What Is The Purpose Of Looking For Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green is basically about Miles Halter, a sixteen year old teenager, who is friendless at his high school in Florida, and asks his parents if they can send him to boarding school in Alabama. His first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School consists of many pranks, good friends, and searches for answers about life and Alaska's death after an accident. I’ve never attended a boarding school however, John Green gave me a sense of what it’s like to attend a boarding school and the different things that can happen in boarding schools. In fact, I enjoyed reading this book very much and it was a well structured book. The first thing that caught my attention was how the book was structured. Looking for Alaska is divided into sections, “one hundred and thirty-six days before” and “one hundred and thirty six days after” the accident. In most books there are never descriptions on how something happened or how the two characters met. However, in this book we are able to read how Miles meets Alaska and what happens both before and after the whole accident. Starting from when Miles meets Alaska and says, “ … if people were rain, I was drizzle, and she was a hurricane” (Green 88). This quote tells us
how Miles realizes the different characteristics personality wise between himself and Alaska. Although, Alaska is very different from Miles the differences are what Miles is fascinated by. The idea of her being different also means that he thinks that she is better than him and for this reason he does not notice their similarities.
Miles Halter is another reason I enjoyed reading this book because, he is very wise and can examine and determine situations the details to figure out the true reasoning behind it.
Throughout the book, he seem to be looking for specifically his “great perhaps”. For instance, Alaska mentions to Miles, “You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining the future that keeps going, but you going, but never do it. You just use the future to escape the present” (Green 54). This quote tells us how we should appreciate the present and how important it is to focus on the present. However, Miles is incapable of realizing how his “great perhaps” is close at hand in the
present.
Furthermore, Looking for Alaska has many factors that make the book relatable such as, the use of language the author uses. There are also specific messages the author seems to portray throughout the book about the importance of focusing on the present. Miles is too focused on fantasizing about his future packed with his new friends, and Alaska when he first enters Culver Creek. Towards the end of the book he says, “ Thomas Edison’s last words were, ‘ It’s very beautiful over there.’ I don’t know where there is, but I know it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful” (Green 221).