Style

Young, William. P. The Shack. California: Windblown Media, 2007.

One of the poetic device presented in my novel is symbolism. In the shack, The Little Lady Killer (the man who murdered Missy [Mack's daughter]) uses a red lady bug pin as his "trademark", he leaves one where he abducts his victim. For each victim the Little Lady Killer abducts and murders he adds another black dot on the lady bugs back. So far, there is three black dots on the right side of it's back and two on the left. I feel that the lady bug is a really important symbol in this book, there is even a picture of a lady bug on the cover, by the shack.  I also thought it might be of importance to mention that Missy’s favorite color is red, and she was also wearing a red dress, I'm not yet sure what I think of that or it's significance at this point. I find his use of a lady bug very ironic because to me it seems very peaceful and innocent. Lady bugs aren't something that people usually fear, they seem quite harmless and maybe even weak, so it seems ironic that it is symbolizing such harsh, horrible, disgusting crimes. Although, in a way the lady bug does reflect his victims well, peaceful, little, innocent, weak, not intimidating, little girls usually have all these qualities.

"The image of his daughter fighting off some perverted monster was like a fist to the stomach. Almost succumbing to the sudden blackness that threatened to smother him, Mack leaned on the table to keep from passing out or throwing up. It was then that he noticed a ladybug pin sticking in the coloring book. He snapped to awareness as if someone had opened smelling salts under his nose. "Whose is that?" he asked Dalton, pointing to the pin."

"We've been trying to catch this guy for almost four years, tracking him across more than nine states now; he's been continually moving west. He's been nicknamed the Little Ladykiller, but we have never released the ladybug detail to the press or anyone else, so please keep that on the down low. We believe he's responsible for abducting and killing at least four children so far, all girls, all under the age of ten. Each time he adds a dot to the ladybug, so this would be number five. He always leaves the same pin somewhere at the kidnap scene, all with the same model number like he bought a box of them, but we've had no luck tracking down where they originally came from. We haven't found one of the bodies of any of those four little girls, and although forensics has come up with nothing, we have good reason to believe that none of the girls have survived. Every crime has taken place at or near a camping area, with a state park or reserve close by. The perpetrator seems to be an expert woodsman and mountaineer. In every case he has left us absolutely nothing—except the pin."