Looking For Alaska

Gabriella Mongil

Mrs. Vega

English 11-6

22 March 2015

Teen-life Is Not Easy

Do you remember your teenage year ? Were you a rebel ? An outsider? Loner ? Popular? In the book Looking for Alaska by John Green you can maybe identify yourself with the teenage characters and their struggle. The story begins with a boy named Miles , he was a very shy,good ,intelligent boy, who was fascinated with people’s last words, but he lacked of friends and was sort of excluded. He decides to go to a boarding school in Alabama to find “The Great Perhaps”. When he gets there he meets Chip, and he wants to impress Chip because he dosen’t want to be a nobody without friends, so he kind of agrees on everything Chip says. Then he meets Alaska, a very attractive, wild young girl which steels Miles’ heart unwanted in his school. He also meets Takumi and Lara. During the story Miles is trying to seek for his meaning in life or his purpose, so he starts to smoke, drink and experience sexual encounters. Alaska drives Miles crazy, although she has a boyfriend named Jake, she is his first real “love”. Alaska is a complicated girl with a complicated background because she feels that she is the cause of her mother’s death. Alaska feels like this because she was so shocked that her mother had a heart attack that she didn’t called 911. Then we have Chip who is a boy who was beaten by his father which later abandoned he and his mother. On the other hand Miles had caring parents. They all had a place called “The Smoke Hole” where they talked about their secrets and where they hid from the Eagle , a man who supervised campus. One night they wanted to prank the Weekday Warriors (children who stayed at the boarding school only from Monday to Friday) because they threw Miles in a river because he was friends with Chip. The Weekday Warriors did this because they thought Chip rattled out two friends who were having sex, but it later turns out Alaska was the one who rattled them. The night they did the prank to the Weekday Warriors they told each other’s secrets while they drank wine and smoke cigarettes. That night Miles kissed Lara and had sexual relationships with her, but he still loved Alaska. Then they played truth or dare and Alaska dared Miles to kiss him ad when they kissed Miles told her what he felt. Alaska had a phone call and leaves the place drunk and drives with lowers in her car. The next day they announce that Alaska died in a car accident. Miles and Chip were the most affected by this situation. They investigated if her death was a suicide or a real car accident. Both felt guilty about her death and blamed themselves for it. They never truly find out so they decide to move on with their lives and forget about it. As you can see teenage insecurities during “self discovery” lead to questioning , experimenting , love, and guilt.

In the novel Looking for Alaska Miles , the protagonist, questions his life in page 29 he he says : “ I came here looking for a Great Perhaps, for real friends, and a more-tha-minor life. Many teenagers seek a meaning in their life and that’s why they want to live their life the fullest, but they do in the incorrect way. Miles leaves his old school because he feels invisible and he feels that he is going nowhere because nobody cares about him and he dosen’t have friends. He is a lover of last words and he wanted to seek a “Great Perhaps” which was said by Francois Rebelais. What is the “Great Perhaps”? According to Shanzeh Khurram from The Huffington Post The Great Perhaps are endless possibilities and opportunities to discover who we are , to know what is our purpose, and to make our dreams come true. Alaska Young had a questioning about the labyrinth of sufferment , one where we may never get out. She asks Miles about the labyrinth and he thinks about it all the time. He wanted to tell her what that meant ,but he had no idea , until Alaska died. When she died he figured that to end the sufferement you should keep fighting your way out , rather than give up.

When Miles arrives at his new boarding school he encounters new things, which he questioned if it was right or wrong so he decides to experiment. Chip, his roommate, smokes cigarettes when he is anxious and when he offers Miles takes it to fit in because everybody around him was doing so and he wanted to be liked. He also wanted to discover if he really liked smoking. That was the same with the drinking and drugs. But as the novel develops you can see how Miles knows

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