Who Is Miles's Death In Looking For Alaska

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In John Green’s novel Looking for Alaska, Miles Halter is exhausted with his predictable and friendless life so he decides to attend a boarding school in Alabama for his junior year of high school; telling his parents that he is going to seek a Great Perhaps, that there is something more for him. The moment he realizes his place in this world is the most significant scene in the story. The moment Miles grasps the reason behind his friend Alaska’s death is when he perceives his Great Perhaps. Alaska, in an extremely distressed state, abandones her friends one night in a hurry and collides into a car while driving and dies. With so many unanswered questions surrounding her death, Miles begins an investigation to solve the mystery of his friend. …show more content…

After knowing what was going on in Alaska’s life and realizing her death was not his fault he states, “It always shocked me when I realized that I was not the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things” (Green 213). The Great Perhap stands for the turning point in Miles’s life. Knowing Alaska was hurt and upset in a way similar to him, he realizes this is the time in his life to look back and see all the decisions he has made and how they impact his life. Miles states that the death of his friend “did not leave me enough to discover her, but she left me enough to rediscover the Great Perhaps” (Green 215). Alaska’s death devastates Miles and he states, “At some point you just pull off the band-aid and it hurts but then it is over and you are just relieved” (Green 224). Leaving him confused and hurt, he comes to the realization that her death displays the point of discovery for himself and is the understanding of where he fits into this world. The Great Perhaps is an opportunity that provides him with the ultimate hope for a better, more exciting life, and he realizes this hope after Alaska

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