Alaska acts as a whirlwind in Mile’s life. Changing who he is and dealing with that is the heart of the book. It’s not the controversial side-events of a teen’s life (smoking, drinking, cursing, having “sexual relations”) that define a person or this book. It is the lesson of the mercurial nature of life and that change is an active verb not a static noun. High school is a time of life in which everything is in flux, your body, your moods, your relationships and your future all while you’re trapped in the “labyrinth of suffering.” Teens need to live in the moment and not to plan ahead. Change is not the one event in life from which nothing will ever be the same. To live is to change. It is life’s greatest constant that each moment something will be slightly different, and it is only at life’s end that it ceases and we become static. Alaska raced straight and fast through the labyrinth, desperately trying to outrun a change that started when she was eight years old. Instead she became trapped in the now, never looking backward or forward, never thinking to swerve and leaving everything “to be continued.” Many people don’t realize that our actions can affect the people around us.
Alaska acts as a whirlwind in Mile’s life. Changing who he is and dealing with that is the heart of the book. It’s not the controversial side-events of a teen’s life (smoking, drinking, cursing, having “sexual relations”) that define a person or this book. It is the lesson of the mercurial nature of life and that change is an active verb not a static noun. High school is a time of life in which everything is in flux, your body, your moods, your relationships and your future all while you’re trapped in the “labyrinth of suffering.” Teens need to live in the moment and not to plan ahead. Change is not the one event in life from which nothing will ever be the same. To live is to change. It is life’s greatest