Looking for Alaska - analysis

Rebekka Nielsen 2.y 17-09-2018 Genaflevering af individuelt værk

Essay - Looking For Alaska

John Green’s “Looking For Alaska” is a young adult novel in which the narrator, Miles “Pudge” Halter, leaves home to enroll at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama, and falls in love with the girl Alaska. Miles is a shy, unpopular boy, but when he arrives at Culver Creek he starts making friends. His first friend Chip Martin is his unusual but smart roommate. Chip introduces Miles to his friends Lara, Takumi and stunning Alaska. Alaska is often exciting and wild, but she can also be moody and withdrawn. Miles spends a lot of time trying to understand her better, although he makes little progress. The book is split into two parts: before and after Alaska’s death. The book it leads up to an event (Alaska’s sudden death) that is very hard to foresee. Alaska’s death deeply affected all of her friends, Miles especially included since he was in love with her. Everything important in Looking for Alaska takes place on campus at the Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama. We get the image of Culver Creek as this tidy, insulated place where Miles finds the possibility of his Great Perhaps. The campus is mostly filled with rich and behaved snobs - except Miles’ friend group. Even though several events do occur away from Culver Creek, the majority of the transformative experiences that Miles had been right there on school grounds. One of the themes in the book is friendship. Miles leaves Florida to seek a Great Perhaps and finds friends. Even though his friends introduce him to booze and mischief, they also accept him for who he is. But the novel also highlights how messy friendship can be—friends don't always like each other, friends tell each other hard truths, and friends get into fights. "But we will deal with those bastards, Pudge. I promise you. They will regret messing with one of my friends”. When Alaska dies though, the bonds that have been created with and around her help her grieving friends come to terms with her death and their role in it. Another theme in the book is the mystery and the unknown. A mystery is at the heart of this novel—so much so that it is embedded in the structure of the book. Rather than separating the novel into chapters, Green sections his book into days, each of which is titled with a number of days and the word “before” or “after.” A mystery is an intriguing part of Miles’ life as well. At the book’s beginning, Miles decides to move to Alabama to seek his