The Shack: Where tragedy confronts eternity, by William P. Young, is a heart wrenching and eye-opening novel. It’s a fictional story of Mackenzie Allen Phillips’ journey of healing after the death of his six-year-old daughter, Missy, who was kidnapped and killed on a family camping trip. Mack had been struggling for nearly four years to get out of what he calls “The Great Sadness,” that had been limiting his happiness since Missy’s passing, until he received a strange letter inviting him to the place of his nightmares, signed by God himself. This book describes his struggles and changes, his healing and realizations, through beautiful descriptions and vivid passages. I believe this book can help a lot of people who are struggling with grief …show more content…
He’s angry with God, for not protecting his little girl, Mack feels as if he could never forgive God, or the man who killed his Missy. He yelled and yelled, how could God let this happen? Why did he bring him here? Mack felt tortured, hurt, and so angry, he destroyed everything there that he could until he exhausted himself and fell asleep on the floor, crying for his little girl. When he woke up, everything was the same, Mack was still angry and he didn’t want to be there anymore. He has fully given up on God, on trying to find him in his mess, if God wanted him, God had to find him. On his way down the trail of the shack towards his car, the snow and ice beneath his feet rapidly melted, spring sprung unnaturally in front of him, when he turned back to the shack, it was replaced by a beautiful log cabin. On the porch stood a large black woman, who later introduced herself as Papa. She introduced him to an Asian woman called Sarayu, and a Middle Eastern man named Jesus. The three people all represent something of the world, from my …show more content…
Papa was a home, Jesus was a friend, and Sarayu was a garden, together they were one and made God, the world couldn’t exist in harmony with just one, or just two, but all three, they created balance. In saying that, I believe if Mackenzie had gone to the shack, but one or two of the three weren’t there, he wouldn’t have fully healed the way that he did. Without Jesus, Mack would’ve never let go of The Great Sadness, he would’ve found his faith in God again, or learn how to handle things when life is hard. Sarayu taught Mack how to find peace and beauty in chaos, how every living being is deserving of life and everything has a purpose. And without Papa he never would’ve learned the value of forgiveness and what it truly means, how forgiveness is not to befriend them or feel okay with what they did, but to release them from your wrath, and in doing so you let go of your need for revenge and lose a lot of the hurt you were feeling. Papa gave Mack closure, to face what had been eating him alive and forgiving reality. The three of them together made balance in Mack’s heart, bringing peace to his mind, his heart, and his
The Novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski uses two characters of his own creation to construct the book in its entirety. The first contributor, Zampano, who is the author, who may or may not be trustworthy of the interpretation of The Navidson Record, because he is blind. Early on in his efforts to finish the book he dies under suspicious circumstances. At this point, Danielewski employees another to contribute, Johnny Truant, who composes the introduction and notes for the book. Zampano documents the Navidson Record which is about Will Navidson and his family. Navidson calls his brother Tom and a family friend, Billy Reston, to investigate a hallway that appears out of nowhere between two rooms. Once a labyrinth appears in the house,
In today’s world there are millions of people who grow up in situations that make them powerless. Poverty, violence, and drugs surround children from birth and force them to join the cycle. In L.B. Tillit’s Unchained a young boy named TJ grows up in this environment. With both his mother and father struggling with addiction, he is often left alone on the streets to fend for himself. He turns to a local gang for protection and a sense of place in Jr. High, but is quickly taken out of the life he knows when his father overdoses and dies. TJ is sent to live in a foster home where he learns to care for others and meets a girl and falls in love with her. However, when his mother regains custody of him, TJ is forced back into the gang where he uses violence and drug dealing to stay alive. With help from his foster care manager he soon realizes that he can make it out of his life and return to his foster home and the girl he loves. A central theme of Unchained is that people have the power to make decisions to determine their future.
This book was brilliant. There were moments that made me laugh, moments that made me tremble in my chair, moments that made me cry, moments that melted my heart, and moments that made me want to rip my hair out at the roots. This book has it all, and it delivers it through a cold but much needed message.
This quote from the book, Lone Survivor, shows the incredible resolve that the Author and protagonist of the story, Marcus Luttrell has. The book is all about the horrors that he endured in the Hindu Kush mountain region in Afghanistan when he went on a mission with 3 other Navy SEALs (Sea, Air, and Land), Danny Dietz, Matthew “Axe” Axelson, and Michael Murphy. The book, Lone Survivor was set in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, details the fight for survival against the Taliban, and has a theme of hospitality.
Kate Morrison is a well educated, independent woman with a decent job, supportive boyfriend and family. Externally, Kate has a life that some people might envy of but, internally, she isn’t as stable as she seems. Crow Lake, a novel written by Mary Lawson, leads the readers to the protagonist, Kate Morrison and the struggles in her life. Kate loses her parents in her early age and for this reason she lives with her siblings with some help from her neighbours and other family members. Despite the absence of her parents, Kate and her siblings seem to grow well. Although there is some crisis in the family, they seem to be inevitable consequences of not having an adult in the family. However, Kate spends an innumerable amount of time accepting and letting go of the past and eventually it causes another crisis in her present life. She continuously has some kind of depression, and she does not realize that her depression is coming from herself, not from anything or anybody else. Crow Lake contains a great message that shows refusing to face the past affects your future negatively. We see ...
I can relate to this book because when I was four years old my mom and I were going down to the gas station. just a few miles from our house and my mom was not paying attention to the road because I was crying, She turned her head back and before we knew it we hit a tree head on. I can see how Willow has been feeling because my family was worried about me and my mother and they still have us but Willow lost her parents for good she cant have them back, I can only imagine Willow’s pain.
All through the times of the intense expectation, overwhelming sadness, and inspiring hope in this novel comes a feeling of relief in knowing that this family will make it through the wearisome times with triumph in their faces. The relationships that the mother shares with her children and parents are what save her from despair and ruin, and these relationships are the key to any and all families emerging from the depths of darkness into the fresh air of hope and happiness.
As we approach our final year in junior high, our class was given the summer assignment to read and explore the message of Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk. Wolf Hollow takes place in 1943 with the point of view of a twelve year old girl named Annabelle, whose life took an abrupt turn. Annabelle lives with her parents, grandparents and Aunt At a young age Annabelle showed maturity as she was inexplicably bullied by Betty, the new girl. However while Annabelle quickly misjudged the capacity Betty would go to hurt her, she found herself growing a relationship with a “damaged man” named Toby. Annabelle was open minded and didn’t see Toby as the homeless, mental, war veteran that others think he is. However the with the guns he carries across his back
Upon reading the premise of this novel, I knew I had to read it. People often say that death can bring a family together; and in my family, it did. Nevertheless, death and grief can also bring about entropy within a family or relationships, as is seen here in The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. I tend to cry more often than not, this novel was without exception. I am moved by the story and how quickly I was attached to the each of the characters. Due to situational irony, I felt sympathetic towards the characters; at other times, I saw perfect examples of how family therapy would be a great intervention to the dysfunctional system that was
The Interior Castle by Jean Stafford is a very disturbing but thought-provoking story of a woman who creates a separate world within her head after being severely injured in a car accident. The conflict of the story is Pansy’s attempted escape from pain. Throughout the story she develops an incredibly intricate world within her own mind. She attempts to run from the pain she feels by retreating into this world in which she has made for herself.
In The Promised Land, Nicholas Lehmann follows the stories of black migrants, politicians, and bureaucrats through the Great Migration, and attempts to explain the decline of northern cities, the constant liberty struggle of blacks across America, and government response to the issues surrounding the Great Migration. This work signalled a drastic change from the structured approach of Thomas Sugrue’s, The Origins Of The Urban Crisis, which observes the effects of institutions and human agency on postwar Detroit and its marginalized peoples. Both Sugrue and Lemann had (albeit slightly different) holistic views of the political climate of postwar cities, which helped provide context for prejudices towards blacks and the poor, and subsequently
I can relate this book to a very good friend of mine who got caught up in a bad situation. I’ll use the name “Bob”. We live in the small town of Cape May, NJ and everyone knows everyone. Not always the best situation for people like Bob. He and I became friends before any of these awful things started to happen.
... presence in town and preached from a rock in the Clearing surrounded by trees, doing what she finds comfort in, helping and preaching to others: “In the Clearing, Sethe found Baby’s old preaching rock and remembered the smell of leaves simmering in the sun, thunderous feet and the shouts that ripped pods off the limbs of chestnuts. With Baby Suggs’ heart in charge, the people let go” (94). Even Sixo, the wild man went among the trees at night to “keep his bloodlines open.” Each one of these characters has endured the horrors of slavery and faced this ordeal in different ways, but they all deal with slavery with the comforting and harmless aspect of nature, trees. Although people today don’t have to live through slavery, people still have to face their own tough personal situations. Instead of having nature to soothe one’s problems, people today drown their sorrows in material possessions and controlled substances, unfortunately a problem plaguing society. Readers can only remember a time not too long ago when the little secret hiding place in the woods or one’s special thinking rock meant a great deal more than material items, a simple healthy escape from life and it’s problems.
Surrounded by sweeping forests and tranquil lakes, an isolated town in Sweden clings to hockey as its only means of survival amid economic hardships. Fredrik Backman’s Beartown examines the great lengths a community can go to protect their local hockey team, even in the face of rape. In the aftermath of the rape of Maya Andersson by the star captain of the team, Kevin Erdahl, the small town is left divided. In their inability to prioritize morality over hockey, Backman illustrates the obstacles women must confront to assert themselves in male-dominated fields, such as sports, and how female solidarity becomes a crucial tool for amplifying their voices. Female characters like Maya Andersson, Kira Andersson, and Fatima, among others, represent agents of
“Hey, what’s up you guys it’s Troye Sivan” (Troye Sivan) That is how Troye starts off every video he makes, but the next sentence makes this video all different from the others. “‘This is probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in my entire life, but I’m going to deal with it,’” (Business Insider). Troye Sivan is an 18 year old Australian actor and YouTube. Recently, he had made a video entitled “Coming Out”. Since Troye is in the public eye, he took a risk coming out of the closet so publicly. Even though the YouTube Community can be extremely positive there is a whole load of hate out there. Troye had to overcome any hate that was thrown his way from his subscribers or just from some viewers.