What Kind of Paradise

A reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle knocks on the door of a secluded cabin where Jane Williams lives with her daughter and her dog, Gus. Jane’s father is in the news, and the reporter would like to know if she is ready to tell her side of the story. Jane tells the reporter that if she decides to do so, it will be on her own terms and without the assistance of a journalist.

Jane recalls the way that her father, Saul Williams, shaped her childhood and her identity. He is a genius and has multiple degrees from Harvard, but after becoming widowed when Jane was four, he quit what could have become a high-profile career to raise her alone in a Montana cabin away from the corrupting influence of society. A “bona-fide modern Thoreau” (13), he homeschooled her and taught her how to live off the land.

She remembers one morning when their food stores were low and he took Jane out to hunt a deer. When they encountered a buck, however, he was unable to shoot it. He began to cry and explained to Jane that all creatures on earth are equal, that humans should not be in charge of any other species, and that humans routinely abuse their power.