Friendship and Community

In his memoir, Hsu utilizes both academic sources and his own memories to explore and analyze the nature of friendship and community. Throughout Stay True, Hsu considers the work of Marcel Mauss, a French sociologist whom Hsu encountered during his college years. Mauss proposed that gift-giving “strengthened the bonds between people and communities. Your obligation isn’t just to repay the gift according to a one-to-one ratio. You’re beholden to the ‘spirit of the gift,’ a kind of shared faith. Every gesture carries a desire for connection, expanding one’s ring of associations” (94). Hsu uses Mauss’ essay as a framework through which to understand his friendship with Ken. During his time at the University of California, Berkeley, Hsu felt a “kind of shared faith” (94) between himself and Ken, a faith that arose from their mutual generosity and willingness to share their respective theories about music...