Summary
Chapter 4: The Great Sadness
Mack continues remembering the day of Missy's disappearance. When the family got back to the campsite after Mack saved Josh from drowning, Missy was not where she had been before—sitting at the table coloring. Amber Ducette was also missing. Emil and Mack split up to check two bathroom locations, thinking the girls might be in the shower. Emil finds Amber, but Missy is nowhere to be found. Emil takes charge, asking Mack for a picture of Missy that they could give to the campground authorities. Mack changed clothes, left Josh and Kate in the care of Sarah and Vicki, and set off to camp headquarters. The campground was split into four areas, and Mack, Emil, Jesse, and an assistant manager named Jeremy headed out to canvass the area and ask questions to people camping nearby. Mack doesn't find anything in his area, but Jeremy calls the group to talk to a man named Virgil who saw a girl Missy's age being driven in a truck. Police soon arrived, and a full-scale search mission began, with instructions sent out to police and FBI headquarters in nearby states. Mack returned to his family's campsite with Officer Dalton, and the officer accidentally revealed to Mack that there were signs Missy struggled. Mack noticed something out of place: a ladybug pin. When Officer Dalton called the FBI field office in Oregon, his suspicions that this marked Missy's disappearance as the work of a serial killer were confirmed. Officer Dalton allowed Mack to listen in while the FBI agent explained that they were likely dealing with the Little Ladykiller, a man who had already abducted four young girls and left ladybug pins behind. These girls' bodies had never been recovered, but they were presumed dead.
Mack, Josh, and Kate drove to a hotel in Joseph, Oregon where the police were setting up a staging ground for the search. Officer Dalton took Josh and Kate out to dinner, and when Nan arrived, she and Mack wept together. The next day, friends showed up to help, and reporters and photographers swarmed the hotel as well. However, the friends soon realized they could not be of much help. Nan returned home with the older children, and Mack and Emil stayed to contribute to the search effort. Emil, Officer Dalton, and Mack drove to the police station and met Special Agent Wikowsky. The agent questioned Officer Dalton and then Mack about the investigation so far, as well as whether Mack noticed anything suspicious in the days leading up to Missy's disappearance. Mack didn't recall anything. That evening, a call came in about a car matching the description of the one the Little Ladykiller had been driving. A convoy was sent out, and after a few hours they came to a shack hidden deep in the forest. Agent Wikowsky took Mack inside the shack to identify a piece of clothing, and when he was led inside the shack he saw Missy's red dress, torn and blood-soaked by the fireplace.
Over the next few weeks, the search was continued, but nothing more was found to locate the Little Ladykiller or Missy's body. A memorial service was held for Missy with an empty coffin. Mack's family began to try to deal with their grief and move on; Josh coped fairly well, but Kate grew very distant and Mack began to feel The Great Sadness. Mack felt his relationship with God become more strained, but tried not to think about it. Now, returning from his memory of these events, Mack starts thinking about the note in his mailbox, growing more angry and curious.
Chapter 5: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Over the following week, Mack obsesses over the letter and secretly plans to go to the shack. Luckily for Mack, who still does not want to tell his wife about the letter, Nan plans to take Josh and Kate to visit her sister's family for a week. Mack calls Willie and asks to borrow his Jeep, trying not to reveal much about his plan. Nan, Kate, and Josh leave on Thursday afternoon, and Willie arrives soon after to exchange vehicles. Mack shows Willie the letter and explains how it could be the Little Ladykiller, but that that wouldn't explain the note being signed by "Papa." Willie offers to go along, but Mack turns him down. Willie offers Mack a gun, and Mack hesitatingly accepts. When they go outside and exchange keys, Willie scolds Mack for lying to Nan. With a few final words of love and caution, Willie leaves in Mack's car. Mack puts the tin box with the letter in Willie's car and then goes back inside to sleep.
Mack sets out for the shack early Friday morning. He follows the same path he took on the first day of their camping trip years before. He gets to the forest where the shack is located in the early afternoon. He feels extreme and conflicting emotions pulling him toward the shack and keeping him rooted in place. Finally, he takes the note, a picture of Missy, and the gun, and he heads toward the shack. Mack moves slowly, fearing every shadow and sound. He almost shoots a badger that runs across the trail. He enters the shack while calling out, but nobody is there. He sees the blood stain by the fireplace and begins to cry, yell, and smash the furniture in the room. He thinks about killing himself with Willie's gun, but decides that wouldn't be fair to his family. He lays down on the floor and falls asleep.
Mack soon wakes up and chides himself for foolishly believing somebody would be at the shack. He leaves and starts back up the trail toward the car. Suddenly, the weather changes from icy cold to breezy and warm. The ice and snow melt, flowers grow, and animals frolic nearby. Mack sees that the shack has been transformed into a beautiful cabin; it is clearly occupied from the smoke coming from the chimney and sounds of laughter. Mack decides to go inside, but doesn't know whether to knock or simply walk in. Before he can knock, an African-American woman opens the door. She welcomes him by name, gives him a big hug, and begins to gush about how she loves him. Mack notices that she smells exactly like his mother's perfume, and he almost starts to cry. An Asian woman comes outside and collects Mack's tears into a small bottle; Mack finds her difficult to see, as if she is shimmering. Then, a Middle Eastern man comes out; he greets Mack with a hug and a kiss on both cheeks. The Asian woman also hugs Mack, though she does it without touching him. The African American woman tells Mack he can call her Elousia or Papa. The Middle Eastern man reveals himself to be Jesus. Finally, the Asian woman introduces herself as Sarayu. When Mack asks "Which one of you is God?" (89), they all reply "I am" (89).
Chapter 6: A Piece of π
Papa and Jesus lead Mack inside, talking casually to him. Mack follows Papa into the kitchen, where she is cooking and listening to funk music with headphones. They discuss why it is difficult for Mack to call her Papa. Papa offers that she could be the father Mack lacked, but he questions how he could trust someone who didn't keep Missy safe. Papa says that that is why Mack is at the shack: "To heal the wound that has grown inside you and between us" (94). Papa and Mack discuss why Papa is choosing to take a female form rather than looking like a old man with a white beard as Mack expected, as well as why she is usually portrayed as a father. Mack questions whether Papa knew he would come and whether he is free to leave; in other words, he asks whether people have free will. Papa tells him that he does have freedom to a point, but makes a complex statement about the limitations of freedom. Mack notices the scars on Papa's wrists, like those on Jesus's, and Papa lets Mack touch them while she cries. Papa says that she was there on the cross with Jesus, even though Jesus believed God had forsaken him.
A blue jay lands on the kitchen windowsill, prompting Papa to create an extended metaphor: just as birds can fly but may choose to limit themselves by walking, people are loved but may limit themselves by living without God's love. In addition, God is limitless, but when Jesus was created, God had to embrace the limitations of being human. Mack struggles to understand even the basic concept of three individuals making up one God, but Papa patiently explains that the multiplicity within God is essential because it makes religion about love and relationship. Papa ends the conversation by sending Mack to wash up for dinner. On his way out, Mack apologizes for Jesus having to die, but Papa and Jesus respond that "It was worth it" (105).
Analysis
The epigraph of Chapter 4 is a quote from a long poetic text, Sand and Foam, by artist and poet Kahlil Gibran. The quote Young uses, "Sadness is a wall between two gardens" (44), comes near the end of the poem, which is full of religious themes and allusions. The metaphor described in the quote evokes an image of two places of life and growth which have been separated by an outside force. This fits with the themes of nature and loss in the third and fourth chapters of The Shack. The repetition of the word sadness in the title of the chapter, The Great Sadness, and at the beginning of the quote clearly establish the dark tone of this crucial chapter, in which Missy goes missing and is eventually presumed dead.
Chapter 5 begins with a long epigraph, a quote from The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought by Marilynne Robinson. The non-fiction work includes essays on Christian subjects including the history and theology of Calvinism and Puritanism. The quote Young uses to begin Chapter 5 uses complex vocabulary and ideas, and causes the reader to pause before entering Mack's story again; this brief break in the narrative allows the reader to take a mental break after the emotionally grueling chapter The Great Sadness. The quote specifically talks about confirmation bias, or invalidating evidence that does not confirm or support one's preconceived beliefs. This could be seen as a critique of both religious believers and non-believers, since it challenges anyone who calls something the truth to truly examine their belief and the beliefs of others. By placing this quote at the beginning of Chapter 5, in which Mack meets Papa, Sarayu, and Jesus at the shack, the author encourages readers to keep an open mind to the truth of the story.
Chapter 6, A Piece of π, begins with a quote from Jacques Ellul's Anarchy and Christianity. Ellul was a 20th century French philosopher and theologian who notably considered himself a Christian anarchist. Ellul believed that truly following Jesus meant living without violence and rejecting government and politics. The epigraph of Chapter 6 introduces an idea that will be further examined in the novel through conversations between Mack and God; in short, humans should live in relationship, rather than hierarchy, with God, and this is accomplished by God limiting himself (or herself, in The Shack). This epigraph may have been used to acknowledge Ellul's influence on the author's theological beliefs as well as to underscore the chapter's themes of relationship and limitation.
Names are a very important aspect of this section of The Shack, as they show that Young is drawing on cultures and theological discourse outside of Western Christianity. When Mack arrives at the shack, the first person he meets tells him that he can call her Elousia or Papa, as Nan does. The next tells him that he can call her Sarayu. Finally, there is Jesus, who tells Mack that he could also use the names Yeshua, Joshua, or Jesse. Young uses these names throughout rather than calling the different components of the Trinity by the names often used in Christianity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Jesus's introduction references the fact that Jesus is the Latin form of the Hebrew name Yeshua, which is also commonly anglicized as Joshua. Jesus himself explains the names Sarayu and Elousia to Mack in the chapter God on the Dock. Sarayu means "a common wind" (112), and that Elousia comes from combining two words: "El is my name as Creator God, but ousia is 'being' or 'that which is truly real,' so the name means 'the Creator God who is truly real and the ground of all being'" (113). What is not directly mentioned is that Sarayu is a Sanskrit word commonly used as a female name in India, and the translations of the parts of the name Elousia come from Hebrew. These names acknowledge the roots of Christianity and the commonalities between Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism.
The gender and race of the characters Sarayu and Papa were also important choices made by the author. Before Mack visits the shack, he and Willie discuss the fact that the usual picture of God is an old man with a white beard, like Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings. However, Papa is presented in the shack as a "large, beaming African-American woman" (84), and Sarayu as a "small, distinctively Asian woman" (86). While the choice to make Sarayu a woman has more theological precedence, the choice to present the Father as female was a radical move that stirred up controversy following The Shack's rise to popularity. Papa makes it clear to Mack that she, and likely Sarayu, can take any physical form that is useful to them; she justifies appearing as a woman by saying that she knows Mack has always had a problem connecting with adult males because of the trauma his abusive father caused him. By subverting norms about the presentation of God in Western art and literature, The Shack reminds readers that God does not have a set gender, race, or appearance, and can therefore be in close relationship with all people.
