Into the wild who is ron franz

Eventually, a hitchhiker he tells about "Alex" says, "I hate to tell you this, mister, but your friend is dead. Froze to death up on the tundra.

Just read about it. He withdraws his church membership and resumes drinking. The theme of this chapter is the astonishing ability of Christopher McCandless to win friends and influence people.

Not only did he befriend the octogenarian Ronald Franz, but he convinced the old man to change his ways fundamentally at a time in life when most people have settled down for good.

It is important to understand that McCandless fled society not because he couldn't get along with others, but because he chose to be alone. The fact that McCandless achieved this effect by means of a letter speaks to the power of the written word. Remember that he was inspired to head "into the wild" by books he read Tolstoy's, Jack London's, and others — and that it is a magazine article which informs the hitchhiker Franz picks up at chapter's end that McCandless has died, thus inspiring the old man to give up on life.

Previous Chapter 5. Krakauer writes, and took up residence in a rusting Fairbanks city bus that had been fitted out as a crude shelter. He then entered on what he called, in a manifesto scrawled on a piece of plywood, ''the climactic battle to kill the false being within. Somehow McCandless grubbed a living from the snows -- gathering last year's rose hips and wizened berries, shooting squirrels, ptarmigans, porcupines and finally, in June, with his puny little. He tried to smoke the meat, but his moose quickly spoiled.

By late summer, McCandless's incompetence and overconfidence had caught up with him. The hunters who found his rotting corpse in September also found this note:. I need your help. I am injured, near death and too weak to hike out of here.

I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. What was with this guy? Why should we care if he had no better sense than this?

The reactions of most Alaskans who read about his death ranged from annoyance to indignation. And what ''false being''? He kept journals, and in between silences would jabber out his ''philosophy'' for hours, but the Supertramp's ideas are never lucid enough to give us a clue. And yet, as Mr. Krakauer picks through the adventures and sorrows of Chris McCandless's brief life, the story becomes painfully moving.

Krakauer's elegantly constructed narrative takes us from the ghoulish moment of the hunters' discovery back through McCandless's childhood, the gregarious effusions and icy withdrawals that characterized his coming of age, and, in meticulous detail, the two years of restless roaming that led him to Alaska. Emile did a great job and one of my favorite scenes is when he says good bye to Ron, from my research I know that Ron Franz was only the name of the character in the movie, but he was real.

I would like to know what happened to him?! Re: what happened to Ron Franz? Last edited by SteveSalmon on Thu May 03, pm, edited 1 time in total. Later he picked up two hitchhikers on his way back from a drive to his hometown, and after he began to tell them about Chris, one informed him of his death. I read this in Krakauer's book and it broke my heart. Franz, or whatever his real name was, as a result denounced his Christian faith and hit the whiskey.

He said he hoped it would kill him, but all it did was make him sick, 'very, very sick'. He has passed on and is no longer with us but, from what I was told, was a very generous and kind man. This is why I share his name to those interested to know who he was as I did a few years ago. Sean Penn hit a home run with the scene where Chris says goodbye to "Ron" in the movie.

I should say they all did a remarkable job with that scene as it's one of a couple that chokes me up to tears every time I watch it.

So Kudos to Sean, Emile, and Hal, I still think this movie deserves more recognition than it received. Post by heartopenwide » Fri Jun 14, pm I am so glad that someone posed this question.