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, but it was really the ghosts of the hotel that turned him into a monster. People can change for the better, just not when they're being possessed.

Of course, some of the blame still lay with Jack, as the ghosts didn't create the monster so much as they built onto it. He was a drunken asshole through and through, just not exactly the evil monster he ended up being. There were so many points in the story where it seemed like he could win. The snowmobile being a good example of him being so close to escaping just to mess it all up. It was a terrible game of will he won't he.

Though I never watched the movie, I've been hearing from both classmates and friends that Jack in the film comes off as more insane and less sympathetic. And in my opinion Jack is so much more a compelling and conflicted character because we as the readers are able to delve into his trauma addled mind. When he does something crazy and uncalled for, we see and understand the reasoning behind it. It might not be a good or likable reasoning, because in the end he is insane, but at least it's more to go on than just the shock horror of someone breaking down a door.

Yes, I can soundly say that Jack is the only character in the novel I don't like. There so many things to not like about him, especially the way he throws away every chance he gets to make things right. The only time he makes a firm decision is at the end of the book where he fights The Overlook and give Danny a chance to escape. It's admirable and makes me wish he had a better ending. But at the same time, it seemed to be a gesture that was too little and too late.