The Shining

Jack is stung by the wasps on the roof when he's being creative, sorting through the issues of his play in progress. We say similarly, because in both cases the wasp stings seem like punishment for being creative. In the equipment shed, Jack sees the black and yellow snowmobile as a wasp. He thinks of it as another stinging pest that will take him away from his imagination, his desire to create fictional worlds. As always, the Overlook perverts reality. The snowmobile, wasp-like as it is, could have helped Jack live to practice his craft.

FIRE EXTINGUISHER
Although both Jack and Danny see the fire extinguishers move, and Danny is particularly frightened of them, they don't prove menacing. In fact, they are what they seem, rather puny creatures, unfit for their raison d'être, putting out fires. They are certainly no match for the boiler explosion that proves fatal for the hotel. They are a further symbol of the hotel's perversity, where things which are supposed to protect (like fathers, for example) are twisted to do the opposite.

MASKS

When the truth of the Overlook is revealed to the Torrances, it's a kind of unmasking. The Torrances, themselves, are also unmasked. Ironically, Jack is completely masked by the Overlook, after destroying his face with the roque mallet only to have it taken over by the faces of the hotel's spirits, he thinks that his mask is finally off. Sadly, Jack never takes off the mask he gained in childhood, the mask that says he must follow in his father's footsteps. Danny on the other hand, presents a hopeful version of unmasking. His experience at the Overlook is an unmasking of sorts, a rather brutal unmasking of life, but also an unmasking of the truth of who Danny is. In addition to learning he has great courage as well as human frailty, Danny's identity is validated by Halloran when he acknowledges his ability to shine. Halloran helps Danny see that his abilities are real and that he's not alone.

ROQUE MALLET

The roque mallet lends the story an unrelenting and murderous rhythm, creates suspense, and works as a rather unique symbol. We hear about the roque mallet from the first Tony incident and then we never stop hearing about it. Danny has frequent visions of some creature (which, of course, is Jack) using the mallet as a horrifically destructive weapon.

SCRAPBOOK
The scrapbook is a confusing symbol.it contains some of the crucial details of the Overlook's history from 1945 to 1967. For Jack, the scrapbook is a symbol of the novel he hopes to write. The hope of eventually writing this novel is part of the bait that keeps Jack wanting to stay at the Overlook. He desperately want to find out its secrets. The ghost of Delbert Grady, the murderous, suicidal 1970 caretaker, tells Jack that the mysterious "manager" left the scrapbook especially for Jack to find.

If the Overlook is like a criminal who wants to get caught in order to be famous, it would make sense that the Overlook would leave it for Jack to find. He's a writer who can immortalize it in print in a way the moldering news clippings and boxes of files cannot. For one thing, they're never read, except by Jack. The hotel also uses the scrapbook to toy with his aspirations, and then cruelly snatch them out of reach.

For Jack, the scrapbook also triggers his own mental scrapbook, particularly the pages featuring his father. This puts Jack in a trancelike state that sends him upstairs to destroy the radio, which is broadcasting murderous instructions from said father. The scrapbook symbolizes an extreme human powerlessness against bad memories and the potential in such memories for self destruction.

HEDGE ANIMALS

The topiary, the collection of hedge animals, are the guardians of the entrance and exit to the Overlook. They can't go on the porch, so they can't actually go into the hotel and run amuck. These spine-tingling beasts also call attention to the novel's supernatural naturalism. The literary tradition of naturalism often features a human-against-nature theme. Here the conflict is between humans, nature, and supernature!