"If people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane."
-- John Green, Looking For Alaska
 
    At the end of his novel, John Green included a page titled "Some Intentionally Vague and Broad Discussion Questions" that consisted of five questions. Here is where they will be discussed.

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 believe that forgiveness can be available to all living and dead people. It is possible for the living to forgive the living and the dead no matter how hard it may be. However, it is impossible for the dead to forgive others. When one dies, they cease the ability to perform actions, such as forgiving one. Their soul is no longer contained in that body, and it is based on one's personal belief as to where that soul ends up after death. Though it is possible for one to forgive another and then immediately die, it is not possible for one to die and then forgive. Many people say that the dead do forgive the living, but those are only false words of comfort.

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 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?
    Teenagers smoke for many different reasons, including peer pressure, curiosity, rebellion, attempting to look cool, and the buzz that nicotine gives them. When asking about teenage smoking as a symbol in Looking For Alaska, I believe it is a symbol for rebellion and peer pressure. Before he met his new friends, Pudge had never tried a cigarette.
The reason Pudge took up smoking was not only due to his curiosity, but mainly because the Colonel and particularly Alaska were avid smokers. At Culver Creek, it is forbidden to smoke, however, the Colonel and his group of friends are constantly going against the rules and smoke anyways. Smoking can also symbolize suicide, because as one continues to smoke intentionally, one worsens the condition of the lungs and can eventually die, knowing full well that it was due to smoking. Alaska, who does end up dying, though not from smoking but possibly suicide, says, "I smoke to die" (44).

3. Do you like Alaska? Do you think it's important to like the people you read about?
    I do like Alaska, and it is important to like the characters that were meant to be liked. Alaska was a character that was meant to be liked, and occasionally she irked me, but overall I really did like her character and personality. If one does not like a character that was meant to be liked, the tone and mood of the book would be distorted. For example, if I hated Alaska, the end of the book would be joyous, because I was glad she died. I could have missed out on the immense sadness that Pudge and his friend had experienced, which was the intentional tone and mood of the end of the book.

4. By the end of the novel, Pudge has a lot to say about immorality and what the point of being alive is (if there is a point). To what extent do your thoughts on morality shape your understanding of life's meaning?
    Moralities are meant to guide people on how to live life. What is considered wrongdoing is based upon one's personal moralities. How one lives life can factor into what one believes the meaning of life to be. For example, one might believe the the meaning of life is to do x and y. How would one go about doing that? By doing a, b, and c. In order to do a, b, and c properly, one needs morals to base their actions upon. Another example is that one believes that the meaning of life is to do good to others. Morals define what that person believes doing good is.

5. How would you answer the old man's final question for his students? What would your version of Pudge's essay look like?
    The way out of the labyrinth of pain and suffering is a combination of several different components. Hope is the most essential. For as long as one has hope, one can find determination to escape the labyrinth. If one does not have hope to ever get out, what will motivate them to even attempt to pursue an exit? Forgiveness is also a key component of the escape route, for the same reasons as Pudge had stated. Another component is to let go. One can not continue to go further is one is being held back by something. Therefore, the way out of the labyrinth does not have one specific answer, but multiple.
 
labyrinth  - [noun] an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit
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The labyrinth was mentioned several times throughout Looking For Alaska, but what is the labyrinth, what is it a symbol for? Why is it important? The answer is this: The labyrinth is a symbol for pain, suffering, and wrongdoing, and the labyrinth is significant because it leads our protagonist, Pudge, to answer the main question, "What is the best way to go about being a person... What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?" (32). Miles interprets this question, which was asked by Dr. Hyde, as the nature of the labyrinth, and how to get out of it. He knew that he needed to get out of the labyrinth, whatever it is, "Before I got here, I thought that the way out of the labyrinth was to pretend that it didn't exist, to build a small, self-sufficient world in the back corner of the endless maze and to pretend that I was not lost, but home. But that only led to a lonely life accompanied by the last words of the already dead, so I came here looking for a Great Perhaps, for real friends and a more-than-minor life." (219).
    The labyrinth is first mentioned by Alaska when she tells Pudge about Simón Bolívar's last words were, "How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!" When he asks her what exactly the labyrinth is, Alaska challenges him to figure it out himself. However, she eventually gives him the answer, "'It's not life or death, the labyrinth.' 'Um, okay. So what is it?' 'Suffering,' she said. 'Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That's the problem. Bolívar was talking about pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?'" (82). By exploring the Alaska's labyrinth, Pudge is able to figure out how to escape the labyrinth himself, which leads him to answer the central question asked by Dr. Hyde.
    The labyrinth is also a minor metaphor for Alaska herself, when Pudge first describes her in detail, "I realized the importance of curves, of the thousand places where girls’ bodies ease from one place to another, from arc of the foot to ankle to calf, from calf to hip to waist to breast to neck to ski-slope nose to forhead to shoulder to the concave arch of the back to the butt to the etc. I’d noticed curves before, of course, but I had never quite apprehended their significance" (19). He focuses on Alaska's curves, such as the curves of a labyrinth.
    So how do we escape this labyrinth of suffering? Alaska found her answer: straight and fast. However, the answer Pudge found was forgiveness. He figured that the reason Alaska died was because she could not forgive herself for not calling
911 when her mother was dying. He realized that he blamed himself for Alaska's death, since he did not stop her from getting into the car while drunk. He needed to forgive, "She forgave us, and that we had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth. There were so many of us who would have to live with things done and things left undone that day. Things that did not go right, things that seemed okay at the time because we could not see the future. If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can’t know better until knowing better is useless" (218). His final essay question was asking him, "What is the best way to go about being a person? What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?", he answers the following, writing his way out of the labyrinth:
    "She will forgive my forgetting, just as I forgive her for forgetting me and the Colonel and everyone but herself and her mom in those last moments she spent as a person. I know now that she forgives me for being dumb and scared and doing the dumb and scared thing. I know she forgives me, just as her mother forgives her" (219). The way out of the labyrinth, according to Pudge, is to forgive. Forgive yourself and do not blame yourself for things that are beyond your control. Forgive yourself and forgive others for the wrongdoings in your life.

 
    The original cover design for Looking For Alaska did not feature the extinguished candle beneath the smoke. This was because the smoke was meant to come from a cigarette, not a candle. However, several book chains did not want to promote smoking and added the candle underneath the smoke. More recent printings of this book have removed the candle.
 
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    The entire novel is set around the death of Alaska Young. Part one of the book is called "before", as in before the death of Alaska, and part two is called "after", as in after the death of Alaska. The entries are not marked by dates, but in the number of days in relation to Alaska's death. For example, when Miles describes smoking his first cigarette, that was "one hundred and twenty-eight days before" the death of Alaska, not a month, day, and year.
    There were several accounts of foreshadowing her death, most of them being remarks by Alaska herself:
  • She smiled with all the delight of a kid on Christmas morning and said, "Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die." (44).
  • "I may die young," she said. "But at least I'll die smart." (52).
    The exact nature of her death remained a mystery: did Alaska kill herself? Or was it an accident?

    One theory to Alaska's death is that it was actually an accident. Because she was drunk, it is very possible that when she saw the police cruiser and the truck she believed that she would be able to make it through the two vehicles.
    Pudge argues that Alaska would not have killed herself because she had told them that their kissing session was "to be continued," but the Colonel said she could have changed her mind from the time between the phone call and the time she crashed. When the Colonel and Pudge look up suicide symptoms on the web, they realize that Alaska only fit two of the thirteen symptoms. The Colonel also says that she was joking when she made comments about her death.
    However, there are many arguments that back up the possibility that Alaska committed suicide. She said that she already felt guilty about not calling 911 when her mother was suffering from an aneurysm and died at home. It was clear that Alaska was also not emotionally stable, and even more so considering the fact that she was drunk at the time of her death. She said to Pudge, "Pudge, what you must understand is that I am a deeply unhappy person." (124). She is caught up in her labyrinth of suffering. The Colonel also argues that the police car she crashed into had its lights on, and she was sober enough to see them and swerved, considering she was sober enough to make out with Pudge. However, she never hit the brakes. The two decide to perform a test: the Colonel will raise his BAC to .24, which was around the blood alcohol level Alaska had when she died, and see how functional he was. He could clearly see, but said he was very sleepy. They at first thought that she could have fallen asleep while driving and crashed, but they realized that it is nearly impossible to drive straight while asleep. It is revealed that the night of her death was also the night of the anniversary of her mother's death. It is possible that the call reminded her of the anniversary, and because it was past midnight and she had missed it. It was likely that she was so angry with herself because she messed up again with her mom- she didn't call 911 when she was eight and now she missed the anniversary- that she decided to end her life, taking the "straight and fast" way out of the labyrinth.


         “She didn't leave me enough to discover her, but she left me enough to
                                      rediscover the Great Perhaps."
                                  ― John Green, Looking for Alaska

 
MILES "PUDGE" HALTER: The name Miles comes from the Germanic name Milo, which is possibly connected to the Slavic name element mil, meaning "gracious" or "merciful". It is mentioned that Miles is the "only name firstborn male Halters have had for a century" (53). Pudge is an informal word meaning a short, chubby person. This name was given to Miles ironically, since Miles was skinny and tall. Halter is also a Germanic last name, meaning "one who lives near the pasture".

ALASKA YOUNG: Alaska's name was discussed briefly in the novel. Her mother wanted to name her Harmony (such as in music), while her father wanted to name her Mary (the meaning is not certain, several theories include "sea of bitterness" and "rebelliousness", but it is most likely that it had Egyptian origins, meaning "beloved" or "loved"). Since they couldn't agree, they decided to let her pick a name. So when she turned seven, she looked at a globe and originally picked Chad (Russian origin, meaning "battle", also a country in Africa). However, her father disapproved due to the fact that it was a boy's name, so she picked Alaska instead, because "it was big, like I wanted to be. And it was damn far away from Vine Station, Alabama, just like I wanted to be." (53). She was pleased to discover later that Alaska comes from a Aleut word, Alyeska, which means "that which the sea breaks against". The last name Young has English roots, obviously meaning "young". Alaska's personality definitely lives up to her last name, considering she was a person who lived life as if she would die any day, and she did die young.

CHIP "THE COLONEL" MARTIN: The name Chip comes from the name Charles (German origin- Karl, which came from a word that meant "man") or Christopher (From the late Greek name- Christophoros, which meant "bearing Christ"), or it can be a nickname given to a son who is similar to his father, or a chip off the old block. This name fits the Colonel, because he is similar to his father. Like his father, Chip drinks, and he also does not fare well in romantic relationships. Chip has the nickname of "The Colonel". A colonel is a high-ranking military officer, which demonstrates how Chip attempts to portray himself as someone important, someone worth listening to despite his broken, poverty-stricken background. Chip is also seems to be the leader of the group of friends as well as the strategic mastermind behind most of the pranks. The name Martin comes from the Latin name Mars, the Roman god of war. Chip also lives up to his last name because he is the one who initiates war between his group of friends and the Weekday Warriors and does not back down from it.

TAKUMI HIKOHITO: Takumi is a Japanese word that means "artisan." Hikohito is a Japanese last name.

LARA
BUTERSKAYA: Lara is a variant of the name Larisa and Larissa. It is of Latin origins, from the Roman gods Lares, which were individual protectors of the homes and households. It might possibly also mean "cheerful; famous". Buterskaya is a Russian last name.

MR. STARNES "THE EAGLE":
The last name of Starnes is of English origins, meaning "stern". This name was given to the dean of the students at Culver Creek, for he was extremely stern. The Eagle was the nickname of Mr. Starnes, because an eagle is a powerful and respectable bird of prey with excellent senses. It was known that Mr. Starnes "sees all. He can smell a cigarette from like five miles." (16).

DR. HYDE: According to the novel, "The teachers were serious and smart, and a lot of them went by 'Dr.,'". (30). Hyde is an English last name meaning "one who lives at the hide" or "one who lives at the residence close by." A famous novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, also uses this last name. Mr. Edward Hyde was the evil, cruel person inside of Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Hyde from Looking For Alaska is similar to Mr. Hyde because he was one of the most hated teachers at Culver Creek because of the fact that he was strict, cruel, and focused only on himself and teaching the material.
 
"When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail."
-- John Green, Looking for Alaska
 
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The image to the left is the last words of the poet François Rebelais and is used to jump start the beginning of Pudge's journey, and evidently, the novel. According to the novel by Thomas C. Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, there are five key elements to a quest:
  • a quester
  • a place to go
  • a stated reason to go there
  • challenges and trails en route
  • a real reason to go there
It is evident that Pudge, whose real name is Miles Halter but had been ironically nicknamed "Pudge" due to his lankiness, has embarked on a quest in Looking for Alaska. All five elements discussed in How to Read Literature Like a Professor were fulfilled.

The QUESTER: The quester is obviously Pudge, the main character of the novel.
The PLACE TO GO: Pudge begins his quest at the Culver Creek Boarding School. This is the same boarding school that his father had attended for his high school years.
The STATED REASON TO GO:
Pudge has always been interested in the last words of people. The "Great Perhaps" is the the place Pudge is aiming to reach. He says in the novel, "That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps... I wasn't going to find it with the likes of Will and Marie" (5). Will and Marie were the only two guests that attended Pudge's going away party, and they only attended to be polite. This demonstrates that Pudge did not have any true friends at his current school and felt as if he did not have much hope in finding the Great Perhaps in his current location. The Great Perhaps is the stated cause of Pudge's journey.
The CHALLENGES AND TRIALS: Pudge faces several challenges on his quest to find the Great Perhaps. Of course, he encounters the usual trials one faces when one enrolls into a new school, such as finding his place among the social hierarchy, finding his classes, completing schoolwork, etc. Luckily, those problems are quickly solved when he meets Chip, whom everyone calls "The Colonel", his roommate and first friend, and he does well in his academics. Unfortunately, because he befriends the Colonel, he is spun into more and more problems. The Colonel is an avid smoker and drinker, and he ends up getting Pudge hooked on cigarettes and alcohol. This actually leads to an actual trial held by the Jury, which is a group of students elected by the administration to deal out punishments to nonexpellable offenses, when Pudge, the Colonel, and his other friends are caught smoking.  He meets the charismatic Alaska Young, and as a result, becomes heartbroken over her death because he had fallen in love with her. Through Alaska, he also learns about girlfriends and sex. The Colonel and his group of friends are considered losers at the boarding school, and have made enemies with the other group of students, called the "Weekday Warriors". The Weekday Warriors are the rich group of adolescents who go home on the weekends to see their family and are considered to be much more pretentious by the Colonel and his friends. A prank war begins between the two groups when Pudge is nearly drowned by a few Weekday Warriors on his second day of attending the school and the Colonel wakes up to find his sneakers drenched in urine.
The REAL REASON: Thomas C. Foster claimed that the real reason for every quest is self-knowledge. This is true also for Pudge's quest. Pudge learned much more than trigonometry in his pre-calculus class and the passé composé in Honors French II class. He learned about the labyrinth, what it is, and the way out of it. By finding a way out of the labyrinth, Pudge is then able to answer the question posed by his World Religions teacher, "What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?" (32).

    Author

    My name is Stephanie Webster and I am a sophomore taking the 10th Honors Literature course.

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