The Shining (1977 Novel) Literary Elements

Horror

The fictional Overlook Hotel, a summer resort in the Colorado Rockies

The point of view is largely third person but also tends to be that of Danny Torrance.

The tone and mood are both threatening and malevolent.

The Torrances, particularly Danny, are the protagonists. The malevolent force that is the Overlook Hotel is the antagonist.

There is constant conflict between Jack and Wendy even before he is possessed as he has anger issues and a tendency to be violent when he has drunk too much. Later, the primary conflict is between the hotel and Danny as it tries to possess him, but he stands up to the threat.

The hotel boiler explodes and the hotel is demolished, allowing Wendy, Danny, and Dean to escape.

Danny's supernatural abilities foreshadow the increased supernatural activity at the hotel once he moves in there.

N/A

The author alludes to the tourist industry in that the Overlook is a summer resort and not open during the winter, whereas the resorts that Hallorann goes to work at subsequently are year round. The allusion is intended to intensify the feeling of isolation that the Torrances have once they are living at the hotel and cut off from the rest of the world.

The imagery is fantastical and malevolent, particularly when previously inanimate features of the hotel begin to come to life. This gives the reader the ability to picture the horror of the surroundings and also the isolation.

Jack wants to bring his family to the hotel for a fresh new start but it is actually the end of their family and the end of Jack's life.

There is a parallel between Danny's arrival at the hotel and the increase in supernatural activity there.

The author describes the malevolent spirit of the hotel as ghosts, as it has possessed each individual "ghost" and uses each one as a physical extension of itself.

The hotel is personified in that it has a malevolent spirit and an intent as well as a power to think and try to outwit its victims.