Looking For Alaska Essay

In the novel Looking for Alaska by John Green, one of the main characters, Alaska Young, is involved in a fatal car accident. Following her death, the world religions teacher, Dr. Hyde, asks his class to interpret the question she posed for an essay: “How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?” This is the biggest clue that leads the reader to believe her car crash was not an accident (Constantakis). Other clues are how openly Alaska brings up dying, such as when she states the reason she smokes cigarettes: “... “Ya’ll smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die” (Green 44), as well as how reckless she is in the book. The first reason that proves Alaska’s crash was not an accident is her constant reckless behavior. She is always drinking, smoking, pranking, and having sex with people she does not know that well. In the book, there is a scene where she shows Miles, the main character, her buried stash of alcohol. Alaska also smokes cigarettes very often. She risks getting caught for having
She asks, “How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering” (Novels). Dr. Hyde presented this question to his class to give the students a new assignment of interpreting this question on their own. The reader and Miles come to realize that Alaska may have committed suicide by crashing her car. Because of this, they can believe that the question means Alaska herself wanted to look for a way out. The way out for most religions is to die and go to another world. Alaska may have used this crash as her way to escape the “labyrinth” in hopes she would be happier and finally find an answer to her question. In conclusion, Alaska’s crash was not an accident because she had previously expressed her desire to die through her reckless and self-destructive behavior, as well as through the question she posed for her world religions