Post-traumatic Growth and Reconstruction of Values in The Shack Film

https://doi.org/10.55549/ijasse.27

Abstract

Trauma is used to name all kinds of events that leave deep scars in the mental and physical being of a person. It is a deep emotional and psychological wound experienced by the individual after an unexpected and shocking event or in the face of a situation involving physical and psychological threat. Such profound events can lead to the decline or complete breakdown of personal beliefs, values and social bonds. Cinema is one of the powerful artistic tools that can read individual and social changes. Thanks to its audiovisual effects, cinema offers the opportunity to analyze the mental state of the characters. The Shack, based on the novel by Paul Young, deals with the effects of the trauma of loss and how the individual emerges from this process and how values are rebuilt with spiritual guidance centering on the experiences of a father. The aim of the study is to reveal how the protagonist Mack's deep spiritual journey after the loss of his daughter leads him to re-establish family ties and core values such as love, justice, faith and forgiveness.  This study is limited to the film The Shack (2017) and will be analyzed with the semiotics method.