Waterfalls Symbol Analysis

Waterfalls appear at key moments in The Shack as symbols of sacrifice, but they are also used to show the ways in which stories of sacrifice can be overly-simplified and give an impression of God as vengeful rather than forgiving. Mack’s young daughter Missy, whose murder sets off the events in the story, loves waterfalls. She is drawn to the story of the Multnomah falls, in which a Native American princess receives word from the Great Spirit that she can save her tribe from a sickness by throwing herself from a waterfall. Like the parable of Jesus, the story of the Multnomah princess centers on an ordinary person choosing to sacrifice themselves in order to save others. Both stories also align with how Mack initially perceives God: as an all-powerful, calculating force who demands sacrifice and causes tragedies in order to bring good to the world.

When Missy visits Mack from the afterlife during his weekend at the shack, she appears from behind a waterfall, leading Mack to question whether God caused Missy’s death in order to teach him about belief—whether her death was indeed a kind of sacrifice so that he could learn. But God, in the form of Papa, insists that this is not the case. She does not cause tragedy in order to balance things out or teach. Instead, she is able to take tragedies and use them for good. Evil and suffering exist in the world not because God demands punishment and sacrifice, but rather because humans turn away from God and choose to commit tragedies on their own. In this way, waterfalls show that some of Mack’s preconceived ideas about God are oversimplified and rely on parables of good and evil, while the truth about God is more nuanced.