Characters: Halloran
Dick Halloran is the Head Chef at The Overlook, but we meet him framed as The Help.
Introduced to the viewer within The Gold Room, he, Wendy and Danny tour The Kitchen, walking them through the rows of kitchen equipment, the meat freezer, and The Pantry.
It isn’t until we’re shown Halloran having an entirely separate living space that we can piece together his living situation as a comment on race and status. This may not seem like an important detail, but it is.
In American Culture, it’s important to pay attention to the fact that Halloran has a second home, that his furnishings are nice (and that they’re equal to- or a small step below- The Overlook’s version of them), but they are noticeably nicer than what the Torrance’s have in Boulder.
Why does this matter? In the scene where Jack throws a tennis ball across symbols for the rest of the characters, Kubrick represents Halloran through a Golliwog doll (a racist symbol). Kubrick shows Jack and Grady (or Jack and his own refection) referring to him as a N***er Cook— insulting both his race and his role.
And Halloran’s role is also important— he shows to be loyal and steadfast in helping and saving Danny where Jack is as loyal and steadfast in harming him.
Halloran as Danny’s spiritual father (and Halloran as a Magical Negro) is something begun with King’s original source novel but utilized and fleshed out well within this film.
It creates a connection with Uncle Tom (or The House Negro):
Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. The term "Uncle Tom" is used as a derogatory epithet for an excessively subservient person, particularly when that person is aware of their own lower-class status based on race.
It can be viewed in the way he’s loyal to Ullman (No.17), and how it makes very little difference in how he’s treated or what happens to him.
In this image · No.15
Halloran introduced in The Gold Room
Halloran is introduced as the hotel’s chef. His position in the group sets up the character study’s distinction between his professional status and the way others treat him.
Full Character: Halloran
Characters: Halloran
Dick Halloran is the Head Chef at The Overlook, but we meet him framed as The Help.
Introduced to the viewer within The Gold Room, he, Wendy and Danny tour The Kitchen, walking them through the rows of kitchen equipment, the meat freezer, and The Pantry.
It isn’t until we’re shown Halloran having an entirely separate living space that we can piece together his living situation as a comment on race and status. This may not seem like an important detail, but it is.
In American Culture, it’s important to pay attention to the fact that Halloran has a second home, that his furnishings are nice (and that they’re equal to- or a small step below- The Overlook’s version of them), but they are noticeably nicer than what the Torrance’s have in Boulder.
Why does this matter? In the scene where Jack throws a tennis ball across symbols for the rest of the characters, Kubrick represents Halloran through a Golliwog doll (a racist symbol). Kubrick shows Jack and Grady (or Jack and his own refection) referring to him as a N***er Cook— insulting both his race and his role.
And Halloran’s role is also important— he shows to be loyal and steadfast in helping and saving Danny where Jack is as loyal and steadfast in harming him.
Halloran as Danny’s spiritual father (and Halloran as a Magical Negro) is something begun with King’s original source novel but utilized and fleshed out well within this film.
It creates a connection with Uncle Tom (or The House Negro):
Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. The term "Uncle Tom" is used as a derogatory epithet for an excessively subservient person, particularly when that person is aware of their own lower-class status based on race.
It can be viewed in the way he’s loyal to Ullman (No.17), and how it makes very little difference in how he’s treated or what happens to him.