Ego + the Self

Jack is attached to the things that confer status. He identifies himself as a writer even while interviewing for a different job. He wants wealth, fame, importance, and a place among the hotel’s patrons. Being its caretaker does not satisfy that desire.

When Wendy wants to leave, he treats her concern for Danny as an attack on his future. The hotel offers him recognition, while he refuses to value the family he already has. Lloyd makes him feel important; Grady feeds that importance and turns it toward violence.

Their conversations around mirrors support a reading of the figures as internal defenses. They can also be viewed as supernatural presences. The psychological function is the same: Grady protects Jack’s ego and supplies information, just as Tony protects Danny and gives him information he could not otherwise know. Their protective purposes lead in opposite directions: Danny’s survival and Jack’s violence against others.

See Jack’s Ego.