Preview

Looking for Alaska Book Review Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1016 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Looking for Alaska Book Review Essay Example
Looking For Alaska by John Green. This book is divided into two sections, Before and After. Summary
Before.
“Francois Rabelais. He was a poet. And his last words were ‘’I go to seek a Great Perhaps.’’ That’s why I’m going. So I don’t have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.” Sixteen-year-old Miles (Pudge) Halter’s life has been devastatingly dull. He has no friends, no girls and no adventures, except for an obsession over the last words of dead famous people. And so he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Alabama, in hope to find the Great Perhaps. There, he befriends an interesting group of students consisting of his genius-scholarship-student roommate, Colonel; the witty-rap-obsessed Japanese, Takumi; the gorgeous Romanian, Lara; and the beautiful, interesting, complicated Alaska Young who inhabits his soul. The plot goes with the group’s occasionally getting busted for smoking cigarettes and drinking ‘Strawberry Hills’ liquor on campus, sneaking out after curfew and playing pranks. The plot ended when they played Truth or Dare. Alaska was extremely drunk and starts making out with Pudge. She soon falls asleep and was awakened by the phone and started screaming and crying after talking for a few minutes. With the help of Pudge and the Colonel, she manages to drive off campus. Pudge and the Colonel then got to bed, thinking nothing was wrong.
After
The next morning, a school assembly is called, revealing that Alaska was killed in a car accident. The plot follows the details of Alaska’s last moments as Miles and his group struggle to understand what happened. Was it really an accident, or did she kill herself to find her way out of the ‘labyrinth’? Could they have stopped her, knowing her past? Would life ever be the same, now that Alaska was dead? As they pulls out the last prank to commemorate Alaska, Pudge answers Alaska’s question, “How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?”, concluding that the way out is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The beginning of the end had started for these four students when they failed to inform anyone about the body in the pool. Despite desperate attempts at returning to normalcy, every night in the loneliest hours they found themselves asking the same questions a mourning town did...…

    • 94 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi is a compelling book. A quote from the story says: "A sailor chooses the wind that takes the ship from a safe port. Ah, yes, but once you're abroad, as you have seen, winds have a mind of their own. Be careful, Charlotte, careful of the wind you choose." The adventure and courage in this story kept me wanting to read more.…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    32 “Well its actually happening ma’, I’m goin’ back to school.”Rufus said. “I want you to know, I truly am proud of you Rufus.” His mother replied. Curtis and Janet went to a different school then Rufus but he still walked them to school then walked himself to school. On his way to school a car followed him very slowly but Rufus kept walking. When he got to school it looked the same on the outside that it always had. Rufus pushed open the doors at Searingtown School and yelled “I’m back!” All of his friends ran over to hug him. He went down to the office to get a tour he thought he didn’t need because he remembered every single solitary thing about this place. While the tour was going on everything going on was a blur. He looked left, right and left again, admiring the changes the school had made. “Wow” he sighed. “Is there a problem Rufus?” the tour guide asked. Rufus answered, “When I was here the wall paint was all chipped, there were broken windows and holes in the walls.” “Oh ok, well that concludes our tour and this door on your right is your first period class.” The tour guide replied. Rufus walked in and sat at an available seat at the back of the class room. He opened his notebook and took notes even though he didn’t understand anything that was going on. By the time 5th period came around it was time for lunch he was starving. All of his friends called him over and asked him to sit with him. Momma didn’t make him a big lunch because they didn’t have that much food in the house and then needed to split it 3 different ways. Allison who used to have a big crush on Rufus sat right next to him. Mitchell and Charlie sat across from him and Christina, Alisha and Sammy sat around them. When the bell rang he went to his locker and when he got to class he looked out the window and saw the same car that followed him to school. The only person he thought of was Simon. But he didn’t have a car? Rufus ran to the office to explain the…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charlie Kelmeckis, is an introverted and intellectually gifted teenager who is just starting his freshman year of highschool all alone. Then two seniors, Sam and Patrick, help him learn how to participate in life instead of watching others live it for him. He quickly is given the gift of true friendship, love, music and so much more, while a young english teacher and aspiring playwright helps him develop his skills as a writer. Though as all things that come up must go down, as his new friends start preparing for college, the problems he had buried all along threaten to shatter his newfound love for life.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “… climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Atticus teaches Scout and important life lesson. The novel To Kill and Mockingbird describes Lee’s childhood growing up in a small country town called Maycomb. She grew up in a small family consisting of her dad, Atticus and her older brother, Jem. The novel describes her childhood adventures and journeys as she grows and matures. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird discusses biographical and historical events by using characterization and setting.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Looking For Alaska, Miles “Pudge” Halter struggles with coming to terms with, or accepting, a lot of things that happen in the novel. In the ‘After’ part of the novel, Miles matures the most and comes of age by accepting and coping with Alaska’s death, realizing that his relationship with Alaska wasn’t as personal as he thought it was, and by learning how to survive in the labyrinth.…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miles looks for his “Great Perhaps” (Francois Rabelais, poet) at the Culver Creek Preparatory School. Where he meets The Colonel and Takumi but most importantly Alaska. These people he befriend is his fist show of hope for his “Great Perhaps”. “If the colonel though that calling me his friend would make me stand by him, well he was right” (Green 28)…

    • 1260 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Essentially 'Looking for Alaska' is adaquite for all sophmore students. It is suitable for sophmore students because 'Looking for Alaska' depicts many conflicts a high school student can encounter in their scholar years. 'Looking for Alaska' is a story about Miles Halter otherwise known as "Pudge", and his journey through his junior year at "Culver Creek" . "Im going to start seeking the, Great Perhaps." (Greene, 5). Miles states this in the passage before he attends "Culver Creek" his new high school he will have to attend without any parental supervison. John Greene brings up the sensation of love, drama, and adventure when Miles meets the dangerous Alaska Young, who smokes, drinks and never thinks before she acts and is also the girl Miles, eventually falls in love with. Many high school students can relate too all of the above. Growing up and becoming a part of society puts some teenagers in situations in which they are able to drink, smoke and, fall in love.…

    • 309 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The day Alaska dies she was drunk and she took the car and commits an accident. Alaska wanted to go home but her friends told her like “Don’t drive. You’re drunk” or “This can wait until tomorrow” they wanted to convince her to don’t drive because she was drunk. The day after the Eagle to all the students “Alaska was in a terrible accident...Alaska has passed away”(139). All the students didn’t say any word for a moment the Eagle said this in a school gym where he called everyone to know what happened to Alaska last night.…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Harper Lee Essay Example

    • 2229 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Nelle Harper Lee grew up during the Great Depression, and in a time where there was a lot of racism. A reviewer for ‘The New Yorker’ wrote,” Lee is a skilled, unpretentious, and totally ingenuous writer who slides unconcernedly and irresistibly back and forth between being sentimental, tough, melodramatic, acute, and funny” (Champion 124).…

    • 2229 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    SSR Essay

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The main character is an awkward seventeen-year-old teenager, Miles Halter, but is later nicknamed ‘Pudge’. Miles leaves his boring, unexciting life in Florida for a boarding school in Alabama named Culver Creek in hopes of finding the ‘Great Perhaps’. The ‘Great Perhaps’ is what Miles believes is adventure and thrilling experiences, which he hopes to find at this new school with his new friends. Miles roommate, the Colonel, introduces him to Takumi and Alaska Young. The newly nicknamed Pudge feels like he is finding his adventure with them, and at the same time falling in love with Alaska. The first half of the book is Pudge finding himself and his ‘Great Perhaps’ with Alaska, while the second half is Pudge trying to find out where Alaska went and why on the night she died in a car crash. From the exciting beginning of Pudges new life to the emotional end of Alaskas, this novel really hits every emotion as you read.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    I am writing this paper as a person of Native American descent writing to a friend of a different race. This paper will inform my friend of the struggles we have had to endure and overcome throughout history.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Persuasive Essay On Alaska

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Every day, millions and millions of people around the world decide to go on vacation, and travel somewhere they have never been to before. Whether it is one of the many sunny beaches of Hawaii, the gothic buildings of Europe, or the bright nightclubs of New York City, people choose to experience the excitement of being in a place foreign to them. Nevertheless, one place that will guarantee your family a lifetime’s worth of fun and adventure is the state of Alaska: a place filled with vast national parks, numerous and exhilarating activities to partake in, comfortably warm hotels and restaurants to visit during the colder parts of the year, and spectacular mountains to climb and ski on in the winter.…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I thought that this last quarter of the novel, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, was a real disappointment, in my opinion. First of all, when Annabel and Owen parted ways for such along time, I was very disappointed. Then, on top of that, the ending was a cliché, because it was too corny and too much of a happy ending.…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Afterward, when they are drunk, Alaska tells the others about her mother’s death when she was a little girl and her guilt for not calling 911 even though she did not understand what was happening. To celebrate their success, they decide to drink every night. During the last night, Pudge and Alaska kiss and almost have sex, but Alaska is too tired to continue. In the middle of the night, she receives a call that makes her go crazy and hysterical. In a frenzy, Alaska makes Pudge and the Colonel help her get off campus without telling them the reason. The next morning, the two hungover boys find out that Alaska was in a car accident and killed instantly. In an attempt to clear their conscious, Pudge and the Colonel try to discover the true meaning of what had happened that fateful…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays