"He's straitlaced and inexperienced, reeling from the turbulence of his family life and in search of stability. Why is he so easily pulled out of the existence he's been struggling to establish? It is funny that you say Malcolm is searching for stability, because he does find it with the Rajneesh, who, to many, would probably be judged as unstable. Malcolm is feeling disconnected from his community and his father, and, without being very conscious of it, is searching for meaning."
"One thing that has been missing from Malcolm's life is physical affection from his father. He feels that kind of love from and for the other men at the commune. But again his contact with the paternal figure-the guru-is unfulfilling, impersonal. Is this journey of his, in a way, a quest for a father? Or a better family?"
Malcolm is a straitlaced, inexperienced man unsettled by family turbulence and grieving beneath a mundane life. He adopts a cat and drifts toward the Rajneesh while unconsciously seeking meaning and stability. The commune provides physical intimacy, friendship, and a grounding bodily existence that aligns with nature and communal life. Malcolm experiences affection from the other men, yet the guru remains an impersonal paternal figure. The absence of physical affection from his father and the generational legacy of wartime silence shape Malcolm's quest. He seeks to heal his father's pain and, by proxy, his own through communal male relationships.
Read at The New Yorker
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