Looking For Alaska Banned

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Looking For Alaska is a new, popular book that has been read and debated by many. Throughout the country, the novel has been put on many banned book lists. The book contains rebellion, drugs, tobacco, and sex, all of which are reasons why the book is banned. Looking For Alaska provides more to young readers than an idea of rebellion. In a world religions class, the main characters, Pudge and Alaska, are given a debatable essay question. They are asked “What is the meaning of life?” The heavy question affects the characters and their mindset throughout the book. Alaska answers the question by saying that “life is a labyrinth of suffering”; her mindset ends up coinciding with sudden death. Pudge uses the essay question to comfort himself through …show more content…

In Looking For Alaska, the character Alaska dies in a car accident midway through the book. All of the other characters suddenly are overwhelmed with grief, including Pudge. Pudge uses the question, “What is the meaning of life?” to mourn his loss of Alaska. Pudges meaning of life question detours him to the afterlife. Alaska’s death and the question both have him contemplating life after death. In the novel Pudge writes "But ultimately I do not believe that she was only matter. The rest of her must be recycled,too. I believe now that we are greater than the sum of our parts” ( Green 220).Pudge believes that Alaska carries on even after death. Although she was “only matter” he believes that a part of her is still with him. This is explained further in a quote that says: "When he talks about energy, he is talking about two different things. On the one hand, he means the energy of her body, which is essentially heat and the electromagnetic field created by her life processes. But when he talks about her personal energy, that is a metaphor for her liveliness and personality. Her physical energy in the scientific sense indeed did not cease “(Brown).Pudge uses his explanation of life and death to “prove” that Alaska really is not completely dead. This affects him by being able to mourn through this class

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