Okay, after I finished the post this morning, I had a few more ideas that I wanted to write down:
1) The plot is the most Oedipal that I can think of in Stephen King's works (I guess we will find out). Although Danny needs to kill his father or else he will be killed instead, and even though Jack actually dies from the boiler exploding (did anyone else see this coming from a mile away?), it is Danny who sends him down to the basement--Danny also summons Hallorann, whom he expects will murder his father, so there is almost Oedipus by proxy. And there is a whole scene in which Wendy, the mother, expresses jealousy at the relationship between her son and her husband.
2) This novel would actually be much scarier without the supernatural elements. Man with failings wants to do good, can't, turns into homicidal maniac and attacks those whom he loves most. That would be a real tragedy. And terrifying, since they would be stuck on a mountain in the middle of winter with no help. That would be a grim book.
3) Does anyone else want to know why the hotel is haunted? There are some sources that Stephen King published later that give some detail (here is one), although it actually doesn't, since it seems the grounds are haunted from the start. Maybe I should blame Poltergeist, but I sort of wanted to learn that the Overlook was built on some sacred burial ground or something. It's this kind of thinking that leads to the Dark Tower because if you just want more and more information, you're going to need a whole lot of books.
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