Our class was given the task of compare one of the short stories, that we have read, and compare the theme to and outside text, such as a song, novel, or poem, that has a similar theme. The media texts that I am going to compare are The Last Rung on the Ladder by Stephen King and the book The Shack by William P. Young. The theme in which they have in common is sorrow.
In the story The Shack, Mack, the protagonist, has been facing what he calls "The Great Sadness" ( a state of depression where Mack has trouble getting over the death of Missy). This supports the theme, because Mack is blaming himself for the death of his beloved young daughter, Missy. How he is constantly beating himself up for her death, even though it wasn't in anyway his fault. The third paragraph in chapter 2 states what the Great Sadness felt like.
In the story The Shack, Mack, the protagonist, has been facing what he calls "The Great Sadness" ( a state of depression where Mack has trouble getting over the death of Missy). This supports the theme, because Mack is blaming himself for the death of his beloved young daughter, Missy. How he is constantly beating himself up for her death, even though it wasn't in anyway his fault. The third paragraph in chapter 2 states what the Great Sadness felt like.
"The Great Sadness, as he reffer to it. Shortly after the summer that Missy vanished, The Great Sadness had draped itself around Masck's shoulders like some invisible but almost tangibly heavy quilt. The weight of itss presence dulled his eyes and stooped his shoulders. Even his efforts to shake it off were exhausting, as if his arms were sewn into its bleak folds of despair and he had somehow become part of it".
In the story The Last Rung on the Ladder you see a grieving older brother holding a letter, which was written by his younger sister. Unfortunately, when the letter reached him it was too late for she had committed suicide. If he had received the letter earlier then the fate of his sister would have been different; maybe her decision would have change. I believe that that finally section is what demonstrates the pain and sorrow that the story had.
"The letter was post marked two weeks before she died. It would have got to me a long time before, if not for the forwarding addresses. She must have got tired of waiting..."
