CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This Chapter consists of five parts, namely Background of the Study, Objectives of the Study, Problem Formulation, Benefits of the Study, and Definition
of Terms. The reason why WM. Paul Young’s The Shack is used as the object of the study is presented in the Background of the Study. The Objectives of the Study deal
with the goal of the study. There are three problems stated in the Problem Formulation. The Benefits of the Study contain the advantages the readers can get
through the study. The terms which are significantly used in the study are explained in the Definition of Terms.
A. Background of the Study
The Shack by WM. Paul Young is a brave novel about a conversation
between a man and God; The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. The main character, Mackenzie Allen Phillips, had a very rare opportunity to talk to God,
something which is dreamed by every man in the world. In this rare occasion to have a conversation with God, Mack struggles to find the answer about The Great Sadness;
the death of Missy. People often blame God for bad things happening in their lives; that something does not work as it was planned, that everything always goes wrong.
WM. Paul Young The Shack may offer the answer that is being looked for, but it
1
might also implies another way to run, to escape, that proves one’s inability to deal with reality.
Mackenzie Allen Phillips is a father who misses his little daughter, Mellissa Missy. He lost Missy while he was trying to save his two other kids. The
time after the death of Missy is the time of The Great Sadness. He does not understand why The Great Father, God, did such misery to him. While he is dealing
with The Great Sadness, he also has to be a strong father and husband in front of his family. Mack realizes that the family has already lost Missy, and Mack knows that
they cannot stand if they have to lose a father too. Death is part of human life. It is just another common thing in human life,
like rain, sunset, and wind. However, it is normal if death, especially the death of the beloved one, brings pain. Dealing with pain is what makes a man a man. There is no
one in this world lives without pain, so actually, the problem that Mack faces during the novel The Shack is the problem that everyone must deal with in their daily life.
The difference lies in how someone deals with his or her own problem. Mack deals with his problem in a different way, which can be a great reference for everyone who
read this novel. In this study, a novel is used as the subject of the study. According to
Milligan 1983: 4 a novel, as a work of literature, is more in touch with reality, as it helps the readers see things as they really are. A novel is a kind of imitation of life,
which can help the readers to deal with reality. Through a novel, the readers can find so many lessons, experiences, stories, or anything that enrich their knowledge. As one
kind of arts, a novel might also be explained as a reality which is pictured according to the novelist point of views and values, where he tries to make the readers see what
he sees. This reality of the writer is delivered to the readers through the novel and all of its aspects such as character, plot, setting, conflict, etc.
Although a novel is a picture of the reality, but still, it is not the reality; there is always an imaginary world found by the readers in a fiction work like a
novel. Thus, fiction offers a form of compensation, which is according to Leavis and Thompson as seen Storey’s book is, ‘the very reverse of recreation, in that it tends,
not to strengthen and refresh the addict of living, but to increase his unfitness by habituating him to weak evasions, to the refusal to face reality at all’ Storey, 2003:
29. Fiction can be a sort of addictive drug that leads a reader to a very diverse point of view in seeing daily life. A novel might also divert the readers’ point of view in
seeing reality; trapped in the life of the character of a certain novel which is ‘ideal’. The aim of this study is, thus, to see the attitude of Mackenzie Allen
Phillips, the main character of WM. Paul Young’s The Shack, toward the events taking place within the character’s family. The focus of this study is Mackenzie Allen
Phillips’ attitude in dealing with the death of his daughter. In order to accomplish the aim of the study, two points are proposed: first, how Mackenzie Allen Phillips’
character during the Great Sadness is portrayed in the novel, second, how Mackenzie Allen Phillips deals with the death of Missy; the Great Sadness.
B. Objectives of the Study
Kategori