Looking for Alaska
Madison Davis
English 30D
Mrs. Reimer
February 12, 2011
Looking for Alaska The main theme in John Green’s novel “Looking for Alaska” is that there is more to life than can be experienced through any one person or experience, and that we will never truly understand everything that happens to us or the ones we love. We just have to accept these things, whether they be good or bad, and hope for the best. The novel is written in first-person perspective, through the eyes of the main character. His name is Miles Halter, and he is a seventeen year old boy living in Florida. He doesn’t have any “real” friends, only the people he sits with while eating lunch at school. One of his hobbies is reading the last pages of biographies of random famous people, so he can memorize their last words. I believe the reason that he does this is so that he can really understand what kind of people they were, in essence what made them tick. That way, he could copy them and their beliefs so that he could become a person of great influence as well. But that’s only my theory. Miles wanted to change schools and attend the Culver Creek Boarding School, which is located in Alabama. There, he’s room-mates with “The Colonel”, whose real name is Chip Martin. Within five minutes of meeting each other, The Colonel decides to nickname Miles “Pudge”, and throughout the story the name sticks. The Colonel comes from a very poor family (single mother who works for minimum wage) and only got into Culver Creek because of his incredible ability to remember everything he reads. His education is riding on the faith that he’s able to keep his scholarship, and not get kicked out of the Culver Creek fir misbehaving. The reason why this is a major issue is because The Colonel and Alaska (one of his best friends) enjoy pulling pranks on the Weekday Warriors. The Weekday Warriors are the rich kids who only stay at school for the week and go home to their big mansions on the weekends and party. The Colonel
English 30D
Mrs. Reimer
February 12, 2011
Looking for Alaska The main theme in John Green’s novel “Looking for Alaska” is that there is more to life than can be experienced through any one person or experience, and that we will never truly understand everything that happens to us or the ones we love. We just have to accept these things, whether they be good or bad, and hope for the best. The novel is written in first-person perspective, through the eyes of the main character. His name is Miles Halter, and he is a seventeen year old boy living in Florida. He doesn’t have any “real” friends, only the people he sits with while eating lunch at school. One of his hobbies is reading the last pages of biographies of random famous people, so he can memorize their last words. I believe the reason that he does this is so that he can really understand what kind of people they were, in essence what made them tick. That way, he could copy them and their beliefs so that he could become a person of great influence as well. But that’s only my theory. Miles wanted to change schools and attend the Culver Creek Boarding School, which is located in Alabama. There, he’s room-mates with “The Colonel”, whose real name is Chip Martin. Within five minutes of meeting each other, The Colonel decides to nickname Miles “Pudge”, and throughout the story the name sticks. The Colonel comes from a very poor family (single mother who works for minimum wage) and only got into Culver Creek because of his incredible ability to remember everything he reads. His education is riding on the faith that he’s able to keep his scholarship, and not get kicked out of the Culver Creek fir misbehaving. The reason why this is a major issue is because The Colonel and Alaska (one of his best friends) enjoy pulling pranks on the Weekday Warriors. The Weekday Warriors are the rich kids who only stay at school for the week and go home to their big mansions on the weekends and party. The Colonel