looking for alaska review
I have recently read a wonderful book by John Green which is titled ‘Looking For Alaska’. The book is about a boy who is new to a boarding school; where he meets new friends and goes to “seek the Great Perhaps”. I think it’s a great book in which the author portrays the fragility of life, the importance of loving people while they’re still around, living your life to the fullest and also appreciating and understanding the value of friendship. The two main characters named Miles/Pudge and Alaska have a very strange relationship, which symbolises a lot of things which I’ll be explaining later on.
John Green talks a lot about the significance of death in ‘Looking For Alaska’. He writes about it from the religious point of view, where one of the characters says ‘’People, I thought, wanted security. They couldn’t bear the idea of death being a big black nothing, they couldn’t bear the thought of their loved ones not existing, and couldn’t even imagine themselves not existing. I finally decided that people believed in afterlife because they couldn’t bear not to.” This means that the author thinks that people find comfort in the idea of afterlife, so they believe in it, because they can’t handle the thought of emptiness that death brings.
The main character of ‘Looking For Alaska’ – Alaska Young – is very self-destructive, wild and intelligent, she smokes and drinks a lot, she also loves books. Alaska’s character could symbolise life as fast and unpredictable. She is very wise and her dialogue usually has a deeper meaning behind it. She spoke to her friends while they were all smoking outside and having a conversation “Y’all smoke to enjoy it, I smoke to die.” which could be an indicator that she could have been suicidal or/and depressed and didn’t really have a will to live for a long time. Alaska has also once said to Pudge “What you must understand about me is that I'm a deeply unhappy person.” This tells us that she might appear as very bubbly, confident and wild,
John Green talks a lot about the significance of death in ‘Looking For Alaska’. He writes about it from the religious point of view, where one of the characters says ‘’People, I thought, wanted security. They couldn’t bear the idea of death being a big black nothing, they couldn’t bear the thought of their loved ones not existing, and couldn’t even imagine themselves not existing. I finally decided that people believed in afterlife because they couldn’t bear not to.” This means that the author thinks that people find comfort in the idea of afterlife, so they believe in it, because they can’t handle the thought of emptiness that death brings.
The main character of ‘Looking For Alaska’ – Alaska Young – is very self-destructive, wild and intelligent, she smokes and drinks a lot, she also loves books. Alaska’s character could symbolise life as fast and unpredictable. She is very wise and her dialogue usually has a deeper meaning behind it. She spoke to her friends while they were all smoking outside and having a conversation “Y’all smoke to enjoy it, I smoke to die.” which could be an indicator that she could have been suicidal or/and depressed and didn’t really have a will to live for a long time. Alaska has also once said to Pudge “What you must understand about me is that I'm a deeply unhappy person.” This tells us that she might appear as very bubbly, confident and wild,