“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”
John Green’s ‘Looking for Alaska’, tells a story about self-discovery, first experiences and the deep impact someone can have on a life. Miles Halter is fascinated by last words, and he is tired of his safe, boring life. He begins at Culver Creek boarding school, going in search of what the dying poet Francois Rebelais called ‘The Great Perhaps’. It is at the Creek that he has many first experiences – his first drink, first smoke, first feeling of love and first real, shattering heartbreak.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. From the very first page – the very first line in fact – it captured me. The first chapter of the book is titled ‘one hundred and thirty six days before’. I felt extremely curious upon reading that, as I questioned what we were leading up to, and what myself as the reader was waiting for. ‘One hundred and thirty six days before what?’, I asked myself. This made me extremely eager to continue reading. For me, as I was coming to the chapters that are a few days ‘before’, I was in total suspense, and could not put the book down. I think that this was a wonderful way to lead up to the climax of the book, the event that we are ‘before’, as it keeps the reader engaged and just waiting for what will happen. In part two of the book, the first chapter is labelled ‘the day after’, and it makes sense as to why the chapters were labelled that way. I really do admire the way John Green titled the chapters in this way, because I feel like it kept me in much more suspense than other books I have read. Also, I sometimes tend to jump ahead in books, just to catch a little bit of what happens near the end to reassure myself, or to see if a character lives or dies, but while reading Looking for Alaska, there was something about the style it was written in that made me not want to jump ahead to the chapters of part two – the ‘after’ section – but instead wait eagerly for the outcome. This made the book a more suspenseful and enjoyable read. A character that inspired me in this book had to be Alaska.
She is described as an intelligent, gorgeous, moody and self destructive girl. I think that it was her passion for fun, rebelliousness and just living life that made her such a fascinating character to read about. It isn’t difficult to get absorbed into the whirlwind of mystery and excitement that is Alaska Young. Miles does in the book, and I definitely did when reading it. To me, she seemed like such a carefree, life-loving individual, who does what she wants to have fun. I think that Alaska inspired and fascinated me so much because she is much of the person who I would like to be. Carefree, outspoken and infinitely intriguing. But, behind all that, we come to realise that she is so empty. After losing her mother at a very young age, and always carrying an endless sense of blame and guilt, she is simply a lonely girl looking for her way out of the ‘labyrinth of suffering’. One quote relating to Alaska that stuck with me was this: ‘So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.’ I feel that this is the perfect way to describe Alaska, as a hurricane, which is as destructive and reckless as it is thrilling. I think that this is why Miles becomes so infatuated and fascinated by Alaska. He has come from a boring, plain lifestyle into this new, refreshing change of atmosphere, while being completely absorbed into Alaska’s world. In my opinion, Alaska is exactly what he went to Culver Creek in search of. “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.”
Alaska’s death and the way John Green worded it actually made me realise a lot of things about tragedy, death and loss. When it came to the part of the book where Alaska is killed, I found myself angry at the author. I couldn’t help but question why John Green took the best character out of the book, but also why he did it in such a mysterious way. This affected me a lot, because the author described the feeling of loss and heartbreak that is felt by Miles so perfectly. When Alaska is leaving, she has been drinking, and she says that she needs to leave, she needs to get out of there. Miles and the Colonel don’t know what she means, but they help her anyway because she is hysterical about it. Ultimately, Miles and the Colonel not stopping her from driving and letting her go result in her death. It is not their fault, but I could understand how Miles felt that it was his fault that she died, because he didn’t stop her. He didn’t question her. He just let her go. This made me realise how the smallest of actions that aren’t thought about at the time result in an endless string of consequences.
Miles and the Colonel are extremely angry and confused and frustrated and grief-stricken and heartbroken all at the same time. I actually found it quite hard to read about what they were feeling; it was quite emotional. This is because Alaska mattered so much to them, and then she dies. Just like that. Gone. Miles and the Colonel are left not knowing if she left them on purpose, because she wanted to die, or if it was in fact an accident. She wanted to get out of the labyrinth of suffering after all, straight and fast. It made me think that sometimes we just need to accept the things that happen; we do not always need to know every little thing, the how and the why. We just need to surrender to life. I also realised how you can wish and regret all you like, but nothing can change the past and that nothing could bring Alaska back [in terms of the book]. “I would never know her well enough to know her thoughts in those last minutes, would never know if she left us on purpose. But the not-knowing would not keep me from caring, and I would always love Alaska Young, my crooked neighbour, with all my crooked heart.” I was still mixed up after finishing the book, because there is never a conclusion as to why Alaska left that night, and if she killed herself or it was an accident. I was left wondering if she wanted to get out of the labyrinth enough to just end it. I guess in the end, we’re all searching for our way out of the labyrinth, aren’t we?
