Steven King's The Shining (Nikolas H.)

Dear Mr. King,

Your book, The Shining, has made me think about life differently. Even though this was basically a scary story, the character’s reaction to everything inside the hotel and how they lived their lives before they went inside the hotel really intrigued me. I wish I was with the family through everything that they went through, but reading it gave me the same feelings that they felt. The feeling of being brave, having the love of relatives and living life to the fullest has increased in me so much and changed my way of thinking about everything.

At the beginning of the story, I started to feel sympathy for how the main character’s son’s condition, since he was handicapped. However, he still loved his parents for everything that they have done for him, which makes me proud of my parents for everything that they did for me. I felt more sympathy for the son since he was the only person that felt and could see the ghosts that was haunting the hotel that the main character, the father and husband, was working at. I cannot feel the way that the son felt when he was seeing all of this, but I do know how it feels to see and feel things that most people would never be able to see. This is also what the son and I have in common: even though we were scared out of our minds when we saw what we saw, we still stayed strong through it all and made people believe. The main character, his wife and his son did not live the “perfect life”, so they still went through the things that they lived through, such as the father and mother not talking to each other and their son being handicapped. They still lived life to the fullest even after they got out of the hotel, which inspired me to do the same through everything that I go through, good or bad.

My way of thinking about life has changed differently throughout the whole story from start to finish. I was really interested in how they lived their lives through all of the things that happened before and after the family got into the haunted hotel. I really felt the reactions that the family felt went they were in the hotel and I knew how it felt in their position, but not in their way. The feelings of being brave, love for my relatives and living life to the fullest changed the way that I think about everything and increased my way of thinking about life in a major way.

Sincerely,

Nikolas Hambrick