Over the first 2 months of school we have read a novel titled Waimea Summer, by John Dominus Holt. This book takes place in a small town of Waimea, a city in Hawaii known for its cowboys and ranching. In Waimea Summer there is one main character that is the books central focus and his name is Mark Hull. Throughout the book, Mark goes on a journey to find his true self and eventually his identity slowly starts to change from being a Honolulu city boy to a more understanding, more in touch with his culture kind of person. There are a series of key events that help shape Marks perspective about his family from Waimea and also his Hawaiian identity as a whole.…
Moving further into the novel it is seen that Tom experiences a change in schools. Through the use of descriptive language, J.C Burke intelligently presents a positive consequence of moving into the world. “Finally there…
In many teen novels there are two people who, through trial and trouble, fall in love and live happily ever after. In the novel, Looking for Alaska, John Green takes that plot line flips it upside down. Miles Halters, who they call “Pudge”, is leaving his home in Florida to attend Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama. While at Culver Creek, he meets his new roommate Chip, who they called “the Colonel” and his friends Takumi and Alaska. The instant Pudge sees Alaska Young he is intrigued.…
McCandless was searching for freedom and the chance to truly become an individual. Alaska gave McCandless a place where he could be far away from everything that held him back. One of these was certain human relationships in his life. “You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships.” (Krakauer,42) McCandless did not feel that he needed people around him to feel happy. Next Sentence…
In Looking For Alaska, by John Green, there is a lot of symbolism and meaningful objects presented throughout the book. In my collage, I chose to include some of the book’s most important objects and pictures to help give a deeper understanding of the book.…
During life there are many events that we face which help us change our perspectives and gain wisdom. The Bildungsroman feature film Looking For Alibrandi, directed by Kate Woods and released in 1999, as well as the novel Looking For Alaska, written by John Green and published in March of 2005 both explore the transformation from innocence to wisdom. Both of these texts explore the idea that the more we know about people and the more we observe and listen, the greater the opportunity for tolerance and wisdom in the future. The protagonists in each text undergo changes in their lives that cause them to re assess situations and in turn gain wisdom. During the film Looking For Alibrandi, Josie's perspective of her grandmother changes from viewing her as nagging old woman to having a loving, caring, respectful relationship with her. The film enables viewers to see the stages in which Josie’s perspective changes as she gains knowledge about her grandmother. Initially Josie hates having to spend time with her grandmother, until the scene ‘The Baby Would Stop The Curse.’ This scene builds on the changing relationship between Josie and Nona. The scene begins with the diegetic crashing sound of one of Nona Katia’s photo albums falling to the floor. As Josie walks into the room a high angle shot shows Nona Katia scraping up the photos, with an overhead shot of a photograph of Marcus Sandford, who turns out to be one of Nona Katia’s lovers. When Josie asks who is in the photo, Nona Katia recounts an anecdote of Marcus comforting her after the death of her parents from influenza. As Katia tells the story the camera zooms in to a close up which shows the emotion on her face as she is recounting. Instead of Josie disrespecting her Nona, a shot-reverse-shot shows her listening silently to the story that Nona Katia is telling. When Nona finishes telling her story, Josie replies by asking if Nona still wants her to do her hair in Italian dialogue. The Italian dialogue at the end…
Firstly, the theme of “friendship” is shown by the portrayal of the main character George Milton. In the film, George is assigned the character trait of tenderness when he cleans Lennie’s bruises after Lennie is hurt. In the novel, however, George…
novel, A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove, depicts the coming-of-age of an ordinary teenage boy named Carl Matt. Through the experiences of the protagonist Carl and other characters, Maloney highlights every human being’s deepest need for love and acceptance and demonstrates the significance of understanding where one belongs. Coming from a broken home, Carl and his brother Harley have never experienced the safety and security of a loving and wholesome family, which damages Carl’s sense of self-worth and causes Harley to become a rebellious delinquent. However, through the unconditional love and tenderness shown by Joy and Skip Duncan and by Justine, Carl and Harley are able to find healing and are finally liberated from the pain, fear, and insecurity caused by their past. Maddy Duncan also learns the importance of accepting true love. Although she is from a stable family, she is deceived by the distorted and selfish ‘love’ of Nathan Trelfo and unbeknownst to her, she becomes a miserable person. It is only when she understands who genuinely loves and cares for her that she finds true happiness.…
Throughout Looking For Alaska, Miles has an extreme difference in his level of maturity from the start of the book to the finish. He comes to terms with Alaska’s death, faces reality by realizing they weren’t as close as he thought they were, and finally he lets go of things and forgives…
Looking for Alaska by John Green is the story of Miles Halter and his adventure of going to a boarding school. In this novel we see Miles finally make friends and fall in love. This novel deals with peer pressure and dealing with the death of a friend.…
One hundred years from now I believe this book will be read as it contains most problems faced by incoming freshmen in high school. The book is well written and is fun to read as the main character, Scott Hudson employs literary uses while he writes in his journal to his unborn sibling, who he calls Smelly of his high school experiences. Every teenager faces problems while in high school and some of them are addressed in this book. The issues that are evident in this book are friendship issues, school issues, family dynamics, transition from childhood to adulthood, and actions have consequences.…
Jon Krakauer, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society, his final demise in the Alaskan Bush, and his recognition of the truth, to reveal that pure happiness requires sharing it with others.…
I chose the novel “Looking for Alaska” by John Green, because I already read a reading sample in my English lessons in Germany from this book and I really liked the style of writing the author used. I also chose this novel, because many of my friends said it was a good book and worth reading, besides the fact, that the book is well-known for some of its quotes (“If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane”) and the awards it won (Michael L. Printz Award). The author is also known for his book “The fault in our stars”, which is another one of his four books.…
Love is a large theme I noticed in this reading. Between Miles timeworn loves, love he hasn’t let go of, and confusing love for his student Beverly, it seems as though Miles never caught a break. Being a middle aged bachelor has shown to drag him down, never seeming to be excited for much of anything anymore. I get a sense that Miles is a confused soul, who looks out for the needs of others before himself. Taking a different turn on love, I feel as though Miss McGee filled this description very well. As she had once stated that Miles seemed like a husband/son figure to her. I believe those two played very important roles in each other’s lives, and they were both equally lucky to have one another. Heartbreak also plays a big part in this novel, not only in Miles life, but in others as well. Between his heartbreaks of adolescence, Beverly’s love for Miles, and others feelings in the climax of this reading, I feel as though heartbreak is definitely a proper theme seem in this. However, I felt each character handled heartbreak with strength. We definitely see this in the end of the novel when Miss McGee and Beverly stay strong and decide to continue on with their lives. One instant where this remains false however was the reaction I saw Carla…
Alaska is someone I feel sympathy for. Alaska had a huge trauma when she was a kid which she still blames herself for. Her mother had a seizure one day when they were home alone and Alaska was very young and didn’t know what to do so she stood there and watched as her mother died. Later in the book she reveals that her father still blames her for her mother’s death and that that’s one…