The same intrigue—a similar romance, perhaps. Chris and Glenn had two very different lived realities. Chris was opting out of society to live a life of freedom, non-conformity, and self-reliance.

Not all, but many of the stories in "The Idea of North" have to do with the importance of reliance on community as a result of the solitude. I feel Chris came around to this understanding shortly before his death.

"On July 2, McCandless finished reading Tolstoy's "Family Happiness", having marked several passages that moved him:

"He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others..."

— Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer

According to his notes, he finished the book "Dr. Zhivago" around three weeks before he left the body, and had underlined this passage (*):

"And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an *unshared happiness is not happiness*…and this was most vexing of all.”

— Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak

Next to the passage, Chris scrawled in the margin, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED.”

Thank you for mentioning "The Idea of North"; it was a pleasure rewatching it.