Jack Torrance In Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening'

1512 Words7 Pages
Argument Essay It is evident throughout history that for some, the adjustment to marriage or family life is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole; it just won’t work out for the benefit of either party. In fact, in some scenarios, both the peg and the hole may suffer damage just as all members of a family or both members of a marriage might when things go awry. Tempers flare and hearts are broken. Sometimes the conformity to the structure of a clan is too much for one to be successful. Throughout time this has been blatantly obvious through all walks of life from royalty, down to the common household and it is indeed very tragic. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is a housewife wistful for the comforts of…show more content…
Torrance is a recovering alcoholic at the commencement of the novel, but his past is one shrouded in hardship reeking with liquor. Torrance has a young son Danny not yet in grade school and a stable relationship with his wife, Wendy. However, a drunken incident threatens to shatter their lives forever when Torrance enters the house severely intoxicated and breaks Danny’s shoulder while reprimanding him. As the novel progresses, the threat of a relapse with Jack is looming like a dark cloud. The point is that an alcoholic not in recovery should be nowhere near a young child or in any committed relationships until sober. The novel is also peppered with horrific flashbacks of abuse at the hands of Jack’s father. Because of the trauma he experienced, it is as hard for Jack to be a normal father as it is for a normal father to strike his son; quite difficult. “In those days it did not seem strange to Jack […] that his own love should go hand-in-hand with his fear […]” (http://www.shmoop.com/shining-stephen-king/family-quotes-3.html). This quote is a perfect illustration of how Jack’s sense of what a relationship should be like is irreversibly altered. It is evident that Jack Torrance’s problem is manifested differently than that of Edna Pontellier or Henry VIII but all the same, it is clear that his underlying issues make it extremely difficult for him to fit into a family and play a part in it normally. In the case of The Shining, there is indeed collateral damage even before any supernatural forces

More about Jack Torrance In Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening'

Open Document