One can only speculate about why Franz became so attached to McCandless so quickly, but the affection he felt was genuine, intense and unalloyed. Franz had been living a solitary existence for many years. He had no family and few friends. A disciplined, self-reliant man, he got along remarkably well despite his age and solitude. When McCandless came into his world, however, the boy undermined the old man’s meticulously constructed defenses. Franz relished being with McCandless, but their burgeoning friendship also reminded him how lonely he’d been. The boy unmasked the gaping void in Franz’s life even as he helped fill it. When McCandless departed as suddenly as he’d arrived, Franz found himself deeply and unexpectedly hurt.
“
| — | Into The Wild (Book) |
McCandless was thrilled to be on his way North, and he was relieved as well - relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it. He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family. He’d successfully kept Jan Burres and Wayne Westerberg at arm’s length, flitting out of their lives before anything was expected of him. And now he’d slipped painlessly out of Ron Franz’s life as well.
Painlessly, that is, from McCandless’s perspective - although not from the old man’s.
“
| — | Into The Wild (Book) |
favourite movies of all time → into the wild (2007)
“Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, ‘cause “the West is the best.” And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild. - Alexander Supertramp May 1992”
Ron Franz: Well, my friend.
Christopher McCandless: Yep.
Ron Franz: I had an idea. You know, my mother was an only child and so was my father, and I was their only child, so when I'm gone, I'm the end of the line. My family will be finished. What do you say... you let me adopt you? I could be, say, your grandfather. [smiles]
Christopher McCandless: Ron... could we talk about this when I get back from Alaska? Would that be okay?
Ron Franz: [crying] Yeah, yeah. We can do that. Yeah.
Christopher McCandless: All right, Ron. Thank you.
