Comment on structure.

This novel is divided into five large sections. Each part of the novel has a label title that gives the main theme of that part. For example, the first part is named “Prefatory Matters.” As indicated, this part of the novel details what goes on before Jack starts his job at the hotel. Each paragraph in the novel is also given a label title that similarly gives an idea about what will be happening in that chapter.

The first part of the novel is comprised of seven chapters that tell the history leading up to Jack, Wendy, and Danny moving into The Overlook. The next part of the novel consists of six chapters that detail the day that the Torrences move into The Overlook. Things start to get strange in the third part of the novel when Jack comes across the wasps’ nest while shingling the roof. This part of the novel is fittingly labeled “The Wasps’ Nest.”

In the fourth part of the novel, snow traps the family in the hotel. In the fifth and final part of the novel, titled “Matters of Life and Death” Hallorann joins the action of the novel, hurrying to try to get to The Overlook in time to save Wendy and Danny from the inevitable. It is in this final part that the action of the novel climaxes. A final chapter, titled as the epilogue, updates the reader on the conditions of Wendy and Danny several months after their ordeal.