It was very interesting today when we read the Anza-Borrego chapter from Into the Wild in class–the chapter where the eighty year old Ron Franz meets Chris McCandless. When I walked in B asked me, “Dr. Devi so are they gay?” I didn’t know what she meant.
“I’m sorry, B.” I said, “Who do you mean?”
“Well, these guys–Chris McCandless and Ron Franz–are they gay?”
“What makes you think that?” I asked.
“Well, this old guy–why does he like this other guy so much? Why does he want to help him so much? He doesn’t even know him. He is not related to him. Why does he want to help McCandless so much? They must be gay.” She said. At this point several students chimed in that they think that McCandless and Franz are gay. Dirty old man and his young prey. Even though there is no textual evidence in Krakauer’s book that supports such a reading in any way whatsoever.
I was stupefied. In a way I could see their point–at their age, they have only known eros–the only form of love they know is erotic love. If you follow the Greek and Judeo-Christian scheme of Agape, Eros, Phileo–the three types of love–selfless altruistic love, erotic love, brotherly love–my students probably know only Eros. Of course they know that their parents love them, but it is a biological bond. They love their parents too because it is a biological bond. And it is perhaps the most instinctive and strongest bond there is in the world. Every other kind of bond takes imagination. Parents and children love each other mostly not out of choice. But grandparents love out of choice, because the biological bond is less strong there. So I thought I would point out to them the part in the essay where Franz asks McCandless if he could adopt him–it is a very poignant part of the story–he tells McCandless that he was an only child of his parents, and that his own son had died, and that his line ends with him and he would like to adopt McCandless for his grandson. What do you make of that, I asked. Why does he ask for McCandless to be a grandson and not a son? One generation removed? Do grandparents love out of choice or bond? Do all grandparents love all grandchildren equally? They didn’t like that question, I could tell. They were instinctively defensive and said that grandparent-grandchild bond is as instinctive as that of parent-child. But some of the students were beginning to switch their position.
So I pointed them to the part in the story where Krakauer tells us a bit about Franz–that he has unofficially “adopted” several Japanese children and supported them and their education.What does it mean to adopt someone with whom you have no biological bond? How do you love that person? How do you love strangers?
It is a choice. This is a story about choice. I told them.
“It is still weird,” B said. A few others agreed. “Why would you want to adopt some kids you have never seen in your life?” She continued. “Why would you want to do that? I can’t understand it.”
I gave up. They were too young to understand. “You are all too young. You can care for someone very deeply like Franz does for McCandless without any ulterior motives or sexual designs, gay or straight. You know you all have limited life experiences. But that’ll change” I told them. I ordered them back to the essay. Let us look at the structure of the essay, I said.
