Monster Character WiKi
Danny Torrance
Danny or Daniel Anthony Torrance first appeared in Stephen King’s 1977 novel, The Shining, which was made into a movie in 1980. It shows Danny as the 5 year old son of Jack and Wendy Torrance who has the gift of the shining. The shining allows Danny to read minds, see spirits (ghosts), and see events from the past and future.
Danny later shows up as the protagonist of Stephen King’s 2013 novel Doctor Sleep. Danny is all grown up in Doctor Sleep, he is about 40 now. Danny has struggled to control the shining his entire life and when he can’t completely control it he turns to drinking. He quickly becomes an alcoholic like his father was. After many years of moving from place to place he finally stumbles upon the New Hampshire town of Frazier, where he finally decides to give up drinking. He gives up drinking, goes to alcoholics anonymous meetings regularly and gets a job as an orderly hospice care worker. This is the perfect job for him because the shining also allows him to help people die peacefully. Just when Danny is settled down and doing well in life, a young girl named Abra contacts him for help. Abra needs Danny’s help to control her shinning and stop a group who call themselves the True Knot. The True Know has been kill children with the shinning and feed on it for years, and they are now after Abra. Danny agrees to help her and along the way discovers Abra’s mom Lucy Stone is his half-sister, making Abra his niece.
I would describe Danny as smart, determined, independent, forgiving, and very brave. You first get the sense that Danny is smart early on. He knows all the problems his parents are going through and is sensitive to their needs. He was also reading at a second-grade reading level and he had yet to enter kindergarten. Danny also understood many things that most children could not, and interacted with adults better than most children could. Once Danny grew up he had his problems but he was still quite intelligent. He knew exactly how people worked and how to get what he needed from them to survive. He also came up with the plan to take down the True Know basically by himself.
Not only is Danny Torrance brave he is also determined. When he was younger he knew his parents had been thinking about divorce for quite some time. Danny was determined to do everything in his power to keep them together even if it meant he would be somewhere he felt uncomfortable. He went to the haunted overlook hotel with his parents with no objection because he thought it would bring his parents together and make them happy again. He was also very determined to be a good reader so his father would be proud of him. He would sit at his desk for hours working on his reading skills. Yet another example of his determination is becoming sober after he got to New Hampshire. No matter how hard it got he was determined to stop drinking and get his life together.
There are many complex layers to Daniel Anthony Torrance. Once of those layers is independence. Five year old Danny often takes care of himself and sometimes his parents. Danny often makes himself lunch and tea for his mom to drink when she wakes up from her afternoon nap. Since he is an only child he is also left to entertain himself at most times. As he grew up the only person around to take care of him was his mother and often times she was working to try and provide for them. This left Danny to take care of himself, and while he got into trouble he managed to survive.
Danny had many hardships in his life though no matter what someone does to him he finds a way to forgive and forget. When Danny was very young his dad broke his arm in a drunken rage. His father felt so guilty and never really forgave himself, but Danny forgave him the moment it stopped hurting. He wanted his father to forgive himself and simply called it an accident. Also, in the hotel when Jack (Danny’s father) started acting aggressive and strange, due to the ghosts in the hotel influencing him, he would often yell at Danny and call him names but Danny always forgave him saying it wasn’t his fault. Even after his father tried to kill his mother and him he couldn’t convince himself to be mad at him.
Danny is many things but most of all he is brave. He went through many things in his life and it took a very brave person to get survive. He bravely face his fears and the ghosts at the overlook hotel to keep his family safe and together. He bravely saved his mom from being killed by his father. The bravest things he did in my opinion happened when he was older though. He was brave enough to stop drinking and get his life together even though he knew that meant the shinning would come back. It takes a very strong and brave person to overcome alcoholism. He also helped Abra overcome the True Know even though he thought he would die trying to protect her. When he was helping his niece he had to go back to the place where the Overlook hotel once stood and face the ghosts of his past and the monsters in the present.
Overall Danny Torrance is a very complex character who has a rough life, but overcame it all to become a strong responsible adult who helps mentor his niece Abra in controlling her gift of the shining.
