The Shining | Themes

The Shining Themes

When asked by his girlfriend about the subject of a book he is writing, Ben Mears, the protagonist of King's 'Salem's Lot (1975), replies: "Essentially, it's about the recurrent power of evil."

He might well have been speaking of The Shining, another work featuring a writer as its central character, for a large portion of the latter novel's thematic impact seems to derive from the notion that evil is both eternal and periodic in its ascendancy. It is more complex than merely that, however, for to this basic concept King harnesses two corollary and archetypal premises — a) the concentration of evil's power in what, presumably not requiring a more precise term, is most frequently referred to simply as a "Bad Place," and b) the ability of evil to act and sustain itself only through the subjugation and ultimate absorption of human subjects. The magnificent Overlook Hotel, primary...
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