"The Shining" by Stephen King

This novel is primarily set in the beautiful foothills of the Rocky Mountains located in Colorado. There are intriguing hedges in front that are carved into animals. The scenery is captivating. Huge mountains surround the hotel. The Overlook Hotel is colossal beyond belief and is alive, like an always watchful eye. It is very important to the story line that the hotel be in a place where, at some point during the year, they get to a point where they can not be reached by the outside world. This insures total secluded ness of the care takers from the rest of the world. At this point, the hotel is free to play mind games, show its ghosts, and all around, make the care takers go crazy. They can't run away from the hotel because they can't get anywhere on the roads. After the snow falls heavy enough to cover the roads they are trapped in the Overlook until the snow thaws. They don't plow the roads past a certain point, which is critical in the setting. Had the roads been plowed, the care takers could have called for help and been able to leave before things started to get real bad. (Michael & Engebretson 15) There has to be total secluded ness, no way to be reached by help. The hotel must be haunted. The care taker should be required to have a problem within him as well as with narcotics or alcohol. This gives the main character a point of weakness in which the house can take advantage of. A family history of abusive also adds to the protagonists list of problems which, in turn, adds another inlet for abuse from the house. The setting in this novel is one of the most important aspects of the story line. These things are critical. If you could find a haunted hotel the size of Overlook, and the secluded ness of the Colorado snow bound roads, then yes, this could take place somewhere else. I personally can't see it being anywhere else. If I knew of a potentially secluded environment with a huge haunted hotel, then just maybe I could see it taking place elsewhere. This is the only novel so far that the setting has been this important to me. It's partially the setting which adds to the story's disturbing atmosphere.

The main characters in The Shining are Jack, Wendy and Danny Torrance. The most important to me is Jack. He is egotistical, stubborn and somewhat of a loner. Jack is unmotivated; he want to succeed but doesn't want to work for it. When people offer help he tends to turn them away, thinking he can do it all by himself. He was abused but his father, so subconsciously he is abusing his family, more emotionally than physically. He tends to push his loved ones to the side and focus more on himself. Jack has anger management issues, is a recovering alcoholic and is considered a genuinely weak ...