CI 5442: Realistic Fiction Response #3

John Green’s novel Looking for Alaska was more than I expected it to be. Right away I was intrigued by Miles as he fidgeted restlessly during his empty going away party. It was amusing to see his view of the high school experience shift as his choice of friends changed from who he sat with out of “social necessity” to those few he couldn’t bear to lose (Green 3). The moment that captured me was in the first few pages when Miles tells his parents why he has decided to attend boarding school; “So this guy, François Rebelais. He was this 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” (Green 5). Already, I knew as a reader that Miles was about to enter into an adventure that would change both his life and the way he sees the world.

When Miles arrives at his Culver Creek Preparatory School, it is clear by the imaginary conversation that he plays through his head that he is ready to change his image and reputation. He learns right away that there are certain rules that you must follow in order to successfully navigate life at Culver Creek; the main rules being, toughen up, don’t get caught, and don’t rat anyone out. Throughout the text, these rules play an important part in driving the characters and presents reader’s with an insider’s look into the workings of an adolescent society. In this society Green presents his readers with four central characters that change Pudge’s life: the Colonel, the strategic and honor-bound leader; Alaska, the moody, beautiful, and fearless prankster; and Takumi, the rapping, fox-loving tag-along; and Lara, the quiet, Romanian cutie. Each character has a distinct personality and position among the “gang.” By providing readers with such dynamic characters, Green is able to draw readers into the microcosm that is Culver Creek. I felt myself sitting alongside the Colonel, Pudge, and Alaska as they sat in the Smoking Hole puffing away on cigarette’s, I was there running alongside Pudge and Takumi as they lit firecrackers and ran through the dark woods surrounding the school, and I was there when Pudge walked away from the Sunny Konvenience Kiosk feeling selfish, hateful, sad, and confused. Green’s use of detail captures the audience in this adolescent world by giving using the reader’s senses and feelings to draw them in. He describes Alaska’s lingering scent in such a way that I could close my eyes and conjure the smell myself.

Another key feature of Green’s text is his development and reoccurring questions of human pain and existence. Mr. Hyde acts as a voice of reason and motivating force on their personal journeys of discovery. By first forcing them to question “What is the most important question human beings must answer?” he is setting up and providing scaffolding for one of the major themes of the book: the twisted labyrinth of life—what is it and what is the point? In consideration of Alaska’s essay and her tragic death, this becomes the second question of his course, “How will you—you personally—ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?” (Green 215). He tells them, “I am interested in how you are able to understand the fact of suffering into your own understanding of the world, and how you hope to navigate through life in spite of it” (Green 215). This question—coming after the unknown accidental or suicidal death of Alaska—is a heavy question that is difficult for the Colonel and Pudge to answer. The question is probing and as a reader I too stepped back in order to try and analyze my own reactions to such a question. How do I define the labyrinth and how can I continue living within its confusion and complexity.
The characters in the book come up with their own answers to that question based on their personal experience with Alaska—and I must say that I shared that experience with them in my own answer to Mr. Hyde’s proposition. Alaska’s answer had been “Straight &Fast,” an answer that led her to leave the world goodbye far too early (Green 155). While at first this answer appeals to both the Colonel and Pudge, they eventually come up with their own ideologies concerning the labyrinth in opposition to Alaska’s. The Colonel says, “After all this time, it still seems to me like the straight and fast is the only way out—but I choose the labyrinth. The labyrinth blows, but I choose it” (Green 217). For all the regret, pain, and guilt that he has suffered, the Colonel has chosen life and all its pain over the escape found by Alaska. Pudge also comes to terms with living in the labyrinth realizing that, “we had to forgive to survive the labyrinth” (Green 218).

In his final paper, Pudge makes some of my favorite remarks from the text. He gives readers an immense amount of hope by presenting to them the awesome strength of a human being; faith. Pudge is able to accept his failings as a friend and yet he knows that he could let his grief draw him into “paralysis” as it did for Alaska, but he saw what this did for her and he decides to face his failures instead. He reminds the audience that while there are horrible and painful events in a person’s life, “Those awful things are survivable, because we are as indestructible as we believe ourselves to be….We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken” (Green 220). While he might be speaking specifically to other teenagers—Green’s audience—these words also resonated with me. During the text I experienced a few rough days of my own and when I read these words it reminded me of the power of the human mind and its ability to overcome great adversity. Pudge still believes in the Great Perhaps, “I spite of having lost her” (Green 219).

Overall, Green does a remarkable job in creating characters, emotions, sensations, and events that are relatable to readers. He frames his story around a boy who finds enjoyment in endings but ultimately understands that it is the middle that really counts. Pudge’s own discovery and the questions and challenges he must face force the reader to look within themselves. I loved this book because it had a little bit of everything and yet still managed to tackle difficult human ponderings in a meaningful way; “that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail” (Green 221).