Looking for Alaska - Review & Q.

I finished John Green's Looking for Alaska a couple of days ago. Here's my blog post about it. (CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

Summary & My Opinion

This boy named Miles "Pudge" Halters is fascinated by last words. Particularly those of Francois Rabelais. Rabelais last words have to deal with the "Great Perhaps," which is what Pudge longs to find. Pudge goes off to a boarding school and meets two new friends - the Colonel and Alaska Young. These two troublemakers pull Pudge into their world of smoking and drinking and pranking. Although Pudge gets a girlfriend, he falls in love with another lady friend of his.

Overall, I enjoyed the book as I typically do with any of John Green's writings. I expected this book to be amazing and inspirational and life-changing. It, sadly, was not. Don't get me wrong - it was a great book. A good teenager-y love story for this century. However, there were a couple of scenes that were a little too much and could have been taken out. Those scenes did nothing to enhance the book or change my opinions on any of the characters (well, maybe Lara's). The book content was quite mature, although I am usually a bit more mature while reading any works of literature. I was surprised that (SPOILERS!!) Alaska died in the end. I kept wishing it was all a prank and that she would come back, send Pudge into his "Great Perhaps," and everything would be great. But, nope. Just Pudge and the Colonel trying to finish the legacy that was and forever will be Alaska Young.

(This post will probably be extremely long, what with the broad questions coming up. Just a warning. Happy reading!!)

Some intentionally vague and broad discussion questions.

There is a part at the end of John's book labeled the above heading. In case you don't own the book but want to follow along, I'll type them out for you (you're welcome). Let's answer them, shall we?

1. Is forgiveness universal? I mean, is forgiveness really available to all people, no matter the circumstances? Is it, for instance, possible for the dead to forgive the living, and for the living to forgive the dead?

I did not read these questions ahead. Holy cow. I believe in Heaven and Hell. I would say that the living can forgive the dead, considering they still have consciousness that can think and believe and love and lose and talk and laugh and on and on. The dead are either being tortured in Hell or pampered in Heaven, so I would guess that they aren't thinking about all the enemies they forgot to forgive. However, if it makes anyone sleep better at night, I would say that on your death bed you would want to forgive everyone, no matter what they did, in the last moments of your life. Even if they let you go driving while you're intoxicated and you crashed and died.

2. I would argue that both in fiction and in real life, teenage smoking is a symbolic action. What do you think it's intended to symbolize, and what does it actually end up symbolizing? To phrase this question differently: Why would anyone ever pay money in exchange for the opportunity to acquire lung cancer and/or emphysema?

In my opinion, teenage smoking is intended to symbolize the teenager growing up and making a life decision. It usually ends up symbolizing the teenager making a stupid life decision. The teenager is CHOOSING to put nicotine in their body and get addicted. To phrase this answer differently: someone would most likely buy cigarettes or drugs or whatever for the exact same reason why a common person (like myself) would buy a DVD or a CD or a book or any kind of fandom/band merch: it's an obsession. Not only an obsession, but an addiction. It's an interest that you want to keep indulging in and trying new things. You want to try a new brand of cigarettes, or you want to try a different book by your favorite author. The smoker doesn't think about the acquiring of lung cancer and/or emphysema, while the bookworm doesn't think about the potential tears that could be shed from reading the book. (That was a really good answer. Good job, self.)

3. Do you like Alaska? Do you think it's important to like people you read about?

I loved Alaska! My favorite quote was probably the one about being a "deeply unhappy person." She just had the mysterious, carefree character that many people always wish to be. The thing that got me about her was just that - she was a deeply unhappy person. Alaska came off as a confident feminist, while inside she was just a scared little girl with ghosts following her path. I'm glad that I liked her because I do believe that it's important to like the people you read about. If you don't like them, what fun is it to read about their lives? Or you could see it the other way: You can read about someone you hate just to have more reasons to hate them. If you're really that shallow, go ahead.

4. By the end of this novel, Pudge has a lot to say about immortality and what the point of being alive is (if there is a point). To what extent do your thoughts on mortality shape your understanding of life's meaning?

Holy cow, deep stuff is about to go down. Well, morality and life itself is so extremely fragile. One thing, one event, one anything could kill you. Just like that, and you're never coming back. It's something a lot of people fear. To take something from John Green's book The Fault in Our Stars, we all want to go down in history to ensure that we don't burn along with everyone else. That's what most people's meaning to life is: having a meaning. You have one life, and it can be taken away so simply, so why not live it to the best of your abilities? (I'll say it: YOLO.)

5. How would you answer the old man's final question for his students? What would your version of Pudge's essay look like?

If you don't remember, the question was about getting out of Alaska's "labyrinth of suffering." Pudge's two-page long answer was, in a couple of words, indescribably beautiful. The one thing is he didn't really stay on topic. The part where we read his writing seems to not be an essay, but a eulogy, mourning his lost love. My response probably would have been something like, "Christian's pray for righteousness, Buddhists pray for nirvana, blahblahblah." It probably would have been more professional and less beautiful and deep as Pudge's response was. Nonetheless, it would have most likely gotten me an A.   

-h.f.