An Analysis of the Novel Looking for Alaska - Research Paper Example

An Analysis of the novel, “Looking for Alaska” Imagine going on a lengthy mysterious journey trying to find the answer to a long desired question. Everybody has a question that one wants answered. Why has my life ended up this way? How can I live my life to the fullest? What can I do to get what I want from life without doing the hard work? However, in this essay there is just one question that I want to answer, how does one end suffering? Many people go through lifelong suffering, and themselves go on a journey with many ups and downs trying to find an answer. In the novel, Looking for Alaska by John Green, a girl named Alaska mysteriously dies, and her friends must go on a journey to figure out what exactly happened to her. Not only do the readers follow them on their journey, but they are also given a look into the suffering of Alaska and her own quest to find the end to hers. Although many people suffer and may consider suicide as their solution. It is essential that they find their own way to end their suffering and escape the Labyrinth, and to do so they need to realize that life has so much to offer, people are there to help them, and with hard work anything is possible. Although many people suffer and may consider suicide as their solution, it is vital that they find their own way to end their suffering and escape the Labyrinth, and to do, so they need to realize life has so much to offer, people are there to help them, and with hard work anything is possible. John Green was born in 1977, in Alabama. John Green is inspired by authors like Laurie Halse Anderson and Walter Dean Myers. He began writing his writing career while working at Booklist. In the book looking for Alaska, john green uses his native birth place as the setting for the novel. John Green grew-up in Orlando Florida and attended Kenyon College. In 2007, John and his brother Hank made a pact to cease communication through texting and only communicate via YouTube video posts. They video posted each other every day. The two brothers named this Project brotherhood 2.0 (Nicholas, 2011). The decision to use YouTube to communicate to each other, inspired ‘nerd fighters’ an online community, who fight for intellectualism and try to reduce by large the level of suck worldwide. This attempt has received thousands of dollars through donations from various charities (Nerdfighters, 2012). We are all born with hope and desire to fulfill and have a purpose in life. The finding of this purpose is beneficial to individuals. The effort to find this purpose is all left to an individual. Looking for Alaska is a story about finding that purpose in an individual’s life. Miles describes the labyrinth suffering as the greater perhaps in life and quotes from Francois Rabelais (Green, p.5). In looking for Alaska, John Green uses his characters to demonstrate the search for this purpose in life. He says, “"Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (...) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how fearsome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present."(Green 30) The distractive lifestyles of the teenagers, dabbles in sex and drugs and the pranks, this is all an attempt to find their purpose in life. As one is trying to find their purpose in life, they meet obstacles and suffer along the way. How a person deals or perceives this suffering is notable as it will help how one tackles with them. The paper discusses the different answers that the characters in looking for Alaska give after searching themselves. Alaska’s last words were “how do I get out of this labyrinth of suffering?” this word taunted her classmates as well as those that she told. They all try to find an answer to this question. Throughout the book, this question is answered. To some they thought that the only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is through death. Miles and Alaska are out to find the greater perhaps that will liberate them from the labyrinth of suffering.  The teenagers indulge in all sorts of things and wild behavior all in the name of finding their greater perhaps. Alaska believes that mischief can be a way out of the labyrinth of suffering. This explains her mischievous character and that are why she influences her friends. It’s the eternal struggle, Pudge: the good versus the naughty. [...] Sometimes you lose a battle, but mischief always wins the war. (Green 34) Alaska believes that her naughtiness and mischief will prevail over the pains and trouble life that she endures. Through this statement, Pudge is influenced to start behaving like Alaska and her friends. Miles states that an individual is more than their body parts and  can decide what to do with their life “I believe now that we are more than the sum of our parts” this is not in reference to Alaska’s temperamental behavior and her constant change of her personality, but also to his belief in her. Miles' role model was Alaska and he verily believed in her. For Alaska, her way out of the labyrinth of suffering was through death. Due to his believe in Alaska Miles sees that the only way out for his is through death. That was Alaska’s answer to get out of the labyrinth of suffering. Alaska felt that her greater perhaps could only be achieved through death as her hopelessness was inevitable. “You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it’ll be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present. (Alaska and Miles)” (Green, p.78) Miles believed that the greater perhaps could not be achieved at the end of a labyrinth of suffering, and it was only a fantasy that many hoped to achieve. The Greater perhaps is not an accolade that could be found at the end of the labyrinth, but rather it is a pursuit and the prize to itself. According to Miles, happiness, knowledge and enlightenment are not the greater perhaps, but are the pursuit of the same. Alaska’s barbaric behavior is a fundamental explanation of the lack of understanding of this concept. Luckily for miles, he is able to discover this through Alaska in their search to what and how she died. We should shake off the notion that looking for Alaska is all about Mile’s expedition to try and transform his ostracized reputation, get the girl and discover him. Looking for Alaska has a deeper exploration that explains why people act the way they do. Looking for Alaska depicts the fact that an  individual has their own Great Perhaps which they search for throughout their entire lives whether they are aware of it or not, and everyone has a motivation. Alaska did not manage to see the bigger picture although she reached the end of her search for death. Miles came to understand this after her death. The fact that Alaska failed to realize was that there is no point in being “terrified into paralysis” by an individual’s search. The “labyrinth of suffering” intimidated Alaska to the extent that she decided to relinquish hope (Campbell, 2010). This was the main reason for the existence of the labyrinth; everyone has to go through it in a bid to find out who they truly are. According to my own expert opinion, I get the point that John Green was attempting to make his adolescent readers to understand the notion that Miles realized he was stronger than he actually thought. John Green denotes that it does not matter what circumstance you are in or who you are provided that you are focused the prize, the Great Perhaps, you as an individual will manage to find it simply through the virtue of your search (Bordat, 2010). To many people, Alaska’s resolution to the labyrinth of suffering is demoralizing in its darkness. Alaska answered that the way out of a labyrinth is straight and first. To her straight and first was through suicide or did it mean something else. Considering her character, temperamental and personality changes, no one could figure her out. Alaska liked it this way. There is a possibility that her statement “straight and fast” is another way of showing she is complicated. This statement can mean that the way out of the labyrinth of suffering is straightforward and fast as long as one understands how to get to the greater perhaps. The second possible answer can be death and suicide as it is straight and first according to her. Though the later cannot be considered as the right answer as no one knows whether Alaska’s death is a just a fatal accident or a suicide. But the option of suicide still remains a larger possibility (Schall, 2007). “How do will I ever get out of the labyrinth of suffering is?” this are Alaska’s last words. This question seems to appear in many places in different manners. Alaska looked for a way out of suffering to get to the greater perhaps. Alaska is debilitated by her failures and falls into a self distract “into the enigma of herself” (Green, 219). Alaska never forgives herself for her mother’s death and the guilt she carries with her holds her captive thus she cannot move on. A first answer to Alaska’ last word is through forgiving. This forgiveness first has to be personal before it moves on to other people. Had Alaska forgiven herself for her mother’s death, she would have been able to get out of the labyrinth of suffering straight fast. When Pudge forgave himself for Alaska’s death, he finds hope. This hope lifts him from the labyrinth of guilt and grief. At this point, he is able to get a glance of the greater perhaps. Generally, there is no good answer to the question how do get out of this labyrinth of suffering. The answer varies according to different people and their different personalities. The best answer is what one believes and learns in their pursuit the greater perhaps. All the main characters of the novel had their own answer to this question. Purge‘s answer to this question is forgiveness. This is right as it works out for him as he gets a glimpse of his greater perhaps. Miles on the other hand said that the is no prize for the greater perhaps as the greater perhaps is the labyrinth suffering that one faces in this pursuit. For Alaska, her answer to the question is straight and fast. This is a vague answer considering that she committed suicide, and her personality. This is because the reader cannot know whether there was a deeper or different meaning to “straight and fast”. All in all the best suitable answer the question how do I get out of this labyrinth of suffering is through forgiveness. As we can see among all the mentioned characters, the one that choose to forgive was able to feel liberated from the labyrinth of suffering. When Pudge forgave himself for Alaska’s death, he felt relieved and this gave him new hope.  Hope was his driving force to his greater perhaps. Therefore the best answer to this question is forgiveness. “The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive” (Green, 2006) When one feels responsible and is guilty about something, this hinders them from achieving in life as this holds them back from achieving. When forgives themselves, they are liberated and can now achieve and fulfill their purposes in life. Works cited Bodart, Joni R. Radical Reads 2: Working with the Newest Edgy Titles for Teens. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2010. Print. Campbell, Patricia J. Campbell's Scoop: Reflections on Young Adult Literature. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2010. Print. Green, John. Looking for Alaska. London: HarperCollins Children's, 2006. Print. Nerdfighters: about Nerdfighters, 2012. Retrieved from 5th December 2012 < http://nerdfighters.ning.com/page/general-information> Schall, Lucy. Book talks and Beyond: Promoting Great Genre Reads to Teens. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited, 2007. Internet resource. Witschi, Nicolas S. A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Internet resource. Read More