Suffering In John Green's 'Looking For Alaska'

Setting: From the information this book has given me, I believe that this book takes place in present time, Although there are some future characteristics I believe that this book is a mix between realistic fiction and science fiction. The main place with this book takes place is in the school itself. Except at the ending, for they escape the school.

In our novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, multiple settings are present. The overall setting is in a school called Merryweather High School in a small town. The main character, Melinda, describes her first day there, “we pass janitors painting over the sign...school colors will stay purple and gray…”(3, 4). The school mascot was the Trojans, but the janitors were painting over the sign because the mascot was changing. In the school, the overall mood is dark and angry. Melinda called the police to a party, and now she is a social outcast, therefore school is not a good place for her. However, there are a couple places inside the school that she feels better in. There is her art classroom, which is at the opposite end of the school, “The

Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild shows the journey of a young man who travels to Alaska with little resources and dies. Although the young man, Chris McCandless, came from money and was very intelligent, he had a deadly obsession with Alaska and it’s ruthlessness and mystery. What started as a naive boy wanting adventure and freedom and solitude soon turned into a family mourning the death of a son and brother. Many say that it was the young lads fault for going head into something that he wasn’t prepared for, and I for one agree with them. Shaun Callarman had it right when he said that Chris McCandless “...was just plain crazy.”

After reading the excerpt from Looking for Alaska by John Green it is evident that the speaker is an extremely introverted individual who feels indifferent towards his guests. He mentions how he could “feel their pity”, but then goes on to say that “they needed more pity than I did”. This implies that although the speaker is most certainly an introvert he does not feel the need to make acquaintances with others. He does not have any desire of becoming friends with people who only speak to him out of pure pity. The speaker also mentions how the dip and chips were “intended for my imaginary friends”, which shows that he does not usually expect company any ways. The fact that his friends are “imaginary” clearly shows that he never had any friends

Despite his inexperience at living off the land, Chris Mccandless managed to survive in the Alaskan wilderness for a time. His adventures across the United States contributed to honing his skills at surviving with inadequate supplies, little money, and few essential tools. Unfortunately This was not enough, and his inexperience on the finer points of outdoor living and general knowledge of particular subjects proved to create more challenges, and finally this inexperience killed him. Particularly, with his successful kill of a moose we see a perfect example of his ignorance, “Then on June 9, he bagged the biggest prize of all: “MOOSE!” (166.) His tendency to brashly tackle everything head on with will and determination ultimately led to his demise, “Overjoyed, the proud hunter took a photograph of himself kneeling over his trophy, rifle triumphantly overhead, his features distorted in a rictus of ecstasy and amazement.” (166.)

During the 1800’s, lives changed for many people. The Klondike Gold Rush began. In the article Klondike Gold Rush written by the Public Domain, the passage from A Women Who Went to Alaska written by May Kellogg Sullivan, and the video City of Gold made by the National Film Board of Canada and narrated Pierre Berton, the points of view of each show the miners’ lives. Each piece has a point of view, which helps the reader understand the miners’ lives through the word choice, and the tone

In the beginning of the movie we learn that Brian, Andrew, Claire, John, and Allison attend Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois, but are worlds apart due to the social cliques developed by peers and society. These social stereotypes have dictated the following labels for each individual: Brian is the reserved brain, Andrew is the typical athlete, Claire is the spoiled princess, John is the criminal/bully, and Allison is the artsy basket case. Each individual comes from a unique yet damaged background, but in some way similarities exist. These various backgrounds play a key role in the plot development later in the film and set forward the bond the adolescents will form before detention is dismissed.

Throughout the novel, she experiences different types of conflicts as she adapts to her new school environment and attemptedly fulfills her obsessive desire to fit in. The inner conflict in which she experiences throughout the

practices, their cuisine, and living habits, so she decides that she has no other choice than to live

Looking for Alaska by John Green, is about a boy name Mile who is from Florida and goes to a boarding school in Alabama on adventure to experience what life is and what the world around him is about. His roommate whose name Chip, also known as the Colonel, shows him around Culver Creek and meets all the friends who hangs out with throughout the book. On the final night on part 1 Alaska gets in a car accident and dies on the scene immediately. Police blame the cause of death due to the high levels of alcohol. Part 2 of the book leaves Alaska friends mysterious and acting different towards one another especially Miles. It’s a mystery that they solve and do a big prank in honor of Alaska. Miles final paper for religion is on the life of his Friends and him.

It seems natural to think about novels in terms of dreams or psychoanalytical realities. Like dreams, novels are fictions, inventions of the mind that, though based on reality, are by definition not exactly and literally true. Conversely, dreams may have some truth to tell but like novels their truth must be interpreted before it can be grasped. Such is the case with John Green's young adult novel, Looking for Alaska. It holds many truths that are relevant to young adults, but to extract those lessons, one must first view the plot and characters through a lens of psychoanalytical theory.

The film is set in the year 1959 in a Vermont boarding school named Welton Academy. This academy is a very strict all boys school that demands the most out of every student so that they are completely ready for university. The term that this takes place in welcomes a new English teacher, Mr. John Keating who attended Welton himself, and follows the transfer student Todd Anderson whose brother was one of Welton’s finest students. Todd’s roommate is Neil Perry, who comes from a middle-class family that made multiple sacrifices to put him into Welton. Neil’s father is extremely strict with his son and dictates his schooling and extracurricular activities. Friends of Neil, and later Todd, include Charlie Dalton the rambunctious one, Knox Overstreet the romantic, the very smart ones Steven Meeks and Richard Cameron, and Gerald Pitts. The movie follows the seven friends through the school term starting with how strict and very stressful the courses and teachers are then showing the drastic difference of Mr. Keating. The movie remains on the lives of the boys, mainly focusing on Keating’s class and how he wishes for his students to become free thinkers which leads to many different issues with the friends.

Looking for Alaska is a book about a boy named Miles that goes away to a private school called Culver Creek were he meets a group of friends that he starts to hang out with throughout the year. He becomes very good friends with everyone and they begin to let him in on their secret spot called "the smoking hole", where they all smoke their cigarettes without getting in trouble. Soon he starts to get a crush on a girl named Alaska, which seems to already have a boyfriend. As soon as Miles starts to fall in love with her a horrible thing happens. Alaska dies in a terrible car accident, which turns into a very mysterious and confusing death. When Miles and the other boys get the news, they start fighting to find out the truth on what really happened. After reading this novel, one is left with the question, "How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?"

John Green is one of America’s most famous modern-day authors known for his works such as Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars. Also famous for YouTube videos, Green is well-known for his educational online posts. He was one of the 100 most influential people in the world, according to Time magazine. Green won numerous awards for his writings including the Michael L. Printz Award with Looking for Alaska and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize under the category of the Innovators Award. Along with his brother, Hank Green, John launched the charity project, Project for Awesome in which YouTube users take two days to create videos for charities of their choosing, and they raised $483,446 in 2007 and $869,291 in 2013. Green is by far one of todays' most recognized and accomplished authors.

Some may think that since Looking for Alaska is written from the first person perspective of the narrator, we would learn a lot about the narrator through his actions. However, this is not the case. Miles is the main character and the narrator of the book Looking for Alaska by John Green. This book follows the fictional story of when Miles goes off to boarding school, tries to discover his “Great Perhaps”, and tries to make the friends that he couldn’t at his previous school. When Miles first gets to boarding school, he immediately befriends his roommate and is introduced to his roommate 's friend group. He meets Alaska, who he thinks is beautiful and they become very good friends. The book then follows how Miles gets closer to Alaska and how he reacts and copes with her sudden death. We learn about who Miles really is through his inner thoughts. Through his thoughts we discover traits that Miles carries, that he is not proud of and that he doesn’t show or tell the other characters. Some of these traits include that Miles is self-conscious, that he is different than his friends, and that he is very loyal towards his friends. We can only detect that Miles carries these traits from learning his inner thoughts. John Green writes this book from the first person perspective of Miles and because of this we learn things about Miles through his thoughts that the other characters don’t.