Common Themes In The Shining

The Only Thing To Fear takes place in a world in which Hitler and the nazis won WWII. America was divided by the Axis powers: Germany in the east, italy in the Dakotas, and Japan in the West. The main character, Zara St. James is 16 and lives with her uncle on a small farm in the Eastern American territories, under rule by the nazis. Zara is half-Japanese and is looked down upon by many for her lineage.

How would you feel if you got blamed for something you didn't do. The Cruciblie by Auther Miller is about a town and it start with a group of girls that get caught in the woods doing witchcraft. Then the group of girls starts to blame the townspeople to get them in trouble and to get them out of it and the people that were blamed got exicuted or went to jail if they admit to it. Guilt and power are the two main themes in the story.

The Shining is about the Torrance family having to stay at the Overlook hotel for five months. Having that said, the family was completely isolated in such a big place over the winter. The hotel had horrific history of a murder done by Charles Grady who had committed suicide after killing his two girls and wife with an axe. The shocking information given to Jack did not bother him at all and he even said that his wife, Wendy would enjoy a good scary story. The film proceeds into a story that would seem calm and full of tranquility but this would not be the case since it soon enough turns out into something more horrifying. After a month has gone by, one can clearly notice the difference between the old Jack to the new Jack. This has to do with his personality and how he is acting by himself and towards others. His attitude changes to wanting to spend more time alone and not caring to do the work for the hotel, which he was hired to do in the first place. Danny is the young son of Jack who has psychic powers which at times confuses him but most of the time frightens the young boy. Danny encounters the two young girls that were killed in the hotel. Danny tries to avoid the girls as much as possible and tries to stay away from room 237 but it attracted Danny’s attention.

The Dare by Roger Hoffman is a short story that conveys feelings and emotions of a seventh grade boy who had undertaken an extremely risky adventure. The essay is written by the author in his adulthood, but, nevertheless, he still manages to create this essay as if he is still in his childhood. Hoffman uses stylistic devices like metaphor, imagery, simile, and personification to create meaning in the short story, The Dare.

In the book Devil in the White City Larson’s use of themes greatly impacted the flow and message of the book. Themes such as evil, existing anywhere and everywhere in the world with those committing these acts of evil usually hiding behind a facade of goodwill and well meaning intentions. Another theme that was a key concept in the book, was that of delusions and the consequences of them. As the book progressed, the characters that represent the themes delved deeper into the depths of what these themes really represented until their whole essence is what they represented. The themes that Lason used are independent to one another but in their extremes they morph into a similar if not just one an over arching theme. This is the same for

For many, isolation is a terrible thing and can lead to madness. Dictatorships prosecute individuals who do not agree with the government and sentence them to imprisonment in solitary confinement. Isolation is a form of torture and it causes insanity. The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is a truly interesting case study of human psychology and how the descent of an individual into the depths of insanity can cause them to experience creepy and vivid ghostly encounters, which do not actually physically occur but rather originate from within the depths of the person’s psyche. Examples of such hallucinated encounters surround the main character, Jack Torrance, who, as the movie progresses, transfigures into the deranged antagonist the persons see at the end of the movie chasing his family with an axe. Jack’s psyche and subconscious mind produce visions and ghostly apparitions, all of which embody Jack’s deep violent desires. Jack seems to suffer from a split personality disorder, which is intensified by his loneliness, emotional instability, and feelings of isolation. Jack’s mind is literally falling apart.

Saving Private Ryan is a theatrical masterpiece that incorporates many universal themes that almost all people can relate to. The movie follows a squad of U.S. soldiers as they battle through the trenches of World War II. Directed by the great Stephen Spielberg, the movie is claimed by many to be the most accurate presentation of war in any movie to date. The movie includes several themes that helps captivate the audience and truly help people understand just how horrible war is. The idea of losing loved ones frightens even the toughest of us, and being lost in a foreign land scares many others. Both of these themes are thoroughly explored and propelled onto the audience to experience. The extremely accurate depiction of war, the universal themes that everyone can relate to, and the film being a theatrical masterpiece are all reasons why everyone should watch Saving Private Ryan.

Mankind can be split into two different groups; those who keep in tune with the music, and those who march to the beat of their own drum. These two groups of people are portrayed in works of fiction such as the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey and the historical play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Many characters in these works are attempting to change something for the greater good, but they must deal with the consequences that come with it as well. What is the personal risk of speaking out against supreme authority? The main character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy, is a new patient in the mental institution. He becomes the face of mischief but also the face of change in the ward. The main character in The Crucible, John Proctor, also tries to change the court and save the lives of many. Religious attributes are the cause of disarray and redemption throughout the play. Proctor must decide what is more important, his life or his personal morals. McMurphy and Proctor are up against manipulative authority figures that abuse their power. Both characters fight this and risk personal consequences in the end. Arthur Miller would approve of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because of the characters ploy to expose the corruption within the mental institution.

In the end of the novel, Jack’s frail mind caused from his extreme thirst for alcohol and his abusive childhood from his father end up being his inevitable downfall. Jack’s mind becomes completely filled with hatred for his family and the yearning for them to suffer, he becomes blinded with rage. The reader’s begin to root for Wendy and Danny as they escape Jack’s grasp; leaving behind the exploding remains of the Outlook Hotel and a once beloved member of their family.

He hear the fawning servility in his own voice but was unable to control it....He walked to the chopping block and put his hand on the handle of the mallet....Jack Torrance began to smile” (King 584). The pyramid plot structure in this novel is not symmetrical because the rising action is more gradual and the falling action is more steeper. The climax happens in chapter forty eight which is only ten chapters till the end and forty eight leading to it. The falling action is just the chasing and attempt of murder of Wendy and Danny by Jack and the boiler exploding. There is a lot more rising action than falling action. The conclusion is just Wendy, Danny, and Holloran getting away from the hotel after the explosion and a flash-forward of where they are.

Many characters display acts of courage in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. Throughout the Salem Witch Trials, the characters are able to face the truth without the fear of losing. The three characters that show more courage than the others were John Proctor because he is honorable, Giles Corey because he is selfless, and Reverend Hale because he is bold.

4. The climax of the story is found when Jack and his newfound friends come up upon some robbers in the house the animals and Jack were planning to occupy that evening. Jack skillfully devises a plan to rid the house of the robbers and uses his animal friends to help him. With teamwork, the plan becomes a success and they are able to spend the night in the house the robbers had just fled from. This paragraph from "How Jack Went to Seek His Fortune" unravels the climax of the story and allows readers to engage in a suspenseful event, and it states,

In contrast, Manfred in The Castle of Otranto, is stupefied for a time into insane behavior, but then, is brought around to sanity after stabbing his daughter, as shown in this quotation here: “Manfred, waking as from a trance, beat his breast, twisted his hands in his locks…” (100). In this excerpt, Manfred is shown feeling remorse and regret in his actions, confirming his change back to sanity. Kubrick in The Shining however, makes the film much more terrorizing for audiences, as Jack never shows remorse, but instead, continually and purposefully pursues his family with an axe. At this scene in the film, the audience knows that Jack, although at one point a regular family man, is beyond reverting back to his previous sane state, increasing despair within audiences. The expression of Jack’s unperturbed insanity in the film furthermore requires the audience to reflect on their own lives, and realize that within every family is the possibility of

The character of Dan “Danny” Torrance is best known for his role in the fictional story of The Shining and Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. As a child Danny goes through a large amount of heavy trauma ranging from domestic abuse from his father to being inside of a hotel during a mass boiler explosion. His life as he grew up was riddled with night terrors and hallucinations driving Danny to become an alcoholic in order to drive away the nightmare images and the memories of the explosion and the death of his father.

The classic elements were invented by Horace Walpole in 1764 in his novel The Castle Of Qtranto. These elements have been used in a variety of ways in different aspects books films short stories even today. Stephen King uses these elements in his novel The Shining alternating them to fit his needs.