Analysis Of Looking For Alaska

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Recommended: coming of age in popular literature

John Green’s Looking for Alaska focuses on a boy named Miles “Pudge” Halter. It deals with the lead up and aftermath of Alaska Young’s death. The novel deals with themes such as finding purpose, growing up, and loss. It deals with delicate issues, relies highly on metaphor (e.g. Miles’ obsession with last words) and contains references to sex, drugs, and alcohol. For those reasons it is aimed at high school aged children, and strongly resembles an accurate depiction of late childhood Put simply, I would recommend this book.
Looking for Alaska is written from a male’s perspective, just as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is. Both offer an interesting perspective of boyhood, and emphasize different aspects as holding the ultimate importance, but
Alaska in herself could be seen as inappropriate and objectionable by an adult. The fact is, she is written as an adventurous and promiscuous girl who is struggling with forgiving and accepting herself and Alaska is one of the biggest strengths of this novel. She is one of the few well-rounded female characters (who is not the narrator) in young adult fiction. Unlike Becky in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Alaska lives outside of Miles’ narration. She has a greater purpose than a love interest, she emotional and intelligent and devastating. She spends her life hating herself for letting her mother die, and no amount of romance and love between her and Miles will ever fix it. Looking for Alaska does not idealize love or mental health, when Alaska dies, it is unknown of whether it was intentional on her part, showing an excellent reality of life not always having conclusions or answers.
Looking for Alaska is an excellent depiction of the specific scene of childhood that is leaving childhood. It contains adult themes and actions that are still relevant to older children. It does not shy away from bold topics in the hopes of sparing readers the reality of growing

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