{"id":159,"date":"2020-11-09T10:57:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T15:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/tropology\/?p=159"},"modified":"2020-11-25T14:00:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T19:00:04","slug":"looking-for-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/tropology\/2020\/11\/09\/looking-for-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking for Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Erin Ross<\/strong><\/p>\n

In middle school and high school, quotes from <\/span>Looking for Alaska<\/span><\/i> were strewn all over Tumblr and Instagram. The story, or a few circulated quotes at the least, served as a sort of aesthetic for young kids who felt a sense of loneliness they believed could only be understood through literature and art. I avoided the book for a while, but eventually gave in, allowing my adolescent emotions and desire for a sense of self to take over. <\/span>So, my mom bought me a used copy from the half-priced book store and I dove into the fictional world of Miles Halter and Alaska Young.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before I started to read, I had no idea about the true contents of the novel or the way in which it would impact my life. <\/span>Looking for Alaska<\/span><\/i> inspired a search for purpose and, in turn, led to a new definition of my identity. As the book tackled real hurt and loss, and instigated questions surrounding the meaning of life and individual purpose, I began to identify as a main character in my own life. Similar to Miles, my identity became rooted in a search for something greater, a \u201cgreat perhaps,\u201d in a seemingly never-ending series of monotonous events. Little did I know that this book would not only serve as an instigation of my purpose searching, but also a way for me to recognize the impact the evolution of my identity has had on my search for answers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking for Alaska<\/span><\/i> tells the story of Miles Halter, later nicknamed \u201cPudge\u201d by his friends, and his experiences at an Alabama boarding school. Before leaving for school, Miles narrates his love for famous last words, the most important being Fran\u00e7ois Rabelais\u2019 last words: \u201cI go to seek a Great Perhaps.\u201d Such words become the foundation and motivation for Miles\u2019 adventures at boarding school as he searches for his purpose in life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While at school, Miles meets Chip, Takumi, and Alaska, whom he follows on rule-breaking adventures, including smoking cigarettes and hiding bottles of wine in the woods. Much of the first half of the book centers on the students\u2019 religion class, in which they are prompted to ponder life\u2019s biggest questions, and Miles\u2019 falling for Alaska, despite the fact that she has a boyfriend. One night, Alaska tragically dies in a car accident after leaving campus drunk. Her death serves as the turning point and central problem of the whole story. The latter half of the novel consists of Miles trying to solve the mystery of whether Alaska\u2019s death was a suicide, all the while searching for an answer to life\u2019s hardest questions about hurt and loss. The mystery of Alaska becomes Miles\u2019 \u201cgreat perhaps,\u201d and the starting point in his search for self.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the students\u2019 religion class, led by the old and weathered, yet insightfully wise Dr. Hyde, is set in the background of the beginning half of the novel, it is the questions posed in the class, paired with Alaska\u2019s death, that illuminates the story\u2019s themes of a search for self and the meaning of life. Prior to Alaska\u2019s death, Dr. Hyde provides students with the term paper prompt\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWhat is the most important question human beings must answer?\u201d to which Miles answers \u201cWhat happens to us when we die?\u201d Miles\u2019 essay question foreshadows Alaska\u2019s death while simultaneously addressing the theme of life\u2019s purpose or end goal. Although such passages introduce the theme for the novel, I feel that Dr. Hyde\u2019s response to Alaska\u2019s death serves as the launching pad into deeper thematic structure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With a sigh, he grabbed hold of his chair and lifted himself out of it, then wrote on the blackboard: How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?\u2014A. Y. \u2018I\u2019m going to leave that up for the rest of the semester,\u2019 he said. \u2018Because everybody who has ever lost their way in life has felt the nagging insistence of that question. At some point we all look up and realize we are lost in a maze, and I don\u2019t want us to forget Alaska, and I don\u2019t want to forget that even when the material we study seems boring, we\u2019re trying to understand how people have answered that question and the questions each of you posed in your papers \u2014 how different traditions have come to terms with what Chip, in his final, called \u2018people\u2019s rotten lots in life.\u2019 (Green 158)<\/span><\/p>\n

Although readers can analyze <\/span>Looking for Alaska<\/span><\/i> through a variety of thematic lenses, the most obvious being the theme of death and mortality, I believe that the story focuses on death, not as an end in itself, but as a device for exploring the search for self-identity and the meaning of life. By posing the class with Alaska\u2019s term paper question: \u201cHow will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?\u201d Dr Hyde plagues the characters and readers with the task of using suffering as a tool to find purpose in life and all of its hurt. Such a task then leads toward a better sense of self as both readers and characters are prompted to analyze their own path in the maze of life. The central problem, Alaska\u2019s death, becomes a framework for maneuvering readers toward exploring the theme as they are forced to face the pain of losing a friend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The story\u2019s narrator also plays a key role in illuminating the work\u2019s central problem and theme. Although the above passage presents dialogue, the entirety of the novel is told from Miles\u2019 point of view. Miles serves as both a dramatized and an agent narrator as Green tells the story through the lens of Miles\u2019 mind. Throughout the work, Miles explicitly displays his own emotions and personality as he recounts each moment of the story. This narrative choice allows the book to become Miles\u2019 personal coming of age story as readers experience his internal thoughts in falling in love with Alaska and coping with her death. Therefore, by utilizing such a narrative technique, the author presents the themes of a search for self and the meaning of life through Miles\u2019 own internal struggle. Such narration is shown in the excerpt following Dr. Hyde\u2019s dialogue:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Colonel and I said nothing, while a bunch of people who didn\u2019t know Alaska extolled her virtues and professed to be devastated, and at first, it bothered me. I didn\u2019t want the people she didn\u2019t know\u2014and the people she didn\u2019t like\u2014to be sad. They\u2019d never cared about her, and now they were carrying on as if she were a sister. But I guess I didn\u2019t know her completely, either. If I had, I\u2019d have known what she\u2019d meant by \u2018To be continued?\u2019 And if I had cared about her as I should have, as I thought I did, how could I have let her go?<\/em> (Green 159).<\/span><\/p>\n

Miles\u2019 internal struggle with Alaska\u2019s death, especially when presented in the context of a response to Dr. Hyde\u2019s prompts, can be applied to a larger discussion surrounding religion. Being a Christian myself, I try to view most life events through a biblical lens and, after re-reading<\/span> Looking for Alaska <\/span><\/i>later in life, I have found the meaning of life to be much simpler than it was prior to having an identity rooted in Christ. However, I understand that not everyone\u2019s sense of purpose rests in the Great Commission, and that the search for purpose is dependent on an established personal identity. That being said, I think the theme presented in <\/span>Looking for Alaska<\/span><\/i>, when connected to religion, poses the question: If there is a God (which I believe there is), why do bad things happen to good people? And what has He purposed for us in our short time on earth? Of course I don\u2019t have all the answers, nor will I ever pretend to fully understand the complexities of God, but I do believe that the search for the meaning of life that is presented in <\/span>Looking for Alaska<\/span><\/i> has a direct connection to the hope that is shared by Christ in Matthew 28: 18-20. For a Christian, Christ\u2019s words provide direction, proposing us to spread the gospel and \u201cmake disciples of all nations,\u201d while his promise to never leave us lessens the pain of suffering we may experience along the way:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Then Jesus came to them and said, \u2018All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,<\/span> <\/em>and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age,\u2019<\/em> (<\/span>NIV, <\/span><\/i>Matt. 28.18-20)<\/span><\/p>\n

Such an emotional resonance between my religious identity and the theme presented in <\/span>Looking for Alaska <\/span><\/i>is undoubtedly dependent on my faith, yet I also believe narration plays an important role in helping me make this connection. Since the story is told in a first-person point of view by a dramatized narrator, readers are able to form a sort of vicarious connection with Miles in which they become the storyteller. Therefore, readers such as myself begin to identify with Miles and, in turn, question the same things as he does. Such a relationship allowed for my personal identity to mesh with Miles\u2019, leading to a connection between Christianity and the theme of searching for life\u2019s meaning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such reasoning suggests that all individuals, in reading<\/span> Looking for Alaska<\/span><\/i>, may have the opportunity to connect their own identity with Miles too. Whether religious or not, most people find themselves wondering what their role is here on earth, and whether the monotony of their day to day life has greater significance. So, reading <\/span>Looking for Alaska<\/span><\/i> may prompt a personal search for purpose or, at the least, provide insight into how others cope with loss and hurt. How will you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Erin Ross In middle school and high school, quotes from Looking for Alaska were strewn all over Tumblr and Instagram. The story, or a few circulated quotes at the least, served as a sort of aesthetic for young kids who felt a sense of loneliness they believed could only be understood through literature and art. I avoided the book for a while, but eventually gave in, allowing my adolescent emotions and desire for a sense of self to take…<\/p>\n

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