Basically, I want to talk about when Jack broke Danny’s arm, and whether or not you think that his rage was a part of his relationship with the hotel, of just a character trait. I mean, without it, he would never have been fired and never encountered the hotel. When the kid slashed Jack's tires, he went into a rage, and could not control himself, which says to me it was an outside force directing it. The other side of the coin is whether you think Jack needed to be the caretaker, or whether any caretaker would take the same actions. (I'm kinda trying to skate around spoilers for those who have not seen the movie) I guess what is at the core of my question is whether you think that his whole life’s path is directed toard the hotel or not.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Jack's temper/fate
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upon reading this over, it is kinda hard to answer without seeing the movie, sorry
ReplyDeleteYeah I think this will be an awesome question once we're further along in the plot but for now there's kind of not enough to draw conclusions from. A reader who is not familiar with the film may not even know about the Hotel's... sentience? Power? You know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteyeah, i think it was just the mention of his bizzarre rage that got me thinking about it
ReplyDeleteThe hotel surely seems to have an eerie effect on its caretakers. Mainly because of the fact that it makes one feel small in comparison to the surroundings. That being said, both Jack and Grady were drunks, and with alcohol comes anger and unpredictability because of the mind state it puts you in. The fate of the hotel's caretakers could be simply correlated to the persona the caretaker encompasses, or if one believes in predetermined fate then it was surely no coincide that Jack's "life" prepared him for the hotel.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the movie goes, yeah haha. Someone would need to watch it. The hotel has some psychedelic stuff going on, that we can delve into later on into the story.
i think that if you've not seen the movie and are still trying at this, i think a better place to go with this is where jack's rage might go, especially in relation to danny's visions, because he is such a loving, caring father that there has to be another reason for tony to show danny these things.
ReplyDeleteBased on how far we are in the book, Jack's madness and anger can only be interpreted as a character trait. We have yet to see the actual connection between Jack and the hotel. Sam mentioned that Jack's actions led him to be fired and then stumble upon the job of caretaker at the hotel, I figure that this is as simple as fate within the plot. In the story it was part of the series of events to have Jack end up at the hotel. To avoid spoiling the mystery of the Shining, we would have to continue reading to see if there is a special (or paranormal) connection between Jack's character and the Overlook.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have not yet seen the movie, Jack seems to be a man who did not know how much his anger and drinking was affecting his life. He drank because he was upset and because he drank he became upset. The hotel seems to be drawing Jack in, but Danny even more so. The hotel seems to be connected to Danny through Tony or some unknown, paranormal force. I believe that it was fate and inevitable that Jack ended up in the hotel to meet his fate.
ReplyDeleteyeah, the characters differ alot between the mediums, but you basically have a choice between being on the same page as us with the movie, or experiencing the book as its own entity if you watch or don't watch the movie. i don't discourage or encourage it.
DeleteI agree. It definitely seems that the hotel has taken a rather strong grasp on Danny, assuming that his visions are directly from the hotel and not just him tapping into the collective "shining consciousness" that he has access to due to his telepathic ability. From this we can assume that Danny is using his shining ability to predict future events, including the imposing power of the Overlook, without influence of the Hotel itself. However I think it is more likely that the Hotel is "pulling" Danny and his family to the hotel, and to accomplish this it "pulls" Jack towards alcohol and destructive habits to make him lose his job and need to find an alternative: writing. And to accomplish the task of writing a book, Jack must become the caretaker of the Overlook (at least to him it seems necessary). Perhaps since Danny has a more potent shining capability than Jack the Overlook is more directly using Danny to indirectly influence Jack, but nevertheless is connecting to Jack and his temper to drag him to his fate of becoming caretaker. So I think they are surely connected.
ReplyDeletei agree
Delete"When the kid slashed Jack's tires, he went into a rage, and could not control himself, which says to me it was an outside force directing it." Interesting that you interpreted it that way-- just what the author wanted, I imagine.
ReplyDelete