Loving an Insane Man
Stephen King's The Shining had me love all the characters equally. From Danny, to Wendy, to Dick, to even the officious little Ullman. However, at times, I found that I genuinely just did not like Jack. His abusive nature and bad temper put a bad taste in my mouth. Even more so when the pity party of the century would immediately follow. Yet no matter how bad things got, I also ended up rooting for Jack to break free of both his demons and those of the hotel. There was always that spark of, maybe not good, but determination to at least attempt to be better. I can safely say that in any other story, Jack would have come out on top. Only, this is a horror story with a very haunted hotel. So perhaps it's pity I feel at the knowledge that Jack was doomed from the start. He had truly and well stopped drinking, if only ghosts hadn't summoned in liquor and got him drunk off of ectoplasm. It was this sort of unfairness that made me get on his side. Yes, he had his inner demons, bu...