When faith is gone, all hope is lost. Reading The Shack by WM.Paul Young, it is nothing like the first three books we read. We saw that both Slade House and Coraline were mystery stories and Kindred were a story about a woman who time travels back to slavery.
The shack is a story that opens your eyes to the reality of life and what we face when we lose a love one. My purpose for reading this book is because I want to know why things happen to us? Why do we need to lose love ones to learn a lesson? What is the lesson God is trying to teach us?
I find myself asking these questions all the time ever since I lost my grandfather back in 2014. This book has opened my eyes to understanding the purpose of going through hardships to understand the meaning behind lost.
Premise: What if you lose someone, close to you?
It is hard to lose a love one especially someone that means the world to you and has made a difference in your life. I know the feeling a losing someone special is hard and we question God why things happen and Mack the main character has face the same thing. His purpose is that, Having an open mind challenges our belief system, leads to personal growth, enlightenment, and stronger sense of self. But (context) Keeping a closed mind, leads to stunted personal growth , and causes you to lose touch with reality.
The shack is about a man name Mack who goes camping with his three children. On their last day of camping Mack’s two older children fall off a canoe. As he runs to safe his two children, he leaves his youngest child Missy at a picnic table near the lake where he could see her. When he rescues his children he goes back to get Missy, when he reaches the picnic table all he find is her drawing and a lady bug on top.
Mack searches for Missy and has FBI looking for her, the FBI had found Missy in an abandoned shack deep in the Organ wilderness. Missy had been brutally murdered, from that day on Mack had lost everything he had ever loved.
A while after Missy death, Mack receives a letter that read
“Mackenzie,
It’s been a while. I’ve missed you. I’ll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together.
Papa”
Mack shows up to the shack and when he enters, he enters into another world. Here he meets Papa which is God and he is taught the purpose of the loss of Missy and why it was important for him to reconcile with God.
When Mack experiences this he learns that (context) Challenging your belief system expose you to negative experiences/pain and jeopardizes your entire identity/sense of self. Because of this Mack was able to (purpose) Maintaining his belief system preserve your innocences and keeps you safe for negative occurrences. Not only is Mack able to realizes now after meeting God but we see it when Mack is younger and his drunken father beats him. Mack innocences and christian belief was challenged as a child and is now being challenge with the lost of Missy.
Group Four 
Hey Lizedly!
I didn’t really get far with Shack yet, I have only read around three chapters. The forward to chapter 3. Within these first three chapters I believe the controlling values to focus around this idea of innocence. This idea of an innocent being sacrificed leading to a revelation of some sort. Innocence being lost is brought up at least four times within the first couple of pages. On page 10, Mack explains the abuse he had to endure at the hand of his father at a young age. The breaking point (sacrifice), was when Mack was 13 years old and was tied to a tree for 2 days and whipped/beaten by his father. Mack then leaves home at only 13 years old, loses his childhood and innocence and becomes an adult. Then on page 30 they discuss the legend of an ancient tribe. The tribe was suffering of an awful innocence. The cure for the illness was one of the chief daughters (an innocent), must sacrifice themselves, and die. The daughters sacrifice leads to a cure for the illness, a loss of an innocent. Then on page 34, Mack’s 6 year old daughter, Missy is described and portrayed as being innocent, and is eventually kidnapped and murder. Another reoccurring instance of losing innocent. These all seemed like to much of a coincidence for me to ignore. Leading me to believe the controlling values are centered around theses ideas.
Great job on your post, just adding some of my ideas!
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Hey Liz, nice blog!
I thought it was a great overview of the story. The controlling values you chose seem like only some of the ones that actually exist; I don’t know, it’s been very difficult to find the controlling values. Before class on Tuesday I thought the controlling values would have something to do with Mach’s depression from his loss and how he can’t let go of the pain. On page 13 the author describes Mach’s sadness about “The Great Sadness” in a way that can only make you feel sorry for him: “Shortly after this summer that Missy vanished, The Great Sadness had dragged it self around Max shoulders like some invisible but almost tangibly heavy quilt. The weight of its presence dulled his eyes and stooped his shoulders” (Young).
Mach can’t let go of his disgust with his Father neither. “The note, though never far from his mind, was not mentioned. He still didn’t know what to think of it and he didn’t want Nan included if it turned out to be some kind of cruel joke” (Young 13). Even before that quote we find Mach has split his head open from getting mad about “his father’s note” and slipping on the ice. So maybe the controlling values I thought about before shouldn’t just be about Mach’s depression, but more about letting things go instead of holding them inside or constantly thinking about them. After all, sometimes when we hold on to things too tight, God challenges us and takes them away. This may seem curel, but it is only a test that will show us our foolish pride and remind us that we actually own nothing, for God is always in control and he created everything. He can let it disappear or die at any time. Holding that disgust and/or sadness for Missy will only destroy him, so he shouldn’t feed them.
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Hey Lizedly,
Thanks for setting us up with your blog! You do a great job of summarizing what goes on in the flashback, which is what leads to the rest of the narrative. I think that it would be helpful for you to look at how the controlling values are present in the text. Yes, we took them out, but where can we actually see them? For example, I think that by the conclusion of the text the winning value is not any of the ones that we have mentioned. It is somehow a hybrid of maintaining your belief and blind faith. One of the controlling values you mentioned is “maintaining his belief system preserve your innocences and keeps you safe for negative occurrences.” Although Mack preserved his belief system, it did not preserve his innocence nor keep him safe from negative occurrences. He also did not open his mind and widen his perspective or beliefs. His beliefs remain the same throughout the text despite the suffering he experiences. Instead, he comes to an understanding of suffering as an opportunity for grace. Finally, although the books we have read are different, they all work to reveal some sort of truth or to make us think about something. The winning controlling value or purpose is that take away and it often connects the seemingly unrelated texts that we read.
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