Summary
Chapter 16: A Morning of Sorrows
Mack is shaken awake in the morning, and when he opens his eyes he finds an old man wearing a hiking outfit. Though he has changed gender and appearance entirely, Mack recognizes that it is Papa. Papa tells him that he looks this way because "This morning you're going to need a father" (221). When Mack comes out of his room after dressing, he receives an item from Sarayu: a pack that looks something like a sleeping bag and is full of the flowers and herbs they picked together. Papa makes Mack breakfast, and then they set off with Sarayu's pack, a pick, a walking stick, and a shovel. They walk quietly together, following a trail through the forest. Mack breaks the silence by telling Papa that even though he has talked about Missy with Sophia and with Papa in a female form, he feels like he also needs to talk about it with Papa as a father. Papa tells Mack about how Missy's death could have been prevented by God not creating humans, or by creating humans but not giving them full independence, but those were not options God considered valid.
They continue walking quietly, and as they walk, Papa taps boulders and trees along the path that are marked with a red arc. Eventually, they reach an area where there are no more trees, only a field of rocks. Papa and Mack sit down for a break, and Papa tells Mack that what he is about to see will be very painful. Mack knows that Papa wants him to forgive Missy's killer and give up his fantasies of revenge. Papa tells Mack that forgiveness does not mean one must forget what happened or form a relationship with the person who wronged them, but that it allows one to eventually love that person. Papa also tells Mack that he doesn't need to think about revenge or justice, because that kind of judgement is God's job. Mack weeps while Papa holds him, and he begs for help forgiving Missy's killer. Papa tells him to say out loud that he forgives him, and Mack does so multiple times. Papa tells Mack that it is all right to be angry, and that he will keep having to say he forgives the Little Ladykiller over and over for a long time.
Mack turns to go back to the shack, but Papa tells him they are not done—they still have to retrieve Missy's body. Mack cries again and thanks Papa, and then they walk together across the field of rocks. Mack realizes that they are following a path marked by the red arcs. They reach a small cave entrance blocked by rocks, and using the pick and the shovel they move them out of the way. The odor inside the cave is awful, but Papa instructs Mack to take a piece of cloth from the pack Sarayu gave him and tie it around his face to cover the smell. They find Missy's body, and Papa unrolls Sarayu's pack completely so that they can wrap Missy in the sheet filled with flowers and spices. When they get out of the cave, Papa hands Missy's wrapped body to Mack. As they leave, Papa puts one of the stones with a red arc back in front of the cave entrance.
Chapter 17: Choices of the Heart
Mack carries Missy all the way back to the shack. Jesus and Sarayu are waiting there, and Mack hands Missy's body to Jesus before following him into the workshop. Mack sees the casket Jesus was sanding the day before, which has now been etched with scenes from Missy's life. They put Missy into the casket, fill it with flowers and spices, and then carry it into the garden to the spot where Mack helped Sarayu clear a space. After the casket is placed in the hole, Sarayu sings a song that she says Missy wrote for the occasion. At the end, they all say "Amen" (235), and then they fill in the hole with dirt. When the hole is filled, Sarayu takes out a small bottle and sprinkles Mack's tears onto the dirt. This causes flowers and "a tree of life" (236) to grow from the spot.
Papa leads Mack, Jesus, and Sarayu into the living room and asks Mack if he wants to return to his family and friends or stay at the shack and continue learning. In addition, if Mack stays he will get to see Missy, but if he leaves he will never see her again. Mack decides to go back, knowing it would be hard for his family to lose him. They remind him that they will always be with him, and that he simply needs to forgive people and be kind. Sarayu tells Mack that she has a final gift for him, which is the knowledge that Kate blames herself for Missy's death. Mack is stunned, but grateful that he understands her struggle better. Jesus offers to give back Mack's tin box, but Mack says he doesn't need it any more.
The group drinks wine and shares a load of bread, and then Mack changes clothes and prepares to leave. He sees that God has left him a cup of coffee, so he sits down on the floor and begins to drink it. He falls asleep, and when he wakes up he is cold and sore, lying on the floor of the shack as it was in reality. He goes outside and sees that it has snowed while he was inside. He gets in Willie's car, begins his drive home, and tries to call Nan while on his way. Then, when he is driving calmly through an intersection, he is hit by another car. The chapter ends with Mack's unconscious body being delivered to a hospital in Portland, Oregon.
Chapter 18: Outbound Ripples
Mack wakes up from a four-day coma surrounded by loving family and medical professionals. He barely remembers what happened at the shack, and what he remembers is muddled by the car crash and the drugs he's on at the hospital. On his third day after regaining consciousness, Willie visits him. He jokingly chides his friend about his driving skills and how mad Nan is about Willie letting Mack go on the trip. When Willie mentions God, Mack suddenly remembers his weekend at the shack. He starts to cry, and he tells Willie that God really was there. Mack tells Willie that God said to tell him, "Tell Willie that I'm especially fond of him" (244), and Willie is so emotionally affected that he has to leave the room.
The next time Nan comes to visit Mack, she begins by filling him in on some of the details of his crash. He had been hit by a drunk driver on Friday night. This surprised Mack because he though the crash was on Sunday, since he had been at the shack for three days. Mack apologizes for not telling Nan about the note and his trip, and then, over a few days, tells her all about what happened at the shack. Nan is not sure whether to believe him, but she sees the way her husband's perceptions have been changed. She brings Kate to see her father, and he tells her that Missy's death wasn't her fault. Kate run out of the room, and Nan runs after her, but later Mack wakes up to find Kate lying next to him in his hospital bed. When Nan sees that Mack is awake, she kisses him and says that she believes him.
Mack improves quickly and is released from the hospital. He contacts Officer Dalton and convinces him to go back into the woods to look for Missy's body. With Mack's knowledge of the sign the Little Ladykiller used to mark a trail, they find the spot, still marked with the rock Papa put directly at the opening of the cave. They call in forensic specialists, recover Missy's remains, and use the evidence to track down the Little Ladykiller and the bodies of the other girls he killed.
After Words
Young finishes by addressing the reader directly, as he did in the Foreword. He acknowledges that the story might be hard to believe, especially because of Mack's traumatic head injury in the car crash and drugs he was on while in the hospital. He tells the reader that Mack is currently testifying in the Little Ladykiller's trial, and hopes to meet with him. Mack also hopes for a revolution someday where "every one of us will bow our knees and confess in the power of Sarayu that Jesus is the Lord of all creation, to the glory of Papa" (250).
Analysis
Chapter 16 begins with an epigraph by A.W. Tozer, a 20th century author and evangelical pastor. The quote says that God does not partition himself, but "gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others" (220) to each person. This hearkens back to the scene in The Shack where Mack met with Sophia in the cave. To demonstrate to Mack how God loves everyone, she instructed him to talk about his love for each of his children and then choose some of them to go to Hell; when Mack could not do this and proposed sacrificing himself, she told him that he was acting like God. The use and capitalization of "Himself" (220) also calls attention to the way God has been traditionally portrayed as male, which is the form Papa takes in Chapter 16.
The gender of Papa in Chapter 16 and the rest of The Shack calls for further analysis of Young's intent and execution. Papa's change in gender is introduced indirectly through talking about his voice: "The voice was familiar, but deeper, as if he had just woken from sleep himself" (220). The simile of just having woken from sleep both describes a certain quality some male voices have, but also carries symbolism about rebirth and clarity. Now that Papa has changed appearance, Young also immediately starts to use the pronouns he, his, him, and himself. In contemporary society, the use of asking about one's preferred gender pronouns is common practice in liberal society, but as evangelical Christians are generally socially conservative, a change in the pronouns used by a person (or deity) is a significant shift. In the narrative, Papa takes on a male appearance to provide Mack with a father figure now that he has forgiven his own father and can trust male figures of authority. Young writes that Papa tells Mack, "This morning you're going to need a father" (221). Socially liberal readers might argue that while parents are a crucial part of emotional growth and stability, people do not need to be raised by people of a particular gender. However, Young's socially conservative readers may find this idea of a specific role for a father figure to be more familiar.
The epigraph of Chapter 17 is taken from Thomas Moore's hymn, "Come Ye Disconsolate": "Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal" (233). It is fitting that the epigraph of Chapter 17, Choices of the Heart, is taken from a song, because another song written by Missy is performed during the chapter. The lyrics of the two songs are similar in their imagery of nature. The full lyrics of "Come Ye Disconsolate" reference light and flowing water, while Missy's song focuses on the wind. Furthermore, both songs speak about God loving and healing people after death.
Chapter 18, the last chapter of The Shack's narrative, begins with an epigraph by Christian teacher Oswald Chambers. The quote reads, "Faith never knows where it is being led, but it knows and loves the One who is leading" (241). As the final epigraph of the book, this quote carries special importance. Similar to what Papa teaches Mack in The Shack, Chambers' view of religion was that it should be focused on God rather than on institutions. Furthermore, God is not gendered in this quote, but instead referred to simply as "the One" (241), which underscores Young's message throughout the book that God has no gender, race, or religion, allowing for intimate personal relationship with everyone.
Chapter 18 is followed by a two page chapter titled After Words in which, as in the Foreword, Wm. Paul Young addresses the reader directly. He acknowledges once again that the story may seem unbelievable, writing "I am sure there will be some who wonder whether everything really happened as Mack recalls it, or if the accident and morphine made him just a little bit loopy" (249). He even says of himself, "Do I think it's true? I want all of it to be true. Perhaps if some of it is not actually true in one sense, it is still true nonetheless—if you know what I mean. I guess you and Sarayu will have to figure that one out" (249). It is important to remember that outside of the book, Young has publicly stated that the events written about in the book did not really happen; he intended the book to be a parable about his struggles with religion. This fact is further obfuscated in the After Words by giving more information about what Mack did after recovering from the car crash; Young writes that Mack decided to testify at the Little Ladykiller's trial and even wants to meet with his daughter's killer. While the ending may confuse readers, Young encourages readers to pursue their own understanding of truth and reality. Furthermore, the After Words ties up the narrative in a way that stresses messages of peace and forgiveness.
