The Shining | Techniques

The Shining Techniques

King's basic plotting technique in The Shining is similar to that found in many of his novels: A long, leisurely buildup is used to inculcate in his readers the sense of a disarmingly normal human situation, during which time — with the exception of an occasional foreshadowing — little is done to suggest the nature of the horrors to come. Thus, when the strange events do begin to manifest themselves — frequently about one-third through the novel — they come with the shock of sudden reversal, and from that point onward accrue with ever greater intensity as the narrative accelerates toward its climax.

King frequently uses small towns (often situated in Maine) as relatively closed settings within which to pursue his plots, but in The Shining he does himself one better by choosing the claustrophobic expedient of a totally isolated, snowbound hotel as the setting for one of...
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