranges to have chains put on the tires. A cop stops him and says the ramp is closed to automobiles.

Part 5, Chapter 46 Summary: “Wendy”

Wendy and Danny listen to Jack shout downstairs all morning. She takes the knife and goes to make lunch for Danny. Occasionally she thought she heard the noise of a party. Jack’s voice sounded drunk. She smells gin in the Colorado Lounge, even though she knows that is impossible.

Wendy finds Jack on the floor. He grabs her ankle and calls her a sexist slur. He accuses her and Danny of plotting against him. She realizes that she overheard Jack talking to Grady.

Jack squeezes her throat as Danny screams for him to stop. He jumps onto Jack, who swats him away. Wendy breaks a bottle on Jack’s head. While Jack is unconscious, she tells Danny the hotel is trying to hurt them all. The Overlook is getting stronger. She thinks it can use Danny’s power to grow stronger than ever. They drag Jack into the pantry and lock it. He screams at them and threatens to kill them if they do not let him out.

Part 5, Chapter 47 Summary: “Danny”

Wendy and Danny listen to Jack yell all morning. Wendy’s neck is bruised. Danny cries, and Wendy tries to reassure him. Jack stops screaming around 4:30 p.m. Wendy and Danny hear the elevator working: “The Overlook was coming to life around them” (379).

Chapters 43-47 Analysis

The pivotal moment of these chapters is when Jack begins to drink at the Colorado Lounge. The hotel has established its powers to the point where Lloyd can serve Jack real drinks. Once he is drunk, his temper and self-righteousness are on full display as he talks to Delbert Grady. His encounter with Grady is temporally disorienting. When he confronts Grady about his own family tragedy, Grady says, “You’re the caretaker sir…you’ve always been the caretaker. I should know, sir, I’ve always been here. The same manager hired us both, at the same time” (351). It seems impossible that Grady—or Jack—could have always been the caretaker. They are not immortal beings, unless they have been haunting the Overlook for longer than they can remember. In any case, Grady plays to Jack’s sense of self-importance by telling him that the manager expects great things from him.

Grady uses the grotesque euphemism of “correcting” his daughters and wife to refer to their murder at his hands. He suggests that Jack may need to correct Danny and Wendy in the same way. When he tries, Wendy and Danny overpower him and lock him in the pantry. However, now that the hotel is gaining more power, Wendy is unsure that the pantry will hold him.

As Chapter 47 ends, Danny and Wendy have been forced to take sides against Jack. For his part, Jack wants to kill them both and assert himself in a higher position at the Overlook. It will remain unclear what Grady meant by Jack’s having “always” been the caretaker, but at this point, Jack will do anything to care for the Overlook. With Wendy’s observation that “The Overlook was coming to life around them” (379), the stage is set for the final confrontations as the Overlook besieges her and Danny.