POWER DRIVES US MAD YET KEEPS US SANE

          Power is the thing people start wars over and although everyone wants it is only given to those who fight their way to the top – or earn it. Power can be looked at as many different things, especially in this world. Money, ownership, decision, need. In The Shining by Steven King there are multiple occurrences of power and they all show up as who is “winning”. While there is always power there is also resistance to that power and that’s where looking at how both people are using power and how or when people are resisting power becomes interesting. The Shining tells the story of an old hotel called The Overlook and two families who lived in it alone for five months taking the position of ‘winter care taker’. The old family was called The Grady’s and it was Mr. Grady, his wife, and his twin daughters. The isolation and pure alones led Grady to what the police report defined as ‘cabin fever’ where being alone in a snowed in building for five months drove him to madness and led him to chop up his daughters and wife with an axe and shoot himself in the head. While reading the book and following the family taking the position of winter care taker the year after you find it is much, much more than cabin fever that takes control of these poor men’s minds. Many awful, terrifying, and deadly things happen at The Overlook during the Torrance’s stay and a powerful change happens to everyone; Jack and Wendy Torrance and their son Danny. To have power means to have purpose and the will to fight, and in situations where it is life or death, power becomes a pawn in a much more complicated game – with one looser.

            Jack, Wendy, and Danny Torrance have a very complicated and unhealthy family dynamic. 

Danny Torrance is the six year old son of Wendy and Jack and he has a super natural power called “the Shining” that allows him to read peoples minds and hear their thoughts and communicate with others who have The Shining, but most importantly he has a friend Tony in his mind who tells him things to do and shows him images of the past, present, and future. Danny is their only child but is the one who actually ends up looking out for his parents and working the hardest to keep his parents together. Because Danny can hear their thoughts he knows that both of his parents think of DIVORCE all the time before they moved into The Overlook and Jack thinks of SUICIDE. Danny had plenty of terrifying, concerning things going on in his little life, like a stranger in his mind showing him images of mallets and blood and twin girls all chopped up, and he hearing thoughts of adult he knew he wasn’t suppose to hear and didn’t understand. But with all of this craziness bouncing off Danny’s head and all the constant worry and confusion, he never asks his parents about it or shows any real sign of being upset or scared – because he wants to keep his parents together and happy. This was Danny’s purpose for being at The Overlook. He needed to be there without complaining to allow his parents a chance to be happy together again without bringing his own problems into the mix, which is incredibly strong for a six year old to put his parents before himself. This purpose gave Danny power and was suddenly needed for his family’s happiness.

            Wendy Torrance is a young, beautiful wife and mother who is constantly doubting herself and allowing others to make her decisions for her, because she looks for approval and doesn’t trust herself because her mother didn’t trust her, and honestly is incredibly weak when it comes to standing up for herself. Wendy through out the entire book looks for jacks approval in her actions and scrambles for him to make the decisions. At one point Danny passes out after listening to Tony and Wendy becomes terrified, but is even more terrified to ask her husband to get Danny to a doctor, in fear he will disagree of dismiss her like she constantly dismisses herself. She finally does ask but does so where she asks if he thinks it is a good idea for Danny to see someone giving Jack all the room to shoot her down and take control of the matter which is what he always does, because she always lets him. Until she stabs the man. Yep, she stabs him with a knife right in the back in defense and in fury. After seeing her struggle so much to find her voice and decide what was best for herself and her son, she fights back and it is so powerful and is as though she is stabbing her overpowering husband, her condescending mother, her weakness and her doubt and everything she had ever hid behind. She was finally willing to fight and after that moment she got the upper hand and the power she deserved the entire book.

           

            Jack Torrance is a recovering alcoholic who recently got fired from his job as a teacher after giving a student a concussion on purpose, after that student stabbed holes in Jack’s car. Because of Jacks recent situation the man needed a new job and he found one as the care taker for The Overlook Hotel in the middle of no where for five months – bringing his entire family with him to this isolated, snowed in, empty hotel. Divorce was necessary way before this point but this is a major tipping point for any normal family. Jack had always held the power once he married Wendy and had Danny, but when he was a kid he had nothing. HIS father had all the power and made the decisions and was angry and aggressive all the time – which is exactly who Jack grew up to be. Jack loves having control and when he doesn’t have it he will get it. Once, Danny was only four and he threw Jacks papers all over the floor of his office and when Jack got home, drunk and pissed, he saw his office and didn’t think before he grabbed Danny’s arm and twisted it behind his back ready to spank his son until he bled. But he heard a snap. He broke his four year olds son arm and he might have done worse until he heard the snap and snapped back to reality totally apologetic and concerned and scared. Wendy did nothing but take Danny to the emergency room and protects Jack whenever the incident comes up. Danny either doesn’t remember or knows not to bring it up just like he does with every other problem thrown on the kid’s shoulders. Jack has power over his family before The Overlook but Jack had no power over himself and his drinking. Jack needed control and he usually had it over everyone else but himself. He wasn’t strong enough and deep down saw no reason to fight the bad things happening to him because it gave him something to blame while he hurt everyone around him.

            What I found most interesting is how Jack chose to resist the power struggle in his life, and when he gave into whatever was held over his head. Wendy resisted Jack and her weakness and doubt when she stabbed Jack. Danny resisted all of his fathers cruelty and intentions to make Danny exactly like Jack when he kept his problems to himself and put Jack before him even after everything Jack had done to him. Jack didn’t know how to resist for long enough. One of the two things that had power over Jack is his drinking. Alcohol was used as an escape for Jack and as he was constantly thinking of killing himself he drank, and drank, and drank. He didn’t try to resist it, he didn’t want to stop, until he ran over a child while drunk driving. The child was never found and he was never the same and as he told no one about the incident he promised never to drink again. It took such a drastic measure to finally snap Jack out of a tempting escape. He finally found power over alcohol.

            The one other thing that held power over Jack was The Overlook Hotel. The Overlook seemed to taunt Jack since the second he walked in and Jack saw the challenge and fought it. He fought the madness and he resisted the urge to murder his family and drink again and do all of the terrible things he promised he would stop. But this situation happened to be the opposite from his drinking. As the drinking got worse he found the motivation to stop, but as The Overlook got worse and his thoughts got darker he got weaker and he sunk into it and allowed himself to loose his mind entirely. His last escape. Jack needs control in his life, but when it comes to dealing with himself and his feelings and his thoughts he blocks them off and runs away. He runs all the way to The Overlook.

            Power is found in many different places, in many different people, and in many different forms. Power is what drives us and how we set our goals and why we strive to achieve more. Power is dangerous and will usually end in hurt – if not death. But power is needed because it separates the losers from the winners, the Jack Torrance from the Overlook. Power is what drives us mad and keeps u