Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green tells the story of a year in the life of sixteen year old Miles Halter at an Alabama boarding school. The novel follows Miles through a roller-coaster year of learning, lusting, and loss. Bored with his life in Florida, Miles convinces his parents to send away to Culver Creek Boarding School. While there, his roommate, “The Colonel”, introduces him to world of pranks, rules of loyalty and, most importantly, an enigmatic girl named Alaska. While Miles is a capable narrator and has a few fun quirks, like a special skill for remembering people’s last words and The Colonel is a hilariously witty and intriguing character with fabulous proletariat qualities, it is Alaska who dominates the focus of the characters, the storyline, and reader’s fascinations.

Alaska is a wonderfully troublesome character. She at times spouts out defenses about respecting females, while at the same time flaunts her sexual promiscuity. She imposes herself heavily into the lives and worries of her friends, but keeps others a safe distance from her own personal emotions. She is self-destructive, yet insightful; very at good at controlling (the people/situations around her and as well as her own reputation), but clearly in need of help; a larger than life character, but in another sense, the epitome of any self-aware teenage girl. Alaska is an abundance of dichotomies and, though she is at times polarizing, she is always interesting and is one of the most complicated female teenage characters that I have ever encountered.

I had some issues at first at becoming immersed in this novel. I was dwelling on the fact that I was viewing the novel in somewhat of a feminist lens and was annoyed that the reader had to be constantly reminded that Alaska was so sexual and that she was always put on a pedestal by all the boys. While I still feel this is a valid critique, I realize now that the representation of Alaska opens up many discussions about gender representation. I also started to see Alaska’s sexuality as another one of her mechanisms of control. So I see that characterization as less of a detriment now.

Parent/Teacher Advisory ***Some Spoilers***: This novel deals with teenage drinking, smoking, and sexuality in a very frank matter. It also contains what some may consider very foul language. However, the drinking/smoking is shown in a way that is realistic, yet it is not glorifying, which I think is an important distinction. Also, the language is far tamer than what you hear in many songs on I-Tunes Top Twenty. The only other concern is the sexual content, which I will admit gave me a little hesitation because at first, quite frankly, I didn’t see its necessity (particularly the scene that occurs between Miles and Lara); yet, after more consideration I can now argue that scene’s value too. The scenes of physical interaction are awkward and, for lack of a better word, shallow; but, they are important in that they provide a stark contrast for the scenes of emotional connectedness and understanding. So, in actuality, they send out a good message against vapid surface-level interactions and argue for much deeper relationships. Also, the novel deals with the death of a teenage student. It may be upsetting for some readers. Still, the author does such a good job of describing the emotions of the students left behind after the tragedy that readers should not be discouraged by the lack of a happily-ever-after ending.

Overall recommendation: Looking for Alaska is a hard book to summarize. I dislike even having to put one because it is a novel that can be read from so many vantage points that it seems almost detrimental to the work to try and explain what it is about. Does one focus on the gender relations in the novel and a boy finding his first love? Maybe one should discuss the way female sexuality is portrayed and how it reflects the confusing and often contradictory messages teenage girls are presented with? Or should the attention go towards the commentaries on social class through the “weekend warriors” and the separation that wealth (or more importantly lack of struggle for money) causes between some of the students at the boarding school? Or maybe it should relate to Alaska’s metaphor for escaping the metaphor of escaping the labyrinth of suffering and teenage life? You really cannot just pick one. This book is not only a great coming-of-age tale; it also deals with questions that continually haunt even adults: How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering? How do you create a worldview that deals with loss and suffering in the world around us? How do you still have hope knowing that suffering is out there? There is much going on in this novel, but I hope I have done my best at providing a brief description to insight interest for personal exploration into Looking for Alaska.