I'm now kind of struck by this theme: Elisabeth Elliot wanting a son. From the Vaughn biography: "She yearned for a son, noting her hopes and disappointments regarding pregnancy in her journal."

This would seem to set up the sex anxiety Jim is feeling as he heads into the jungle. He was able to do the sex thing sometimes but she kept wanting it because she wanted a son.

For EE to want a son might be, in her view, biblical. She loved the OT and the many stories of favored women bearing sons may mean a lot to her.

But then Jim died and she had only a daughter. I wonder if the "Jim" she wrote was inflected with the son she'd imagined. The messiah-son.