Communication is the Key to a Good Relationship Jessica Fatzinger 12th Grade

Based on a Stephen King novel, The Shining is a film directed by Stanley Kubrick surrounding the Torrance family. Jack Torrance gets a job caretaking at the Overlook Hotel for one winter and moves there with his wife, Wendy, and young child, Danny. The audience receives a glimpse of the Torrance family dynamic throughout their stay that eventually leads them to psychotic breaks. Wendy serially adheres to her role as a wife and Jack to his role as the head of the household. Through Jack and Wendy Torrance’s dialogue in his film, The Shining, Stanley Kubrick shows the toxic confinement of family roles. The audience sees Wendy ignoring her family’s problems by maintaining a front of a happy wife, Jack refusing to communicate his anger with his family, and The Overlook pressuring Jack to control his wife and kid better. Abiding by these constructs makes the Torrance family vulnerable to the Overlook, thus causing their downfall in the movie.

Rather than facing them directly, Wendy attempts to fix her family’s problems by staying in her family role as a wife and mother. Wendy sees moving to the Overlook as a fresh start for her family, which has a past rooted in abuse and alcoholism due to Jack. Her first images shown living in the...