The Shining :: essays research papers

The ShiningThe Shining is about a discolor middle class dysfunctional family that suffers from natural and sorcerous stresses in an isolated Rocky mountain hotel. .The father, a former teacher turned writer, is portrayed as a habitual drinker, wife- and child-abuser, with a kind of monstrous streak The mother is shown as a battered woman. The film suggests that due to the abuse at the hands of his father and the passivity of his mother, the child of this family developed mental problems. He had imaginary friends and began to see frightening images.Early in the film , a psychologist is called in to treat the troubled child and she calmed the mother with a affirmation to the effect that, These things come and go but they are unexplainable. This juncture of the film is a starting point for one of the central themes of the film which is how a fragile family unit is besieged by unusual forces both natural and supernatural which breaks and possesses and unites with the morally chal lenged father while the mother and the child through their innocence, love, and reality triumph over these forces. One motif which reappears in the film is the top executive of nature, especially in relation to the individual. In fact, the film begins with a majestic beam of light of the Rocky Mountains showing its beauty and height. The beauty of nature and even friendliness of nature changes as the film develops. As the movie progresses the snow still seems white and pure, al to the highest degree virgin like, but nature becomes an isolating force, not providing the family with a retreat from the pressures of modern life, but forcing the family to turn in on its dysfunctional and insane self. Imprisoned by the snow and the tall mountains , the family seems weak and vulnerable.Nature has no compassion for the plight of the family, nor is it a malicious force it is merely a power with constructive or destructive potential. We see its constructive side when it freezes Johnny to d eath.The weakness of the individual is another motif in the film. Perhaps we see this most clearly with the boy who is sensitive to and harassed by the supernatural forces in the hotel. As we know from everyday experience children seem weak because they are minuscule and usually are very sensitive and easily hurt by the negative and destructive outbursts of adults. Our general sense of a childs photo is heightened by the way the child of The Shining is forced to grapple with such evil and terrible forces which are likely to be difficult for all of us.