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Looking for Alaska
- Study Guide
Published in 2005, Looking for Alaska is best-selling author John Green’s first novel . This coming-of-age story is set at a boarding school in Alabama and is loosely based on Green’s own experiences at a southern boarding school. Told in the first person from the perspective of a student named Miles, the story centers around one school year in the lives of a group of teenagers in the early 2000s. In 2006, Looking for Alaska won the Michael L. Printz Award for the Best Young Adult novel from the American Library Association.
Read our full plot summary of Looking for Alaska or chapter-by-chapter breakdowns.
Summary & Analysis
- 136 days before–122 days before
- 110 days before–98 days before
- 89 days before–67 days before
- 58 days before–44 days before
- christmas–the last day
- the day after–8 days after
- 9 days after–29 days after
- 37 days after–62 days after
- 69 days after–136 days after
- Full Book Summary
See a complete list of the characters in Looking for Alaska.
- Character List
Find important quotes from Looking for Alaska .
- Important Quotes Explained
- View all Available Study Guides
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Looking for Alaska
By john green.
- Looking for Alaska Summary
Miles “Pudge” Halter is the new student at the prestigious Culver Creek Preparatory School in Birmingham, Alabama. Unpopular at his old school, Pudge is nervous about making new friends, but he is immediately taken in by his roommate, Chip “the Colonel” Martin and introduced to his rag-tag group of friends, including Takumi Hikohito , Lara Buterskaya , and the beautiful, mysterious Alaska Young .
The night before school begins, Pudge is taken from his bed in the middle of the night, duct taped like a mummy, and thrown into the school’s lake. He survives and the Colonel promises revenge in the form of pranks against their rivals, the wealthy day students known as the Weekday Warriors. Early on in the semester Pudge is kicked out of his World Religion class for daydreaming and is admonished by his teacher, Dr. Hyde , for not being present in the moment.
As time passes, Pudge grows closer to his new friends. The Colonel is kicked out of every basketball game for jeering too much; Alaska tutors Pudge in pre-calculus; and the group is caught smoking by the dean of students, Mr. Starnes (known as the Eagle), at their favorite hangout spot, the Smoking Hole. An important element to the group's friendship is trust. Although Takumi reveals Alaska was the one who ratted out her roommate the year before and Pudge is unsure about trusting Alaska, he agrees to stay on campus with her for the Thanksgiving break. The two spend their time snooping through other students’ rooms, watching porn together, and eating Thanksgiving at the Colonel’s house with his mother.
When the students return from Christmas break, the gang plans their ‘pre-prank’ called Barn Night in which Pudge and Takumi set off a series of fireworks to lead the Eagle away from his house while Alaska send progress reports to some of the Weekday Warriors’ houses. To avoid getting caught, the group sleeps at the Smoking Hole where they discuss the best and worst days of their lives and Pudge gets his first kiss from Lara, despite his unrequited love for Alaska.
The return to campus is a triumphant one, with Pudge, Alaska, and the Colonel drinking while playing Truth or Dare. Pudge is dared to make out with Alaska and he complies, fulfilling his dream to be romantic with Alaska. Drunk and exhausted, Pudge and Alaska fall asleep in her room. Alaska awakens in the middle of the night to answer the ringing phone in the hallway. She returns in an extremely distressed state and begs Pudge and the Colonel to set off additional fireworks to distract the Eagle while she drives off campus.
The following morning, it is revealed that Alaska died in a car accident. Shocked by her death, Pudge and the Colonel stop talking to Takumi and Lara while they sort through their own emotions. With so many unanswered questions surrounding her death, Pudge and the Colonel begin an investigation. Reluctantly they allow Takumi to join and Pudge eventually makes amends with Lara, though they no longer date. After interviewing a police officer and Alaska's boyfriend who had called her that night, Takumi realizes that Alaska remembered it was the day after her mother's death while she was talking to Jake. Feeling responsible for her mother's death and distraught by the idea of having forgotten the day, Alaska attempted to drive to the gravesite. It remains unclear whether Alaska's death was an accident or a suicide. Pudge resolves his feelings for Alaska in his final essay for Dr. Hyde's class.
To commemorate Alaska's love of pranks and hatred of the objectification of the female body, the group decides to execute one last prank at Speaker Day. They invite a stripper pretending to be a professor of adolescent sexuality to speak at Speak Day. In the middle of the speech, Lara prompts the speaker to take off his clothes and begin to strip. The Eagle knows it was Pudge and his friends who hired the stripper but finds it to be a fitting way to remember Alaska.
In the end, Pudge is at peace with Alaska's death, knowing that he will never fully understand her, but that her memory will continue in the people she influenced.
Looking for Alaska Questions and Answers
The Question and Answer section for Looking for Alaska is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
How does the Colonel react to Alaska's death?
The Colonel is devastated by Alaska's death, and he walks forty-two miles before returning to campus two days later.
What are the three parts of the colonels plan
What is Alaska saying here
Alaska, like many addolescents, is looking for her identity. She doesn't want to be defined by where she comes from. Alaska is also a larger than life character. Alaska agrees with Alaska!
Study Guide for Looking for Alaska
Looking for Alaska study guide contains a biography of John Green, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
- About Looking for Alaska
- Character List
Essays for Looking for Alaska
Looking for Alaska essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Looking for Alaska by John Green.
- The Boarding School Microcosm: The Unrealistic Portrayal of “Real Life” in the Institutions of Young Adult Literature
- Looking for Alaska: Self-Destructive Behavior
- The Worst Day: Putting Alaska's Life in Perspective
- Intertextual Study – The Art of Taxidermy and Looking for Alaska / How do the characters of The Art of Taxidermy and your chosen text represent ideas or themes?
- Banned Books’ Explicit Content and Its Impact on Young Adult Readers: An Examination of 'Looking for Alaska'
Lesson Plan for Looking for Alaska
- About the Author
- Study Objectives
- Common Core Standards
- Introduction to Looking for Alaska
- Relationship to Other Books
- Bringing in Technology
- Notes to the Teacher
- Related Links
- Looking for Alaska Bibliography
Wikipedia Entries for Looking for Alaska
- Introduction
Looking for Alaska
by John Green
Looking for Alaska Summary
L ooking for Alaska is a novel by John Green in which shy, unpopular Miles Halter enrolls in Culver Creek Preparatory School and makes new friends.
- Miles quickly befriends his roommate, Chip "The Colonel" Martin. The Colonel gives Miles a nickname: Pudge.
- Pudge and The Colonel befriend Takumi, a talented Japanese rapper; Alaska, a troubled girl whose mother died; and Lara, who starts dating Pudge.
- One night, Pudge, The Colonel, and Alaska get drunk. Alaska dies in a car accident. Pudge suspects it was a suicide, but has no conclusive evidence.
- The friends decide to pull a prank in Alaska's honor.
Extended Summary
Last Updated on October 26, 2018, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 1672
John Green’s Looking For Alaska is a young adult novel in which the narrator, Miles “Pudge” Halter, leaves home to enroll at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama. When the novel begins, Miles’s mother is planning a going-away party for him. In spite of his mother’s efforts, only two kids attend the party, both of them “English nerds” who are socially awkward. Miles’s parents still do not really understand why he has asked to study at a boarding school. His father went to Culver Creek Preparatory School when he was a teenager, but Miles is not hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead, he explains that is has to do with seeking out a “Great Perhaps,” a reference to Francois Rabelais’s dying words. Miles leaves his Florida home and travels to Alabama to attend boarding school.
When he arrives, he is disappointed to learn that there is no air conditioning in the school and the heat is horrendous. However, Miles begins making friends. His first is his roommate, Chip Martin, who is nicknamed “The Colonel.” The Colonel takes in Miles’s skinny build and decides to nickname him “Pudge.” Pudge’s talent is knowing the last words of many famous people. The Colonel is really good at memorizing things, which he immediately demonstrates by listing in alphabetical order the countries whose names start with the letter A . The Colonel is an unusual student at Culver Creek because he comes from a very poor family. He attends only by the grace of his excellent grades, which earn him scholarships. He has Pudge help him move a cheap sofa into their room before they leave to see Alaska Young.
Pudge might not be sure of what he thinks about the Colonel, but he is immediately attracted to Alaska, who is “hot.” She is also humorous, intelligent, and energetic as she explains how one of her friends “honked” her breasts over the summer. She follows this story by mentioning how much she loves her boyfriend, Jake. When she learns that Pudge reads the last words of famous writers and leaders, she shares a quote from Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, The General in His Labyrinth . The general Símon Bolívar’s last words are “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” Alaska explains that the labyrinth could be interpreted as living or dying. Pudge also meets Takumi Hikohito, who is of Japanese descent and is from Birmingham. Takumi loves eating deep fried food at the school’s cafeteria and is also a talented rapper. For the first time, Pudge seems to have friends, though he is still shy to speak in front of them.
Not everything about Culver Creek is easy for Pudge. The classes are very difficult, though Pudge appreciates his world religions class particularly because the teacher, Dr. Hyde, exclusively lectures. However, the real difficult comes when a group of boys—rich “Weekday Warriors”—haze Pudge. They take him outside in just his underpants, use duct tape to “mummify” him, and throw him into the lake. The normal hazing routine does not involve duct tape, and when Alaska and the Colonel find out, they promise to get revenge. Alaska and the Colonel are talented prank artists, though all pranks must be pulled off without alerting Mr. Starnes, or “The Eagle,” who is constantly on the lookout for illicit behavior that will justify expulsion.
It is not until Thanksgiving break, when only Pudge and Alaska stay behind at school, that they discover the way to get revenge. While sneaking into the rooms of their classmates, Alaska discovers that the Weekday Warriors’ secret obsession is their hair. Pudge and Alaska also go out at night and drink wine while reading Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle by the light of the moon. Alaska explains that life is difficult, in part because she loves her boyfriend but there’s a cute boy right next to her. During the day, she recklessly drives Pudge around the local towns. While searching their classmates’ rooms, they also find pornography. Alaska watches the film with Pudge and explains how every aspect of the pornography objectifies women’s bodies. She then falls asleep in Pudge’s lap, explaining that she is tired and not flirting. However, one night Pudge sees the other side of Alaska, which is dark and depressed, and he begins to feel like he should try harder to resist his attraction to Alaska.
Eventually, the promised revenge comes. Each of the pranksters explains to the Eagle that they are going away for the night. Instead, they stay in a nearby barn. Takumi and Pudge set off firecrackers as a diversion to distract the Eagle from the real pranks. Alaska and the Colonel hack into the school’s computer system and change the grades of the Weekday Warriors so their parents will be sent reports about their progress. Finally, a fifth student, Lara Buterskya, sneaks into the rooms of the weekday warriors and puts blue hair dye into their hair products.
The next day, they play a game called “Best Day/Worst Day.” Pudge’s best day is this day. He has found friends and has begun to come out of his shell. The Colonel’s best day has yet to happen, but it will be the day when he is able to buy his mother a beautiful house to replace her tiny trailer. Pudge explains that his worst day was when a classmate urinated on his gym clothes but the gym teacher made him wear them anyway. That was when Pudge
stopped caring what people did. [He] just never cared anymore, about being a loser or not having friends or any of that.
For Alaska, the worst day was when her mother died of an aneurism. When her father came home, he initially asked why she never thought to call an ambulance. Ever since then, Alaska has felt that she ruins things for others. That night, Pudge and Lara make out and she agrees to be his girlfriend.
However, Pudge and Alaska continue to flirt with each other. One night, Alaska and the Colonel stay up late drinking together while Pudge studies. Late in the night, Alaska suggests they play truth or dare, and she dares Pudge to “hook up” with her. They make out on the couch before falling asleep together. In the middle of the night, the pay phone rings and Alaska leaves to answer it. She comes back in, frantic, and demands that Pudge and the Colonel set off firecrackers to distract the Eagle so she can drive off. She is clearly intoxicated, but they agree and then fall asleep, which is how the first part of the book, “Before,” concludes.
The next morning, or “After,” the Eagle wakes up Pudge and the Colonel and tells them to go to the gym. All the students are there. Alaska died the night before in a car accident. A truck jack-knifed in the road and Alaska crashed into a police car. Pudge leaves the gym and begins to throw up. The Colonel screams that he is sorry. Both of them blame themselves for Alaska’s death because they knew she was drunk but they still helped her drive off.
Eventually, they begin to wonder whether Alaska’s death was a suicide. One day, the Eagle asks them to go through Alaska’s room to clean out any contraband that her father would rather not see. When they go to her dorm room, they come across a note in The General in His Labyrinth . Next to “how will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” she has written “Straight & Fast.” Pudge and the Colonel begin to investigate Alaska’s death. They interview the policeman who was there when Alaska died. He did not see her face but reports that her blood-alcohol level was 0.24, which the policeman explains is a “powerful drunk.” On the other hand, she drove straight into the car, which is unusual and suggestive of a suicide. Pudge and the Colonel also consider evidence that does not suggest suicide, such as that she told both her boyfriend and Pudge that she would talk to them again soon.
Pudge and the Colonel learn that this was the anniversary of her mother’s death and that she forgot to put flowers on her mother’s grave that day. They wonder, did she crash into the police car in her rush to reach the graveyard or did she realize that she had failed again and spontaneously chose to drive into the police car?
In the end, Pudge and the Colonel accept that they are not going to find an answer. But they do find plans that Alaska was making for a final prank. Near the end of each school year, each grade invites someone to deliver a speech to the high school for Speaker Day. This year, Pudge and the Colonel manage to hire a male stripper named Maxx. They convince the Eagle that they have invited a psychologist who specializes in adolescent sexuality. In the middle of his speech, Maxx strips to “subvert the patriarchal paradigm.” It is the greatest prank ever pulled at Culver Creek, and even the Eagle is pleased with their memorial to Alaska Young.
The novel ends with an essay Pudge writes for Dr. Hyde’s world religions class. The topic is drawn from Alaska’s last essay for the class; all the students are to discuss how to get out of the labyrinth of suffering. Pudge explains that for a long time, he simply tried to pretend like the labyrinth did not exist. Now he has suffered even more than he did before. However, he is no longer living a “minor life.” Pudge knows that he will slowly forget what Alaska meant to him because everything falls apart eventually, but he thinks the concept of forgiveness allows him to bear the labyrinth. He still believes in the Great Perhaps.
Cite this page as follows:
"Looking for Alaska - Extended Summary" eNotes Publishing Ed. eNotes Editorial. eNotes.com, Inc. eNotes.com 5 Mar. 2023 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/looking-for-alaska#summary-summary>
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Last Updated on January 11, 2022, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 1019
Author: John Green (b. 1977)
First published: 2005
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Realism
Time of plot: Early twenty-first century
Locale: Alabama
Principal characters
Miles “Pudge” Halter , a high school junior
Alaska Young , Pudge's friend and love interest
Chip “The Colonel” Martin , Alaska's friend and Pudge's roommate
Lara Buterskaya , their friend
Takumi Hikohito , their friend
Divided into sections with countdown headings starting at “one hundred and thirty-six days before,” the first half of Looking for Alaska begins when high school junior Miles Halter transfers to Culver Creek Preparatory School, a boarding school outside of Birmingham, Alabama, in order to shake up his heretofore dull life. His new roommate, Chip “the Colonel” Martin, gives the slender Miles the nickname “Pudge,” and introduces him to his closest friends, Alaska and Takumi. Pudge is immediately drawn to the attractive, vibrant Alaska, who smokes constantly in violation of school rules and spends her time dreaming up elaborate pranks.
Within his first week, a group of students “kidnap” Pudge during the night, bind him with duct tape, and throw him in a lake. The Colonel is outraged and vows revenge against these “Weekend Warriors,” or wealthy local students who go home every weekend. Thrilled to have close friends for the first time, Pudge begins hanging out and smoking with Alaska, the Colonel, and Takumi on a regular basis. Alaska also introduces Pudge to Lara, a Romanian immigrant and fellow student whom Pudge tentatively begins to date.
As Pudge settles into school, his narrative continues to count down to the unspecified event. He learns that Alaska is often inconsiderate and moody, and has a boyfriend named Jake who is not at the school, but Pudge still hopes that Alaska will eventually become romantically interested in him. He is thrilled when Alaska urges him to spend Thanksgiving vacation at the school instead of going home, and the pair pass the time drinking cheap bottled wine and snooping through their classmates' dorm rooms. Their shared isolation and camaraderie makes Pudge feel he knows Alaska more intimately than anyone else.
Shortly after Christmas vacation, the friends spend the night in the woods during an elaborate prank, sharing personal stories of the best and worst days of their lives. Pudge learns that Alaska's mother died when Alaska was eight years old, and that Alaska blames herself for not realizing she should call 911. Two days later, Pudge and Alaska end up kissing after they and the Colonel get very drunk. They fall asleep before anything else happens, but Alaska is awakened by a phone call. She becomes hysterical and insists that Pudge and the Colonel help her sneak off campus, although she will not tell them why.
In the second half of the book, which is titled “After” and has section headings that are now counting away from the pivotal event instead of toward it, the reader learns that Alaska died that night when she drove her car at high speed into a police car. Pudge and the Colonel are consumed with guilt for not only letting Alaska drive in a highly impaired state but also helping her sneak off campus in the first place. The guilt increases when they realize that Alaska may have committed suicide by deliberately not swerving to avoid the police car.
Alternating between grief and anger, Pudge and the Colonel are determined to reconstruct Alaska's state of mind that night. Over time, they learn that Alaska was hysterical because she suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to put flowers on her mother's grave that day, which was the anniversary of her death. Even so, Pudge and the Colonel cannot definitively conclude whether Alaska's death was accidental or deliberate, and Pudge realizes that he will have to find closure regardless.
Critical Evaluation
Much of this debut novel's success lies in Pudge's thoughtful introspection. Unlike most of his classmates, he particularly enjoys a comparative religion class because the teacher poses interesting questions that make Pudge reflect on what is happening in his own life. Similarly, Pudge has a hobby of memorizing the last words of famous people throughout history. Both the religion class and Pudge's fondness for last words direct his feelings as he first tries to analyze Alaska's motives and then concludes that a lack of definitive answers does not have to define his memories of her.
Another noteworthy aspect of this novel is its authentic portrayal of the characters, due in part to the fact that they are loosely based on Green himself and on people he knew at the Alabama boarding school he attended, where a similar tragedy occurred during the time Green was there. The characters' sometimes swaggering bravado and their tendency to place disproportionate significance on the success or failure of their pranks feel very true to life.
Finally, the “before” and “after” structure of the novel is particularly effective in building suspense and engaging the reader, who does not know the nature of the impending event for the entire first half of the book. Because Pudge tells the story in retrospect, he knows but does not reveal to the reader what is to happen, and the author manages to make this structure seem natural rather than contrived. Similarly, the development of events in the second half of the book mirror the natural process of grief that Pudge experiences. Combined, these elements create a memorable and moving narrative, and the book was awarded the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award by the American Library Association.
Further Reading
- “Last Words from a First Novelist.” Booklist 101.13 (2005): 1181. Literary Reference Center . Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
- <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=16472894&site=lrc-live>.
- Lewis, Johanna, et al. Rev. of Looking for Alaska , by John Green. School Library Journal 51.2 (2005): 136. Literary Reference Center . Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
- <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=16010621&site=lrc-live>.
- Sieruta, Peter D. Rev. of Looking for Alaska , by John Green. Horn Book Magazine 81.2 (2005): 201–202. Literary Reference Center . Web. 24 Apr. 2015.
- <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=16096071&site=lrc-live>.
"Looking for Alaska - Summary" Critical Survey of Young Adult Literature: Plot Summaries 2016 eNotes.com, Inc. 2016 eNotes.com 5 Mar. 2023 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/looking-for-alaska#summary-summary-517903>
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Looking for Alaska
221 pages, Paperback
First published March 3, 2005
About the author
Ratings & Reviews
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Community reviews.
I finally understood that day at the Jury: Alaska wanted to show us we could trust her. Survival at Culver Creek meant loyalty, and she had ignored that. But then she'd shown me the way. She and the Colonel had taken the fall for me to show me how it was done, so I would know what to do when the time came
The Colonel let go of my sweater and I reached down and picked up the cigarettes. Not screaming, not through clenched teeth, not with the veins pulsing in my forehead, but calmly. Calmly. I looked down at the Colonel and said, "F— you."
"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."
"So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane."
“Sometimes I don't get you,' I said. She didn't even glance at me. She just smiled toward the television and said, 'You never get me. That's the whole point.”
“What the hell is that?" I laughed. "It's my fox hat." "Your fox hat?" "Yeah, Pudge. My fox hat." "Why are you wearing your fox hat?" I asked. "Because no one can catch the motherfucking fox.”
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Looking for Alaska
Read our complete notes on the novel “Looking for Alaska” by John Green. Our notes cover Looking for Alaska summary, themes, and critical analysis.
Introduction
Background of the novel.
His father concurred, and he moved to secondary school at Indian Springs School shaping important associations with instructors and friends. Green’s involvement with life experience roused him to compose Looking for Alaska. A large number of the characters and occasions that occur in the novel depend on what Green experienced at Indian Springs, remembering the death of a focal character for the novel.
Looking for Alaska Summary
In his first few days, Dr. Hyde asks Pudge to leave his class because he is daydreaming and not concentrating on studies. Alaska stands for Pudge and defends him but she, too, is asked to leave the class. This gives Pudge a new sort of excitement and he starts to spend more time with the Colonel, Alaska and other friends on smoking spots.
The following morning they wake up. They feel the hangover but they move towards the dormitories. The next semester starts. Pudge and Lara develop their relationship. Colonel and Pudge go to Alaska’s room and drink heavily. After drinking, they play games together. After the game, Pudge falls asleep next to Alaska. In the middle of the night, Alaska gets a phone call and she answers it but it makes her uncomfortable. She requests Colonel and Pudge to help her so that she could go out of the campus. They do not ask her any reason or explanation. They set the firework and distract the guards. In the meanwhile, Alaska drives out of the campus.
Themes in Looking for Alaska
Way of life and death, desires versus reality.
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Pursuit of the Great Perhaps
Similarly to the secretive structure of Looking for Alaska makes the novel interesting, mystery is a charming piece of Miles’ life. At the book’s start, Miles chooses to shift to Alabama to look for his “Great Perhaps.” He is amped up for the mystery that anticipates him, and he quickly gets fixated on getting Alaska, who herself is a mystery. In any case, while Alaska’s dynamic development of a baffling air makes her fascinating to other people, she suffers as a result of it.
Looking for Alaska Characters Analysis
Miles halter, chip martin.
Chip Martin is known as the Colonel. He is the roommate of Miles at the new school. He becomes a confident and trustworthy friend of Miles. He takes interest in playing pranks with others. He belongs to a poor class family and lives in a trailer. He does not have a home and it is his biggest dream to have a home for his lonely mother as his father has abandoned his mother.
Alaska Young
Takumi hikohito.
He is a very good friend of Miles in the Indian Spring School. He is a very talented rapper. He also takes interest in Pranks. Though he remains in good friendship with Miles and the Colonel yet they leave him outside while they start investigating the death of Alaska. But later on, it is Takumi who finds the real reason for her death.
Lara Buterskaya
Mr. starness, looking for alaska literary analysis, the chapter titles.
This novel is narrated by Miles and it is written in two parts. Instead of the regular numerical framework, every section is meant through the number of days before the death of Alaska or the number of days after. The beginning of this structure comes about because of John Green’s impact of open responses to the occasions of September 11, 2001. In a meeting with Random House Publishing, Green reviews that anchorpersons express that individuals would now see the world through the perspective of either previously or after 9/11.
Alaska: A Victim of Depression
Researchers are at present taking a shot at strategies to enhance the treatment and dealing of depression. Maybe one day the length of treatment will be abbreviated from weeks and years to hours in the expectation of forestalling further suicides. There is still a lot to be investigated; however understanding depression in youths stays one of science’s top needs.
Quest for meaning of life
Death of alaska.
The whole novel is set around Alaska`s death. Section one of the novel is designated “before Alaska’s death, and section two is classified “after”, as in after the passing of Alaska. The passages are not set apart by dates, yet in the number of days comparable to the death of Alaska, for instance, when Miles depicts smoking his first cigarette that is “one hundred and twenty-eight days before” the demise of Alaska, not a month, day, and year.
Obviously Alaska is likewise not sincerely steady, and considerably more so considering the way that she is drunk at the hour of death of her mother. She says to Pudge that he should comprehend that she is a profoundly troubled individual. She is entangled in her maze of anguish. The Colonel likewise contends that the car of police she collides with has its lights on, and she is calm enough to see them and swerved, considering she is calm enough to make out with Pudge. Nonetheless, she never hit the brakes.
The Labyrinth
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Looking for Alaska Summary
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Miles Halter is tired of his predictable and friendless life (check out the going-away party for him at the beginning of the book), so he decides to attend Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama for his junior year of high school. He tells his parents that he's going to seek a Great Perhaps, that there's something more for him.
And there is. The story is split in two parts: before and after.
Miles meets the Colonel (real name Chip Martin), Takumi, and Alaska Young. The Colonel grew up in a trailer park, Alaska and her dad don't get along (mystery alert), and Takumi is just kind of there for a while. The three take Miles (nicknamed Pudge because he's so skinny) under their wing and introduce him to the social order of campus, mischief-making, smoking cigarettes, and drinking. They have to avoid the Eagle—the aptly-named dean of the school—when they're creating mischief so they don't get brought before a peer jury and appropriately punished.
Miles's favorite class is religious studies, taught by an old man nicknamed… the Old Man. He lectures all the time and makes Miles think about religion, philosophy, and life, and Miles loves it. Alaska doesn't.
After Miles is hazed pretty hard by the Weekday Warriors (students who stay only during the week at the boarding school), his new friends vow to help him return the favor. Miles meets Lara, and goes on a triple date with her, the Colonel and his pseudo-girlfriend Sara, and Alaska and her college-aged boyfriend Jake. The date ends with Miles getting a concussion from a basketball and ralphing on Lara's shoes. Also, the date doesn't really mean anything, because Miles is well on his way to falling in love? lust? some combination? with Alaska.
Time passes and Miles continues his involvement in shenanigans and obsessing about Alaska. He stays on campus for Thanksgiving to try to get with her, but all he gets for his trouble is a sense of homesickness and confusion. Miles, the Colonel, Takumi, Alaska, and Lara pull an epic prank on both the Eagle and the Weekday Warriors that involves blue hair dye and fake progress reports, and during their hideout, all the friends find out that Alaska's mom died of an aneurysm right in front of Alaska when Alaska was eight… which explains a lot about Alaska.
A couple nights later, Miles and the Colonel and Alaska are hanging out in Alaska's room. Both the Colonel and Alaska are drinking to celebrate the epic prank, but Miles isn't. Alaska and Miles make out a little (dream come true moment for Miles), but then Alaska gets a phone call from her boyfriend Jake because it's their eight-month anniversary. Ooh—drama . Then she freaks out and leaves campus in her car. Miles and the Colonel help her go by setting off fireworks on the Eagle's porch.
All students are called to the gym the following morning for an announcement. The Eagle says that Alaska has died in a horrible car crash. Emotional train wreck ensues for all students… but especially for Miles and the Colonel.
The Colonel and Miles are consumed with guilt. They flail about with each other, in classes, and with their other friends because they are caught up in how Alaska died, their culpability, and whether or not she committed suicide.
The two friends try to unravel the mystery: they go to talk to the officer whose car Alaska hit, they steal a Breathalyzer from the Eagle's house to figure out how drunk Alaska actually was, and they talk to Alaska's ex-boyfriend, Jake. In the midst of this, they ignore both Takumi and Lara (she and Miles dated for like, a day). And at the same time, Miles is trying to come to grips with who Alaska was and who he wanted her to be.
Then Miles and the Colonel, with Takumi and Lara (who have forgiven them for their single-minded grief), plan the most epic prank ever seen by Culver Creek Boarding School. It involves a class speaker, a stripper, and a lie told by Miles's father. Dedicated to the memory of Alaska, it is a huge success.
Life marches on. Eventually Miles and the Colonel come to terms with their loss and grief and give up on the mystery of Alaska; then they throw themselves into their studies. The Old Man assigns a final exam essay that asks how each student personally gets out of their own labyrinth of suffering. Miles, finally , has some answers for the question and writes about them in his final exam, thus writing himself out of his own labyrinth of suffering about Alaska.
- Introduction
- Intimacy, Sex, and Love
- Lies and Deceit
- Life, Consciousness, and Existence
- Rules and Order
- Miles Halter
- Alaska Young
- Chip "The Colonel" Martin
- Takumi Hikohito
- Lara Buterskaya
- Minor Characters
- What's Up With the Title?
- What's Up With the Ending?
- Tough-o-Meter
- Writing Style
- White Flowers
- Names and Nicknames
- The Labyrinth
- Cigarettes and the Smoking Hole
- Narrator Point of View
- Plot Analysis
- For Teachers
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Looking for Alaska
Everything you need for every book you read., miles halter, chip martin (the colonel), alaska young, takumi hikohito, mr. starnes (the eagle).
Dr. Hyde (The Old Man)
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Looking for alaska.
Common Sense says
Teens process tragic loss in thought-provoking novel.
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Based on 48 reviews
Based on 215 reviews
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What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that John Green's Looking for Alaska won the Michael J. Printz Award and many other literary awards. It's the story of a group of fun-loving, rule-breaking teens who are rocked by a tragedy and must process the grief and loss. There's lots of sex (descriptions of heavy kissing, oral sex, groping, references to masturbation, erections, making out, watching pornography), drinking, strong language (including "s--t" and f--k"), and smoking, including of marijuana, but nothing is gratuitous or glamorized. It all illuminates character and theme. This award-winning book is considered a modern classic and is on many high school reading lists. It can help both teachers and parents talk about loss, friendship, and the importance of self-discovery.
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- Parents say (48)
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Everyone should read this!
Report this review, it's really not as shocking as people think it is.
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What's the Story?
In LOOKING FOR ALASKA, Miles, tired of his friendless, dull life in Florida, convinces his parents to send him away to boarding school in Alabama so that he can seek "the Great Perhaps." There he meets his roommate and soon-to-be best friend, Chip, called the Colonel, and Alaska Young, the moody, gorgeous, wild girl who instantly becomes the object of his lust. Miles is quickly enlisted in their war against the Weekday Warriors, the rich kids who go home every weekend, and they bond over elaborate pranks, studying, and assorted rule-breaking. About halfway through the book a tragedy occurs, and those left spend the rest of the book trying to make sense of it, to solve the mystery it leaves behind, and to pull off one last, greatest-ever prank.
Is It Any Good?
This coming-of-age novel is gorgeously written, passionate, hilarious, moving, thought-provoking, character-driven, and literary. It deserves all the awards it's won. The characters may often behave badly, but they are vividly real, complex, and beautifully drawn -- and their stories can help readers start dealing with some big topics, like self-discovery and loss. Looking for Alaska is a hard one to put down. Since new chapters don't start on new pages, there's always a temptation to read just a little bit further. For the first half at least, readers will be grinning all the way -- and in the end, they will be moved, maybe even to tears.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the mature content iin Looking for Alaska, including a frank sex scene. Do you think including it was essential to the story? What does it tell readers about the characters?
What does Miles mean when he goes off to boarding school in search of what 16th-century French author Francois Rabelais called "the Great Perhaps"? Do we all need to go on a similar search to discover ourselves?
Why do you think Looking for Alaska has often turned up on the American Library Association's Most Frequently Challenged book list? Why do you think it remains so popular with teens years after it was originally published?
Book Details
- Author : John Green
- Genre : Coming of Age
- Topics : Friendship , High School
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Dutton Children's Books
- Publication date : February 5, 2006
- Number of pages : 221
- Last updated : March 3, 2020
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Looking for Alaska | Summary, Book Review, Quotes [PDF]
Looking for Alaska Book Review
Table of Contents
Looking for Alaska is a very popular Teenage Romance by a famous America Novelist, John Green .
Miles Halter , the protagonist of the story lives in Florida. He is not a social person and is in search of his “Great Perhaps”. He has a fascination with peoples’ final words before death and is obsessed with studying. He begs his parents to send him to Culver Creek because he knows that he does not fit in at the high school in his hometown.
There he makes his first friend Chip, known as “the Colonel” by all. He nicknamed Miles as “Pudge” and called him with the same name throughout the book. The Colonel introduces him to his friend, Alaska, who was a fierce and mysterious girl. Miles instantly falls in love with her. The book turns out to be a High School Romance. All of them are then involves in various pranks and mis-happenings.
The Before part is filled with a lot of high school events, the building of relations, the pranks that student plays and all . Yes, the typical high-school environment has been explained. There’s a lot of talking, drinking, smoking, lusting after a girl that doesn’t want you back, and so on.
The After part describes what happens after that tragic event , how the truth unfolds and how the lives of everyone involved changes. The Before part is kind of happier while the After is the one with lots of sorrow and heartbreak.
It is a gripping tale. It is not a typical boy-meets-girl-falls-in-love-then-separate kind of story. It is a tale of true friendship, the effect of love, the longing for survival, the void in a relationship.
This coming-of-age novel is gorgeously written, passionate, hilarious, moving, thought-provoking, character-driven, and literary. It deserves all the awards it’s won. The characters may often behave badly, but they are vividly real, complex, and beautifully drawn — and their stories can help readers start dealing with some big topics, like self-discovery and loss. Looking for Alaska is a hard one to put down. Since new chapters don’t start on new pages, there’s always a temptation to read just a little bit further. For the first half at least, readers will be grinning all the way — and in the end, they will be moved, maybe even to tears.
Sure enough, I would recommend you “Go for it!” “ Looking for Alaska ” will amaze you with what it has to offer.
Looking for Alaska Book Summary
Looking for Alaska is described by a sixteen-year-old kid, Miles Halter, who abandons his ordinary life in Florida to go to a life experience school called Culver Creek. He is motivated by histories enumerating the experiences of outstanding figures during their days at live-in school. The most of all, he is propelled by the thought of a “Great Perhaps”. Miles has an interest with renowned final words, and especially with the final expressions of the artist Francois Rabelais: “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.” This thus gives the main impetus to Miles’ endeavor to fashion another life.
Miles comfortable adjusts himself at Culver Creek and becomes good friends with his roommate, Chip, and becomes good friends with his roommate, Chip, whose leadership and planning skills have earned him the nickname “the Colonel.” He additionally gets captivated by one of the Colonel’s dear companions, Alaska, who is lovely, coy, and cryptic. While Alaska discovers Miles “adorable,” she as of now has a sweetheart and consequently willingly volunteers to set Miles up with a young lady named Lara. Be that as it may, while Lara is sweet, Miles is significantly more attracted to Alaska.
Over the passage of time, Alaska shows herself to be moody and emotionally volatile. Most frustratingly, she will not clarify the purpose behind these state of mind shifts, however she makes enigmatic references to her uncouthness and cases that she has no home. Miles gets irritated and reveals to Alaska that he once in a while battles to get her. Her response is that he has fallen in love with an idealized image and that he only likes her fun, vivacious side.
Alaska is intrigued by the concept of “the labyrinth,” as featured in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s The General in His Labyrinth. This book concerns the last days of the military chief Simon Bolivar, whose final words are referred to as “ “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” Alaska initially wonders whether the labyrinth refers to life or death, however she at last concludes that it alludes to anguish. In her eyes, life is described by anguish.
Alaska is inclined to thinking about existential issues, and attending a class titled World Religions encourages Miles to muse upon similar topics. He is in awe of the teacher, Dr. Hyde, who prompts him to take religion seriously for the first time, and he takes a particular interest in Buddhist concepts. When the students are asked to formulate an essay topic, Miles chooses to address the question, “What happens to people after they die?” He initially has only vague ideas, and he feels that people cling to the idea of an afterlife due to fear of the alternative.
Reality with regards to Alaska rises when she induces a drinking game, which requires every member to depict the best and most exceedingly awful days of their life. We become familiar with some noteworthy info during this part of the novel, yet Alaska’s own reaction is the most enlightening. She classes the greatest day of her life as the day that her mom went with her on a school outing to the zoo, while her most exceedingly terrible day was the following day, when her mom passed on of an aneurysm. In addition to the fact that this was upsetting for Alaska, she had been distant from everyone else with her mom when it occurred and was incapacitated with dread. She therefore neglected to call 911, and she has been tormented by blame from that point forward.
Despite being in a relationship, Alaska kisses Miles one evening as part of a game of truth or dare, and Miles feels the impulse to tell Alaska that he loves her. However, Alaska leaves to answer a phone call only to return in a state of hysteria. She will not say what is wrong, but she insists that she has to leave the campus. Though she is drunk and panic-stricken, she is so insistent that Miles and the Colonel let her go.
The following day, it is uncovered that Alaska has died in a car crash, and Miles and the Colonel feel devastated and culpable. Hoping to gain some insight into what happened, they sketch out a plausible train of events. It would seem that Alaska had been drawing a picture of a flower while talking to her boyfriend on the phone and this led her to remember her parents putting white flowers in her hair when she was a child. This at that point achieved the acknowledgment that she had overlooked the commemoration of her mom’s passing. This prompted her furious takeoff from the grounds, with her goal probably being to put blossoms on her mom’s grave (white tulips were found in her vehicle). Notwithstanding, it stays a puzzle whether her passing was unplanned or whether she settled on a very late choice to end it all.
Having learnt all that they can about Alaska’s death, Miles and his friends attempt to move on with their lives. Still, Dr. Hyde leaves Alaska’s question—“How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?” (158)—on the blackboard for the students to ponder. Both Miles and the Colonel agree that life is marred by suffering, but the Colonel would rather stay in this “labyrinth” than depart in the same manner as Alaska. As for Miles, he believes that forgiveness is the only way out. It is easy to become plagued by guilt and recrimination, and Alaska had let her guilt destroy her. Miles could do likewise, but he regards Alaska as a cautionary tale.
- Salman Rushdie Midnight’s Children Book Review Free [PDF]
Miles has now finished his own World Religions essay, and he no longer feels that death is the end. He believes that energy can manifest itself in different forms but can never be destroyed. He consequently imagines that Alaska is out there somewhere, and he hopes that this somewhere is beautiful.
5 Best Looking for Alaska Quotes
1 “The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.” 2. “Thomas Edison’s last words were “It’s very beautiful over there”. I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful.” 3. “I may die young, but at least I’ll die smart.” 4. “What you must understand about me is that I’m a deeply unhappy person.” 5. “I just did some calculations and I’ve been able to determine that you’re full of shit.”
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- Looking for Alaska
Looking for Alaska Short Summary
- Date: Jul 24, 2019
- Category: Looking for Alaska
- Topic: Looking for Alaska Summaries
- Downloads: 12
The novel, written by John Green gives the experiences of Miles Halter as a first-year student attending a private school. His mother organizes a send-off party for him though it is poorly attended. Miles explains to his mother that his decision to go to a boarding school is purely to have a better life experience.
At the school, Miles meets his first friends: Chip and Alaska. They introduce Miles to how things operate in their school. The Weekend Warriors, a group made of rich kids amaze Miles. Chip believes there is something sinister about the group.
Miles find the topic on Worlds Religions amazing to him. Dr. Hyde teaches the subject. The Weekend Warriors are also rivaling with those who are full-time boarders. Besides Chip and Alaska, Miles makes new friends such as Takuma, a Japanese, and Lara, a Rumanian.
Chip and Alaska want to take revenge on the Weekend Warriors but needs help from Miles. Lara and Takuma. The five agreed to hide and wait for their target to appear. They get drunk and reveal many secrets about themselves. Lara and Miles act as girlfriend/boyfriend.
Miles visits Chip’s family during Christmas and notices that their friendship is way beyond just going to school. Mile’s friendship with Alaska also grows stronger just as his love for Hyde’s lessons. Miles and Alaska almost have sex during a celebration that took place in Alaska’s dorm. However, they were interrupted by a phone call.
Alaska later dies in an accident. Miles and Chip feel guilty because of her death. During that period, the friendship between the four remaining friends almost break. However, they make up. The class does a test on looking at Alaska’s death from a philosophical point of view. Miles later come to terms with the death.
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Looking for alaska book summary, by john green.
Want to learn the ideas in Looking For Alaska better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of Looking For Alaska by John Green here.
Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.
Video Summaries of Looking For Alaska
We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on Looking For Alaska, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by John Green.
1-Page Summary of Looking For Alaska
Overall summary.
A teenager leaves behind his mundane life in Florida to attend a boarding school called Culver Creek. He is inspired by biographies of notable figures who attended boarding schools, and he wants to experience the “Great Perhaps”. In other words, he’s motivated by the notion that something great may happen at this new school.
Miles settles in quickly at Culver Creek and becomes good friends with his roommate, Chip. Chip’s leadership skills have earned him the nickname “the Colonel.” Miles also becomes infatuated with one of the Colonel’s close friends, Alaska. She finds Miles cute but already has a boyfriend so she sets up Miles with another girl named Lara. However, while Lara is sweet, Miles is much more drawn to Alaska.
Alaska becomes moody and emotionally unstable over time. She claims that she has no home, but refuses to explain why. Miles gets frustrated by this because he tells her that he doesn’t understand her behavior. Alaska responds by saying that Miles only likes the fun side of her personality and not who she really is, which upsets him even more.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book, The General in His Labyrinth, is about the final days of Simon Bolivar. In his last moments, he said that he was lost in a labyrinth. Alaska wonders whether this refers to life or death, but she finally decides that it refers to suffering because life is characterized by suffering for her.
Miles is a thoughtful person, and he likes to think about existential questions. He’s in awe of his college professor because she makes him think about religion for the first time. He decides to write an essay on what happens after people die due to fear that there is no afterlife.
In the novel, “An Abundance of Katherines”, by John Green, Alaska leads a game in which each person has to describe their best and worst days. In this section of the book, we learn some significant information about Alaska’s life. She describes her best day as when she was at school with her mother on a field trip to the zoo. Her worst day was after that one because it was when her mother died from an aneurysm. This left Alaska feeling alone and scared and guilty for not calling 911 right away so that she could be there for her mom while she passed away.
Alaska is in a relationship with Miles, but she kisses him one night. The Colonel and Miles let her go because they are drunk and Alaska seems hysterical.
The next day, it is revealed that Alaska has died in a car crash. Miles and the Colonel feel guilty about this because they were supposed to be looking after her. In order to understand what happened, they create a story of how things could have unfolded based on evidence from the scene (white tulips found in her car). They conclude that she must have been remembering something related to her mother’s death when she left campus. She most likely went home intending to visit her mother’s grave but ended up dying in an accident instead.
Miles and his friends learn all they can about Alaska’s death. Still, Dr. Hyde leaves Alaska’s question on the blackboard for them to think about: “How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?” Miles and Colonel find that life is marred by suffering but prefer staying in it than departing like Alaska did. For Miles, forgiveness is the only way out. He could succumb to guilt and recrimination, but he regards Alaska as a cautionary tale.
Miles now knows that even though someone dies, their energy cannot be completely destroyed. Therefore, he imagines that Alaska was reborn as a baby somewhere and is living happily there.
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Looking for Alaska
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps. Green was awarded the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award for Looking for Alaska. It is taught in many high school and college curricula and has been published in over 30 languages. A special 10th Anniversary edition of Looking for Alaska was released in 2015.
You can buy Looking for Alaska from your favorite retailer via the Penguin portal .
If you’ve read the book and are completely prepared for spoilers, visit the looking for alaska questions page for much, much more information on the book..
Winner, 2006 Michael L. Printz Award
Finalist, 2005 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
2006 Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults
2006 Teens’ Top 10 Award
2006 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
A Booklist Editor’s Choice Pick
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection
Borders Original Voices Selection
Reviews (Spoiler Alert!)
“green…has a writer’s voice, so self-assured and honest that one is startled to learn that this novel is his first. the anticipated favorable comparisons to holden caufield are richly deserved in this highly recommended addition to young adult literature.”, ★“like phineas in john knowles’ “a separate peace,” green draws alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends.”, — school library journal, starred review, “the spirit of holden caulfield lives on.”.
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‘Looking For Alaska’ Review: The Throwback Teen Drama the Genre Needs
The adaptation of john green's book fits teen drama auteurs josh schwartz and stephanie savage like a glove..
LaToya Ferguson
Oct 18, 2019 7:00 pm
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“Looking For Alaska”
Alfonso Bresciani/Hulu
Based on the 2005 John Green novel of the same name, “ Looking For Alaska ” was made to be adapted for television by Josh Schwartz . In fact, in 2005, it was set to be adapted by him as a feature film; but even after writing a screenplay that Green reportedly loved, the movie remained in development hell, with constant delays for years. Then in May 2018, it was announced that Schwartz would be writing the eight-episode limited series for Hulu , executive producing alongside his Fake Empire partner and longtime collaborator Stephanie Savage .
Now it’s finally here, and despite the story originally being written by someone else entirely, “Looking For Alaska” fits Schwarz and Savage like a glove. This is far from the duo’s first adaptation—“Gossip Girl,” “The Carrie Diaries,” and Marvel’s “Runaways” all exist—but it is impressive just how much the source material and the finished product makes it feel like their own creation. “Looking For Alaska” is a story that fits right into Schwartz and Savage’s teen drama ethos.
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“Looking For Alaska” tells the story of Miles “Pudge” Halter (Charlie Plummer), a teenage boy from Orlando who is obsessed with famous last words and has become consumed by his desire to seek “the Great Perhaps,” a concept inspired by the last words of poet Francois Rabelais. This desire sends him aways to his father’s alma mater, Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama, to find something less boring and safe than the life he’s always lived. He immediately gets his wish for excitement upon meeting his roommate, Chip “The Colonel” Martin (Denny Love), who introduces him to his new world—and the class feud against the privileged rich kids at school, known as the Weekday Warriors—which includes his laidback friend Takumi Hikohito (Jay Lee) and the third-wave feminist and whirlwind that is Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth).
In the grand Dawsonian (as in, “Dawson’s Creek”) legacy of teen drama characters, there is a lot of dialogue in “Looking For Alaska” that is bound to make you say “That’s not how teenagers talk.” On top of that, they also talk a lot—perhaps too much—until the moment before the series’ major tragedy, the moment where words could have possibly saved their friend from going off into the night. It’s an affectation that falls in line with the concept that makes “Looking For Alaska” work as well as it does (both as a story and as a miniseries): “Looking For Alaska” realizes that, for a teen, every single action and choice is the most important, life-altering action and choice you can make.
The series’ backdrop also allows Schwartz—by way of his regular music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas—to return to a place he knows very well: the defining music of the aughts. The soundtrack for “Looking For Alaska” is a mix of era-popular songs—like J-Kwon’s “Tipsy,” The Darkness’s “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” and a novelty dance song that provides such an amazing moment to witness that you shouldn’t have it ruined for you—and the indie rock heavy original soundtracks of Schwartz’s three biggest shows of the era, “The O.C.,” “Chuck”, and “Gossip Girl”. For an audience that grew up with those shows, “Looking For Alaska” creates the perfect wave of nostalgia, one that will send those memories flooding back to that time when everything was life and death and your very being was defined by things like your love of specific music or book or art.
As a result, “Looking For Alaska” functions well as a series for both a contemporary teen audience and an audience that would’ve been teens when these characters were. While the 2005 setting is subtly recognizable—relying more on things like casual puka shells and Takumi’s entire look than obvious trucker hats and Juicy sweatsuits—it’s also not so unrecognizable to teen audiences now. The story should also be universal to anyone who has ever had a teenage experience and to anyone who has longed for something more, especially given your circumstances in life.
“O.C.” diehards, especially, will and should gravitate to this series not just because of the music but because “Looking For Alaska” is also a love letter to Schwartz’s first and arguably most important series. Schwartz even recreates one of the most iconic shots of “The O.C.”— Ryan in the passenger seat of a car on his way to Chino, passing Marissa, from the pilot, and then the Season 1 finale—for Alaska and Miles, even though Miles is really more of a Seth Cohen (with his starter packs and awkwardness during the very 2005-specific “group hang”) than a Ryan Atwood.
Alaska, on the other hand, is a complete Marissa Cooper—only without the weakness that would otherwise imply. Plummer captures the milquetoast nature of the character (both the funny and frustrating aspects of that), while also finding a way to make your heart break for him. In fact, it’s impossible for your heart not to break for pretty much all of the characters on this show at this point—besides maybe the Weekday Warriors—even Mr. Starnes (Timothy Simons), aka “The Eagle.”“The Eagle” truly encapsulates to the teen perspective of this series, as these characters find him extremely intimidating, despite there being nothing really intimidating about Simons in a post-”Veep” world or the character itself. It almost feels like the one misstep in casting at first, until you realize the latter.
For the sheer amount of teen dramas that still exist during this era of “Too Much TV,” the staggering lack of straightforward, earnest teen dramas truly sticks out. Especially with every new announcement of reinventions on a classic ( “Clueless,” which already had an underrated TV adaptation; “Gossip Girl” ) or the concept of a classic that’s inspired so many now-successful successors that it has to crib from those successors to survive in this television climate (Schwartz and Savage’s “Nancy Drew” ).
It seems that nearly every teen drama now has to have a larger-than-life twist, whether it’s murder mysteries, supernatural abilities, a Lynchian nightmare, or in “Riverdale’s” case, all of the above. Yes, there is a death in “Looking For Alaska”, and the characters try to make sense of it, but it is not a mystery series. Even the mystery of who the rat was is not truly central to what the full story is and what makes this series work. “Looking For Alaska” is your standard, tried and true, coming-of-age story. And for that, it stands out from the rest.
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This Article is related to: Television and tagged Hulu , Josh Schwartz , Looking For Alaska , Stephanie Savage , TV Reviews
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Summary Full Book Summary Looking for Alaska tells the story of Miles "Pudge" Halter, a high school junior who divides his life into time before and time after a life-changing event that the reader will not discover until later in the novel. Miles plans to attend the Culver Creek boarding school for his junior year of high school.
Looking for Alaska Summary Next 1. One Hundred Thirty-Six Days Before The book begins with Miles Halter leaving his home in Florida to attend the Culver Creek boarding school in Birmingham, AL. Miles arrives at the school as a smart but lonely junior, and he is determined "to seek a Great Perhaps."
Looking for Alaska is narrated by a sixteen-year-old boy, Miles Halter, who leaves behind his mundane life in Florida to attend a boarding school called Culver Creek. He is inspired by biographies detailing the adventures of notable figures during their days at boarding school. Most of all, he is motivated by the notion of a "Great Perhaps".
Published in 2005, Looking for Alaska is best-selling author John Green's first novel. This coming-of-age story is set at a boarding school in Alabama and is loosely based on Green's own experiences at a southern boarding school. Told in the first person from the perspective of a student named Miles, the story centers around one school year ...
The return to campus is a triumphant one, with Pudge, Alaska, and the Colonel drinking while playing Truth or Dare. Pudge is dared to make out with Alaska and he complies, fulfilling his dream to be romantic with Alaska. Drunk and exhausted, Pudge and Alaska fall asleep in her room.
Looking for Alaska is a novel that exposes readers to the interpersonal relationships between the youth and adult characters in the novel. Green presents specific adult characters, like The Eagle who is the dean of students, whose main focus is to eliminate the rebellious tendencies of various students. [24]
John Green's Looking For Alaska is a young adult novel in which the narrator, Miles "Pudge" Halter, leaves home to enroll at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama. When the novel begins,...
Looking for Alaska John Green 3.98 1,468,392 ratings69,710 reviews Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave "the Great Perhaps" even more (Francois Rabelais, poet).
Looking for Alaska Summary Chapter 1 It is the end of the summer season. The parents of Miles Halter are arranging a going away party for him. His parents are very much aware of the social status of the family and expect that not many people would attend the party. The party is attended by only two people.
Looking for Alaska Summary Miles Halter is tired of his predictable and friendless life (check out the going-away party for him at the beginning of the book), so he decides to attend Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama for his junior year of high school.
Alaska is Miles ' love interest at Culver Creek. She is smart and loves quoting poetry, but she can also be moody and unpredictable. Alaska loves sex, smoking, drinking, and pulling pranks. She occasionally… read analysis of Alaska Young Takumi Hikohito Takumi is very close with Alaska and good friends with Lara, the Colonel, and Miles.
Parents need to know that John Green's Looking for Alaska won the Michael J. Printz Award and many other literary awards. It's the story of a group of fun-loving, rule-breaking teens who are rocked by a tragedy and must process the grief and loss.
Looking for Alaska Book Summary. Looking for Alaska is described by a sixteen-year-old kid, Miles Halter, who abandons his ordinary life in Florida to go to a life experience school called Culver Creek. He is motivated by histories enumerating the experiences of outstanding figures during their days at live-in school. The most of all, he is ...
The novel, written by John Green gives the experiences of Miles Halter as a first-year student attending a private school. His mother organizes a send-off party for him though it is poorly attended. Miles explains to his mother that his decision to go to a boarding school is purely to have a better life experience.
Read the world's #1 book summary of Looking For Alaska by John Green here. Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book. ... 1-Page Summary of Looking For Alaska
A special 10th Anniversary edition of Looking for Alaska was released in 2015. You can buy Looking for Alaska from your favorite retailer via the Penguin portal. If you've read the book and are completely prepared for spoilers, visit the Looking for Alaska Questions page for much, much more information on the book.
Based on the 2005 John Green novel of the same name, "Looking For Alaska" was made to be adapted for television by Josh Schwartz.In fact, in 2005, it was set to be adapted by him as a feature ...