Looking for Alaska

by John Green

Reviewed by Haadia Tanveer

Fall 2015

REVIEW: Looking for Alaska by John Green

THE STORY:

Miles Halter, a scrawny fifteen year old boy with the ability to memorize last words, is living with his parents when he decides to attend Culver Creek High to find a “Great Perhaps” in the words of a poet. Once he arrives, he unexpectedly is accepted by his roommate, the Colonel, a perceptive boy who loves his mother, and his close friends, including a Japanese boy named Takumi, a Romanian girl named Lara, and a girl named Alaska Young. Once given the ironic nickname Pudge, he falls in love with the idea of Alaska that he

creates off her appearance, and distorts the fact that her impulsive will gives him an unfair need to have a monopoly over her. Putting himself in a difficult situation because of her current relationship and her bipolar moods, he does not pay attention to the real flawed, and self-destructive Alaska that he should love anyway. On a Thanksgiving break with her, Alaska shares her favorite book with him, and he learns about the labyrinth of suffering. Pudge is pulled into his friends’ wild antics, while he becomes closer to them despite their mild insanity. His teacher has taught his class about enlightenment, religion and heaven when he imposes the question of how they would get out of their own labyrinths of suffering. Pudge then realizes what his “Great Perhaps” might be as he solves the mysteries brought upon him by a tragic turn in events, which brings up stronger bonds of friendship than he has ever felt before. (253)

MY OPINION:

I enjoyed the book and believe the point of view it is told in gives it a unique insight of being a teenager. The characters are all very real and have their own problems and the author showed that all people have important imperfections that give them their own senses of individuality. The vocabulary and references to last words also made the book stand out, some of them being humorous and others being motivational and perfect for the emotions that the certain situation is playing out. The religions that Miles’s professor talks about and Miles reflects upon act like packed up lessons for the audience, which many readers would revel in. A weakness and strength this book possesses is that religion is talked about with no religion itself. This is a strength because it is refreshing and unbiased, but is a weakness because it can also lose the depth of each religion’s purpose. The book has explicit language and some intricate vocabulary and metaphors that a reader would have to look into, so I would suggest this book to mature middle school students and older. I would rate this book nine out of ten stars and would definitely advise others to read it too. (204)

STUDY QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY:

FIRST SECTION

1. Where is Miles going and why does he want to go there?

1a. He is going to a boarding school called Culver Creek and says that he is going to seek a “Great Perhaps” in the words of a writer. (pg. 5)

2. What is Miles’s unique talent as an individual attending the school?

2a. He has memorized and memorizes many people’s last words. (pg. 11)

3. Why is Miles’s version of the prank for newcomers adjusting?

3a. Miles is duct-taped to keep him from being able to jump out of the river because they think that Miles’s friend, Chip or the Colonel, was the one who ratted out their now suspected friends. (pg. 27)

4. What was the Colonel and his girlfriend’s relationship like?

4a. They broke up because their entire relationship was based off of fighting. They love each other, but they always have been bad to each other. Sara is a pretty bad person, but the Colonel is a pretty bad boyfriend, so they feel they deserve each other. (pg. 66)

5. Why did Alaska rat out the Weekend Warriors’ friends?

5a. She was trying to sneak off of campus, but was caught. The only way she could stay in the school was to tell the student dean anything she knew other students were doing, so she told him that her roommate was with her boyfriend drunk. (pg. 72)

indulgence (pg. 11)

emanating (pg. 15)

asphyxiating (pg. 15)

dissension (pg. 52)

epiphany (pg. 69)

MIDDLE SECTION

6. Why do you think that “The General in his Labyrinth” is important to Alaska?

6a. “The General in his Labyrinth” is important to Alaska because the book is about suffering in the labyrinth and that suffering is worse than death. She feels that she can relate, but doesn’t explain why, adding to Miles’s curiosity. (pg. 82)

7. What is Miles’s thought on why the religions Dr. Hyde teaches about an afterlife?

7a. Miles thinks that people believe in afterlives because they cannot bear not having one. It is a sense of security that the idea of death isn’t just nothing and that their loved ones and themselves will exist. (pg. 100)

8. What is the Colonel’s best day of his life?

8a. He says that it hasn’t happened yet, but he knows exactly how it will happen. He will drive his mom to a house he bought for her with all cash, among richer people. That was the way he would thank her for always being there for him, and sacrificing so much. (pg. 116)

9. Why does Alaska feel that she messes everything up?

9a. She thinks she messes everything up because she mainly is focusing on how she blames herself for her mother’s death. When Alaska was eight, she heard her mom screaming and jerking, grabbing her head. Mer mom went still and Alaska thought she was asleep. She thinks it was her fault. Pudge comes to the conclusion that she ratted out her roommate because she never wanted to be paralyzed by her fear again. (pg. 121)

10. Why do Pudge and the Colonel feel guilty for Alaska’s death?

10a. Alaska wanted to leave because she was upset and mad at her actions, even though she was drunk. They didn’t stop her and instead distracted the Eagle, so that she could leave. Pudge thinks she was mad because they had kissed earlier and forgot about their relationships. (pg. 140-141)

disconcerting (pg. 93)

dilapidated (pg. 100)

extricated (pg. 123)

ineluctable (pg. 141)

crescendoing (pg. 145)

                               

LAST SECTION

11. What did Alaska write in her copy of “The General in His Labyrinth”?

11a. She wrote that the way out of the labyrinth was straight and fast, which happens to be the way she died causing Pudge and the Colonel to think that it might have been suicide. (pg. 155-156)

12. Why did the Colonel and Pudge steal a breathalyzer?

12a. They wanted to see if being drunk at 0.24 would affect someone enough to not see or hear a cop car like Alaska seemed to do. (pg. 179)

13. What ritual did Takumi, Lara, Pudge and the Colonel perform?

13a. They all threw a smoke into that water of the Smoking Hole as a way of remembering Alaska, and for her because if she was there, she would want one. (pg. 193)

14. Whose idea was it to play a prank on Speaker’s Day?

14a. It was actually Alaska’s idea and she had written it before her death. (pg. 209)

15. What convinces Pudge that after death people aren’t gone?

15a. He knows that there is something in humans that isn’t just matter and it can’t slowly disappear, so instead it is saved somewhere. (pg. 120)

vestiges (pg. 153)

placidity (pg. 167)

euphemism (pg. 187)

cessation (pg. 198)

paradigm (pg. 209)