'The Shining' Shows the Dangers of Alcohol Abuse by Jackson

'The Shining' Shows the Dangers of Alcohol Abuse by Jackson - October 2025 Scholarship Essay

I learned an important lesson about the familial and societal dangers of alcohol abuse from The Shining’s Jack Torrance.
We have likely all seen the movie. Jack (played by Jack Nicholson, after whom I am named) and his family arrive at the Overlook hotel for the winter. Jack’s a little crazy right from the outset and horror ultimately ensues. However, Stephen King’s original book The Shining depicts Jack’s character much differently than Stanley Kubrick’s movie would later do. In my opinion, the book’s portrayal of Jack is much more a cautionary tale of, among other things, the unfortunate consequences that alcohol abuse can thrust on a person and a family. His unchecked addiction caused the circumstances that brought his family on the fateful trip to the Overlook and set the scene for the terrors that awaited them there. The book also, unlike the movie, shows Jack overcoming these demons and ultimately sacrificing himself for the survival of his family.
The book delves much deeper into the Torrance family’s backstory than does the movie, showing the patriarch Jack as an alcohol abusing frustrated writer and disgraced schoolteacher, prone to violent outbursts. Such circumstances led to him accepting the winter job at the sentient Overlook hotel where his unraveling accelerated, but his vices had already rendered him weak and unprepared to deal with the challenges he and his family faced there. This horrific situation shaped how I view substance abuse/addiction: it’s less of a momentary personal failing, and more an escalating pattern of failure that chips away at normalcy, decency, and the goodwill of those around a person. The accumulation of small affronts: unsaid apologies, eroded trust, repeated relapses, familial embarrassment, and tough conversations that reduced what should have been a decent man to a pariah.
I watched my father go down a similar path. He used alcohol more and more as a crutch to cope with the stresses of life over the years. He gradually grew more irritable, isolated, and self-absorbed, as his few drinks a month morphed into an every night habit. I noticed changes, we all did, and we worked together as a family team to help him ultimately put alcohol down for good on January 1st, 2025. He had watched his younger brother’s life be ruined over the years by alcohol, similar to Jack Torrance’s, and I helped impress upon him the benefits of finding new coping methods. Our family’s care and support for my father’s alcohol cessation was not heroic, it was just that: care and support. Ultimately, he picked up golf and fitness, and our family’s trust and stability has dramatically improved ever since.
So, for me, the lesson here is found in Jack Torrance’s life outside of the Overlook hotel, the squandered opportunities and substance abuse that made his downfall inevitable. His story has me constantly looking for signs of self-harm in those around me. When I see it, I know to insert myself tactfully, and do what I can to care for the person and ensure they understand the impacts of their actions and that they get the help they need. It is in this way that Stephen King’s book depiction of Jack Torrance has taught me a valuable life lesson.