Jack attacks George Hatfield

Jack Torrance attacks student George Hatfield in the Stovington parking lot after discovering him slashing the tires of the Torrance family Volkswagen, an eruption of violence that costs Jack his teaching career and nearly kills the boy.

Background and Causes

George Hatfield, a handsome and athletic Stovington student, had tried out for Jack's debate team in January. Jack cut him from the team in late March, partly because of a stutter that emerged under competitive pressure. George confronted Jack angrily after practices, accusing him of setting the timer ahead to cut his speaking time short. Jack, who had been off alcohol for two months and was feeling ragged, mocked George's stutter during one exchange, telling him he would never make a lawyer if he could not control it. A week after being cut, George was found by Jack in the parking lot, down on one knee with a hunting knife, sawing through the VW's right front tire. The back tires were already shredded, and the bug sat on the flats like a small, tired dog.

The Attack

Jack saw red and remembered very little of the encounter that followed. He recalled a thick growl issuing from his own throat: "All right, George. If that's how you want it, just come here and take your medicine." George looked up, startled and fearful, and said "Mr. Torrance—" as if to explain. Jack waded in, his fists held up in front of him, and it seemed that he had been grinning, though he was not sure of that. The last thing he remembered was George holding up the knife and saying, "You better not come any closer—" The next thing he knew, Miss Strong, the French teacher, was holding his arms, crying, "Stop it, Jack! Stop it! You're going to kill him!" George lay dazed and blinking on the asphalt, blood running from a scalp laceration and from one of his ears, which probably meant a concussion. When George tried to get up, Jack shook free of Miss Strong and went to him. George cringed.

Consequences

By the end of that week, six of Jack's debaters had dropped out, two of them the class of the act, but it did not matter much because Jack had been informed by then that he would be dropping out himself. The Board of Directors asked for his resignation, and Jack gave it to them. Under different circumstances, he would have gotten tenure that June. The night after the interview with Headmaster Crommert was the darkest, most dreadful night of his life; the wanting, the needing to get drunk had never been so bad. He left the house in terror that he might strike Wendy and Danny, and ended up outside a bar, kept from going in only by the knowledge that if he did, Wendy would leave him at last and take Danny with her. Instead, he went to Al Shockley's house. The Board's vote had been six to one; Al had been the one. Jack somehow stayed off the bottle after the Hatfield incident, though he had lost his temper again, this time stone sober. Al later told Jack he did not know how he stayed dry after that, calling it "above and beyond."

Narrative Role and Significance

The attack on George Hatfield is the culminating public disaster of Jack's career, the event that strips him of his teaching position and forces the family into the financial desperation that leads them to the Overlook Hotel. It is also the second major instance—after breaking Danny's arm—of Jack's temper erupting into physical violence against someone smaller and weaker. Jack's own retrospective analysis of the incident, which he conducts while sitting on the roof of the Overlook weeks later, frames it as the result of unwittingly sticking his hand into "The Great Wasps' Nest of Life": a passive, almost involuntary explosion of rage that he could not control. He insists to himself that he did not hate George Hatfield, that he had not acted but had been acted upon, yet the memory of George's cringing face and the blood running from his ear haunts him throughout his time at the Overlook, resurfacing in nightmares and hallucinations.