Doctor Sleep In The Shining

Doctor Sleep is a sequel to the well-known horror novel, The Shining. It follows Jack Torrance’s son, Dan, who is continuing to live with his mother after their experience at the Overlook. Dan has an ability called ‘the shining’, which allows his to see and connect with ghosts and angry spirits, who follow and haunt him until he learns how to deal with them. Doctor Sleep follows Dan as he grows up and deals with his problems, his father’s problems, and his traumatic childhood experiences. The book also follows a group called The True Knot, who target people with the shining and feed off of their essence, called ‘steam’, in order to gain more power.

Now, a major theme I saw in Doctor Sleep was the feeling of being trapped. Danny is stuck in a living nightmare because of his ability, and is forced to deal with it. But even in his methods of trying to manage the shining, he is still trapped.

The first method is something that Dick Hallorann, the Overlooks former chef and a man who helped Danny and his mother during their stay there, teaches him. Dick also has the shining, and trains Danny to create a mental lockbox to imprison the ghosts that follow him. In doing this, that particular spirit will not bother him any more. This is the first event that plays into the theme of ‘being
He is a violent alcoholic, who sleeps around and takes advantage of women, and even steals from the less privileged. He moves from town to town, trying to outrun his past, but not succeeding. He is now trapped by his own bloodline; he is almost exactly mirroring his father’s actions before his demise. Dan knows that he is turning out like his father, and tries to quit drinking multiple times, without any successful attempts. After a particularly low moment, where Dan steals $70 from a single mother with a cocaine addiction, he flees again, and finds himself in New Hampshire, which is the first step in his new