Characters of The Shining (Stephen King pages 1-63)

The Shining has a lot of characters. Obviously the main ones are The Torrance's which consist of Jack, Wendy, and their gifted and strange son Danny. But the book runs deep with personalities that add to the mood. Such characters include the hotel manager Stuart Ullman, the head chef Dick O' Halloran, and Watson, the maintenance man. Ullman is known as being the uptight runner that controls the Overlook. Without him as manager who knows how the hotel would be. He has things organized and he has things done his way or no way. As a result of this somewhat ironfisted control, he takes criticism from plenty of employees. Most notably Watson, who constantly uses profanity when voicing his opinions about Ullman and his ways. Watson's father was actually the one time owner of the hotel before Ullman took over as head man in charge. This is why i think Watson shows such a strong dislike for Ullman and his managing....And last but not least comes the flamboyant afroed head chef, Dick O'halloran. O'Halloran is a very nice man who is in charge of the kitchen and also, not a fan of Ullman. Once introduced to the Torrance's, he shows Wendy where all the supplies and different types of food are. Shortly after he takes a liking and a fascination to Danny, and realizes that he has a gift that not many have. O'Halloran has Danny help him carry his luggage to his car where he finds an oppurtunity to speak with him about what he thinks about Danny's special ability to know when things are going to happen. O'Halloran explains to him how he has it and that Danny could take this newly discovered shining ability to another level that not even he himself could reach. All of these other not so important (not including O'Halloran) characters add to the story because they add outside points of view that are different to that of the Torrance's.

Then there are the characters that greatly influence Jack and his drinking, such as Al Shockley, his drinking buddy and close friend. Al and Jack automatically clicked as friends when they met as teachers for the first time. After meeting they started to go out and have drinking binges where Jack would return home late at night to Wendy and a young Danny. This immediately took a toll on Wendy. After a few too many close calls, Jack realized he had to stop while he was still ahead. This was going smoothly until one day he cut a high maintenance student from his debate team and then caught that same kid slashing his tires. Jack acted with usual aggression and this got him fired from his job. Thats where Al Shockley stepped in and got Jack the job at the Overlook. All of these characters build up the story that lead to the culmination of events that unfold at the hotel. Because once there, they (Torrance's) are basically the only ones in the story. How would you feel if you were Jack Torrance and all of these past failures and hauntings kept bothering you and in the longrun your family?