The Shining: Jack as a Child

The Shining: Jack as a Child

Brynne Velia

Vivian Sobchack’s work, “Bringing it All Back Home: Family Economy and Generic Exchange,” offers valuable insight into the inner-workings of family roles within The Shining. The significance of family roles within this film becomes especially evident when considering the roles of Jack and Danny. Jack’s role as patriarch is consistently compromised, causing Jack to regress toward a more childlike role. In the meantime, Danny continues to question Jack’s suitability for the role of patriarch, leading to Jack’s patriarchal and literal demise. 

As the film progresses, it becomes clear that Jack has reverted to a childlike character. “A longing for inexperience, for potential rather than realized action, for an openness to the world based on a lack of worldliness,” is what compels Jack to revert to a child (Sobchack 149). While aging, Jack has become experienced and accustomed to societal expectations. Jack’s failures as a patriarch cause him to desire a “clean slate” which is often associated with children. The idea that children have not yet been exposed to reality or experienced the hardships of life is why Jack desires childhood over his patriarchal role. It is easier for Jack to be a child than to face the responsibility of providing for his family. Jack is frustrated with his inability to live up to society’s expectations of the patriarchal role and in turn, he takes on the role of a child, denying his responsibilities. Despite Jack’s effort to take on the role of child within the family, he continues to feel pressured to fulfill his patriarchal duties. Since he is unable to do so, he must eliminate his patriarchal duties by attempting to kill his family. Without a family, all of Jack’s patriarchal duties vanish and he can fully revert to childhood.

It is the death of the patriarch’s family that allows him to revert to a child. The elimination of the family rids the patriarch of all his burdens and allows him to take on the role of a child. In contrast, Sobchack argues that by “giving up patriarchal power and authority to his children… [the patriarch] … is himself reduced-and liberated-to the status of a child” (Sobchack 155). Although Jack doesn’t want his patriarchal responsibilities, he does not want Danny to have power. This is evident when Jack finds out that Danny telepathically communicated with Dick. Jack destroys the radio and the snowcat, completely isolating the family. Later on, Jack kills Dick, demonstrating Jack’s assertion of power over Danny. Danny attempts to gain control by reaching out to Dick for help and Jack illustrates that he is still the dominant male by sabotaging Danny’s plan. Jack would rather maintain his patriarchal power than give up this power to Danny. Therefore, it is not through giving the power to the child that Jack is freed, but through the death of his family.

This theory is demonstrated in the scene in which Jack and Wendy talk about what to do with Danny. At the beginning of the scene, when Jack first enters the room, it is silent. As the scene progresses, a high-pitched sound, much like nails on a chalkboard, begins to increase in intensity. The sound continues to get louder and faster when Jack begins flipping through his stack of papers. This use of non-diegetic sound emphasizes and draws attention to this particular part of the scene. This is important because the papers symbolize Jack’s punishment for his inability to fulfill his patriarchal duties. Since Jack prefers to take on the role of a child, he is punished like one. The repetitious phrase on the hundreds of papers comes to represent the old-fashioned punishment of writing on the chalkboard. This punishment is parallel to the non-diegetic sound and illustrates the idea of Jack as a child. Additionally, the phrase written on the paper is reflective of Jack as a child. Jack would rather play than take responsibility and do his work. In the phrase, Jack also refers to himself as a boy rather than a man, again demonstrating his regression into childhood. Therefore, this scene demonstrates how Jack takes on the role of a child in attempt to abandon his patriarchal duties.

Works Cited

Vivian Sobchack. “Bringing it All Back Home: Family Economy and Generic Exchange.” The Dread

of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Barry Keith Grant, Ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.