Looking for Alaska by John Green

Bibliography

Green, John. 2005. Looking for Alaska. New York, NY: Penguin. ISBN 9780142402511.

Plot Summary

Miles leaves his mundane, friendless high school life in Florida public school behind and attends his junior year at Culver Creek, a private school in Alabama, so that he may find his "Great Perhaps." There he meets group of misfits consisting of his roommate, the very blunt Chip a.k.a. "The Colonel," the beat-boxing Japanese student Takumi, the Romanian girl Lara, and the larger-than-life and romantically spoken-for Alaska, who Miles a.k.a. "Pudge" quickly becomes smitten with. Miles quickly becomes indoctrinated in the smoking, drinking, and pranking habits of his new friends, and he learns much about loyalty to his new-found friends. After a night of drinking and truth-or-dare that culminates with Miles making out with Alaska, she demands in a moment of hysteria that Miles and Chip help her escape campus in the middle of the night. Against their better judgment, they distract the dean so she can drive away, and Alaska dies in a head-on collision from driving straight into police car. Miles, Chip, Takumi, and Lara spend the rest of the semester trying to figure out why Alaska ran off that night and whether it was suicide or drunk driving that killed her. They feel responsible for her death and try to find answers.

Critical Analysis

Green does an excellent job of developing his characters, but these characters change little throughout the book. Miles goes from being a friendless nobody to having a close-knit group of friends. He is an introvert surrounded by extroverts, and is quickly convinced to start smoking, drinking, and sexual exploration. He is more of a follower in his group of friends, and taking initiative is not something he really learns to do. While they may not change much in terms or personal growth, Green's characters ask big questions, such as what happens after death, and how do we make it through this labyrinth of suffering known as life. These topics leave the reader searching his or own soul for the answers.

Green also uses a unique structure for the book: rather than having chapters, the book is divided into two categories: days before, and days after. The event that separates them is Alaska's death. Readers know that something big is going to happen and that it has something to do with Alaska.

Reading this book with a class will require having conversations about peer pressure. Smoking, drinking, and sex are common teen issues, but there are really no conversations in the book about why the characters should or should not participate in these activities. Similarly, the book brings up Alaska's potential suicide since it's not known if her crash was purposeful or a result of drunk driving. During the days before, we see how Alaska tries to self-destruct and escape in response to her guilt and grief over losing her mother, and this could spark important conversations with teens about how they would have responded or what Alaska could have done differently.

Review Excerpts

2006 Printz Award Winner

Horn Book Guide 10/1/2005 "At boarding school in Alabama, narrator Miles Halter faces challenging classes, school-wide pranks, and Alaska Young, a sexy, enigmatic girl. After Alaska is killed in a car crash, Miles and his friends question whether it could have been suicide and acknowledge their own survivor guilt. These intelligent characters talk smart, yet don't always behave that way, and are thus complex and realistically portrayed teenagers." Voice of Youth Advocates 4/1/2005 by Beth E. Andersen. "Green, a familiar presence on National Public Radio, has a writer's voice, so self-assured and honest that one is startled to learn that this novel is his first. The anticipated favorable comparisons to Holden Caufield are richly deserved in this highly recommended addition to young adult literature."

Connections

Readers may also enjoy Jeff Zentner's book The Serpent King, ISBN 9780553524055, about religion, friendship between outsiders, and loss, or Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, ISBN 9780671027346, whose main character starts out as a loner, similar to Miles.