No.19
No.19 is comprised entirely as a conversation between Danny and Halloran. Taking place at The Kitchen table, it reflects No.4’s conversation but goes deeper as Danny is shown to be able to trust Halloran more than either of his parents.
American History/Culture
Generations and what is passed down
A reference to learned knowledge. Halloran had the ability to communicate mentally and connected with his grandmother.
We see Danny communicating mentally with Halloran, and has an internal mechanism named Tony. We see Jack have a conversation with Grady in the same capacity.
“Say like someone burns toast”
The remnants of actions made previously.
Reflects No.5’s “Hard to believe it happened here, but it did”, the human-like screams within No.2
“A lot of things happened here over the years and not all of them was good”
A densely layered sentence. Reflects No.5’s “Hard to believe it happened here, but it did”, The Incident, The Tragedy of 1970, All The Best People
The danger posters on the wall behind Halloran are red, white, and blue.
Domestic abuse
Danny is visually aligned with a row of knives pointing directly to his head. While a kitchen does need knives, showing them aligned with Danny cements the harm hinted within the conversation. Seeing No.65 and that this is the same space Wendy will grab a knife to defend herself from Jack puts this specific space squarely within the Domestic Abuse narrative.
“How long have you been able to do it?”
In No.7 we learned Tony is the result of Danny’s dislocated shoulder injury. The Incident. We have no idea how long ago that was.
“Say like someone burns toast”
The remnants of actions made previously.
This specifically reflects No.7’s conversation with Wendy and The Dr./Social worker, Jack and Lloyd in No.47 and Jack and Grady in No.53.
Quite literally, this reflects Wendy walking through Jack’s path of destruction and seeing a slain Halloran. Jack creates the mess in No.51 and Wendy walks through it in No.85
“A lot of things happened here over the years and not all of them was good”
Foreshadowing for No.31, No.41, No.48, No.50, No.72, No.78, and the maze sequence.
The Maze
Kubrick as Unreliable Narrator:
Danny is shown to perform Tony for Wendy in No.4, Wendy cuts Danny off to tell the Dr./Social worker that Tony is Danny’s “imaginary friend”, but from Danny’s perspective, Tony is a protection mechanism.
“Say like someone burns toast”
This one sentence acts like a metaphor for much of the film. We, the viewer, deal with the implications of The Incident but didn’t see it happen. We see the result of Danny’s bruises but not the act that caused them. We see Danny’s face with the remnants of chocolate ice cream and the empty bowl, but not him eating.
“What about Room 237?”
This is another instance of the characters knowing more than Kubrick is showing you.
No.6:i158 and Danny’s Tony conversation showed nothing of Room 237- not the room, the name, the key, the interior nothing.
It’s Danny’s awareness of things beyond his understanding. The false association of Room 237 with ghosts/haunting/the bad things (in related to The Hotel as an evil spirt) is started here. “A lot of things happened here over the years, and not all of them was good” / “What about Room 237” is similar associating to No9:i232 / “I’m hungry”/ “Wasn’t the Donner party out here?” In that hunger/food might be their demise, but of course, it isn’t.
Room 237 might be where the bad thing is, but the bad thing is not ghosts.
Danny touches the doorknob of Room 237, but doesn’t see inside it- he sees (or thinks of) The Grady Girls and sees them in the West Wing Hallway.
Halloran in his “Stay out, there ain’t nothing in Room 237” is him protecting Danny from whatever signals he’s getting. Danny didn’t share with Halloran the things Tony showed him, so regardless of what it was- stay away from the things you already knew about this hotel before you got here.
Semiotic Splice:
“Is there something bad here?”
There IS now that The Torrance’s are there. The “Something Bad” is assumed to be the ghosts, the loaded history, even the violent actions of the past, and all of that is true— except it is the metaphor of emotional baggage; “Wherever you go, there you are”.
“A lot of things happened here over the years and not all of them was good”
Similar to the “Is there something bad here”, it speaks to the well-worn path of bad actions unresolved.
Fatalism/False Fatalism
“Mr. Halloran what is in Room 237?”
“A lot of things happened here over the years and not all of them was good”
Ghost Story
“Is there something bad here?”
“A lot of things happened here over the years and not all of them was good”
Reflects: No.5 and the Tragedy of 1970.
No.12, All The Best People
“What about Room 237?”
Danny’s awareness of Room 237, and what takes place during No.48 is often thought of as a ghost sequence, but what we see in No.6 is not Room 237. What we see in No.6 is a sequence showing the Grady girls from No.38, The elevator blood (No.50, No.8something), and Danny within No.83.
The camera is fixed on a corner of the Kitchen table, seeing the storage room in between. Halloran and Danny mirror each other’s body position, and stylistically- the color palette is reflected as well. Danny is visually aligned with a row of knives.
The Kitchen, specifically at The Kitchen Table.
No.4
No.28
No.62
No.65
No.74
Halloran
Danny
There is no additional sound to this scene