Are You In Control Of Your Vehicle?

In The Shining by Stephen King, the presence of cars really stood out to me. There were many instances where a car was very important; the state of the car and also where it was taking the characters. These details were recurring and thus made me take note of their presence. The idea that we are all in the “vehicle of our lives” I believe, is a major theme of the book. The choices we make, the state of our relationships, our identity as well as our experiences are all vehicles that we are steering through our life. The major question that came up for me as I was reading the book was,“are you in control of your vehicle?”.

One of the main characters, Jack Torrance, was not in control of his vehicle. Jack was a recovering alcoholic who had a problem with controlling his temper. He wanted to overcome the things that had power over him, but was struggling throughout the book to battle his demons. Jack was married to Wendy, a woman who found herself protecting others, but in most situations needed the most protection, and had a son named Danny, who had a promising power and a strong admiration for his father. Jack wanted to be able to support his family, but found himself trying to recover from his own mistakes, usually being the cause of the family’s turmoil. In the beginning of the book there was a moment when Danny was sitting on the porch of the family’s house, with Wendy off to the side disconnected from him, watching him and asking him to come inside. Danny refused to as he was awaiting Jack’s arrival in his car, from a job interview at the Overlook hotel. In a way, Jack was on his way to join the family, both metaphorically and literally. Literally, he was coming down from the Overlook to be with his family, but metaphorically he was coming down to mend the disconnect between Wendy, Danny and himself. After Jack got his maintenance job at the hotel, Wendy, Danny and Jack were all driving to the hotel, and as they were getting up on the mountain their bug was dying, which symbolized the Torrance family dynamic. Each relationship, whether it was between Wendy, Danny or Jack was slowly dying, barely able to make it to its next destination, which, in this case, was the Overlook Hotel. In turn, the family enabled themselves to get to the hotel and reach the horror that would await them. Later in the story, when Hallorann pulled Danny to the side to discuss their power known as the shining, which was the ability to communicate with others who can shine, and read anyone’s mind, Hallorann chose a car because their vehicles represents security as their power gives them a sense of security and protection, being a sixth sense, and all. Towards the middle of the book, the Overlook began to take control of Jack and he started to reflect on his childhood in a non beneficial way. Jack’s father was very abusive, to the point where Jack, when engaging in little mischievous behaviors such as throwing pebbles at car, would be enough to set his father off. However, even with this in mind, Jack began to see his father’s actions, such as when he beat his mother with a cane, as justified and “keeping people in check”. The Overlook’s effects only snowballed from here, which didn’t mean well for Jack or his family. The Overlook is just one example of the many forces in his life that Jack let take over him, and drive him. Jack can be seen as at the wheel with his family in the passenger seat and at any moment, he could crash, but Jack would be the only one unscathed, with the others severely injured or dead. Going back to the idea of Jack being driven by his powerful forces like his alcoholism and temper, he wasn't able to take control of the wheel, and there were many opportunities presented to him where he could have, however, he let the forces take control of him to the point where he crashed into insanity. Another interesting vehicle connection to take note of is that the only reason Jack was at the Overlook was because of a car. So, one could say, when putting this theory into perspective, is that the whole story was set in motion because of a vehicle. In the past, Jack was a teacher but was also the leader of a debate team. The debate team had a weak link, and the only reason why he was the weak link was because he had a stutter. On a certain day of debating, the stutterer, George Hatfield’s debating time was cut short. George had accused Jack of speeding up his time, to which Jack denied such a thing from ever happening. Jack thought to himself in the event that he had set the time forward, which he certainly didn’t it was only to put George out of his misery. Taking justice into his own hands, George decided to slash Jack’s tires on his already battered bug, and when exposed seemed to immediately regret his doing. Unfortunately, Jack was quick to uphold his own law, and in short, lost his temper. A teacher watching urged Jack to stop because he would kill George, and soon after, Jack was fired and had to look for a new job. This new job was at the Overlook Hotel, and that was when everything was set in motion. All in all, there wasn't enough initiative or anything in Jack that was strong enough to show him that what he was doing was wrong, and that there were consequences to his actions, so he let everything take over him. Of course, bringing alcohol into the mix was interesting because Jack is now “drunk driving” in his vehicle, and the alcohol is boosting his dangerous tendencies, making him that much worse. 
In many areas of the book it seemed like Jack wanted to be a victim and have something to blame for his actions, whether it was his temper or the alcohol, but he also didn’t want to suffer alone when he was in pain and wanted to have someone to bring down with him. Ultimately, I believe that Jack’s insanity was self-caused because he wanted other people to feel the immense pain that he was struggling with and trying to overcome, and it was just a bad roll of the dice that Danny and Wendy were the ones that Jack tried to bring down with him. It is apparent that Jack wasn’t in control of his vehicle, are you?