Throughout this course we have studied and learned about many literary
elements, and have utilized them to analyze literature at a more in depth
perspective. One piece of literature that I enjoyed using these techniques on, was
one of my favorite novels Looking For Alaska by John Green. While Green is generally
noted for writing more “sappy love stories”, like The Fault In Our Stars, this book is
written in such a way that energizes your mind and leaves a lot of questions up for
interpretation.
Looking For Alaska has an overall theme of being a very dark story. The story
itself is split into two sections, a “Before” and “After”. It tells the story of a boy named
Miles Halter, who lives a pretty boring, stale life at home. His junior year of
highschool, he decides to venture off to Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama.
He justifies this to his parents by saying there is more to life and he is searching for
his “Great Perhaps”. Along the way Miles meets a girl named Alaska, who he finds
fascinating. They are complete opposites, him being shy and more reserved, Alaska
more daring and ready for adventure. As the story progresses Alaska and her friends
take in Miles as one of their own and corrupt his ways to their prank wars, smoking,
and drinking. Alaska is definitely not like your normal teenager, she is different in
ways that Miles cannot explain. Eventually, Miles accepts that he has fallen in love
with Alaska, despite her having an older boyfriend. Miles goes out of his way to cater
to Alaska and stays on campus for Thanksgiving break just to spend more time with
her, to no prevail. One night while Alaska, and another character “the Colonel” are
drinking to celebrate an epically pulled off prank from earlier in the day, Alaska
receives a strange phone call from her boyfriend. She then starts freaking out and
scrambling to get to her car to leave campus. The boarding school is very strict and
does not allow students to leave after dark, so Miles and the Colonel create a
distraction from “The Eagle”, the dean of the school, so she can get away. This is
when the story turns to the “After” section. The next morning the students are called
for an assembly and are informed that Alaska had died in a horrific car accident the
night before. Miles and the Colonel immediately feel an immense amount of guilt and
begin searching for answers as to what happened. They steal a Breathalyzer and
drink to see just how drunken Alaska was. They get ahold of anybody who could
possibly help them, including the police department and Alaska’s boyfriend. When
they are left with all dead end leads, they accept that Alaska was just one giant
mystery and they will never know the truth of what happened. The main
