Summer Reading: Looking for Alaska: blog 4

 I chose to read looking for Alaska for my summer reading project. I chose it for a couple reasons. The author really caught my attention while I was reading the list. John Green wrote one of my favorite books, The Fault in Our Stars. He does a great drop of adding in love, tragedy and comedy without making it sappy. There were personal connections between me and the novel once I finished it. The main one being loss. We have all lost a loved one, which is what makes this story so relatable. Another one being sadness. Alaska felt sadness throughout her whole life and Miles after Alaska’s death. We have all also felt sadness in our lives, some more than others.

One thing I would like to say before I continue is that Looking for Alaska is an amazing book. I would mainly recommend this book to young adults. No younger than 13 because of some of its content. The book relates in things that young adults are going through. School, first loves, loss, friends and new experiences. We can relate, which is a great thing when you’re reading. It makes the book better, it makes you want to read; which can be hard for young adults to want to do.

Summer Reading: Looking Fot Alaska: blog post 3

Page 214-215, towards the end of the book. An amazing book that is. Looking for Alaska has so many amazing chapters, sentences and words. I’m going to write you a small section that catches my eyed.

                “A cool breeze had beaten back the onslaught of summer, and on the morning the Old Man gave us our final exams, he suggested we have class outside. I wondered why we would have an entire class outside when I’d been kicked out of class last semester for merely glancing outside, but the Old Man wanted to have class outside, so we did. The Old Man sat in a chair that Kevin Richman carried out for him, and we sat on the grass, my notebook at first perched awkwardly in my lap and then against the thick green grass, and the bumpy ground did not lend itself to writing, and the gnats hovered. We were too close to the lake for comfortable sitting, really, but the Old Man seemed happy. “ I have  here your final exam. Last semester I gave you nearly two months to complete your paper. This time, you get two weeks.” He paused. “Well, nothing to be done about that I guess.” He laughed. “To be honest, I just decided last night to use to use this paper topic last night. It rather goes against my nature. Anyway, pass these around.’

                How will you-you personal y- ever get out of the labyrinth of suffering? Now that you’ve wrestled with three major religious traditions, apply your newly enlightened mind to Alaska’s question.”

The point of view from a teenager personally makes the book more relatable, which is great for the intended audience of teenagers. The way he talks about the teacher(Old Man) makes me feel more connected to the book because well, we all know teachers we talk about like that. The section has the perfect amount of dialogue. The whole book has the perfect amount of dialogue; making it that much better. A good difference in diction is used, some advanced, some abstract. Everything about John Greens writing, especially in this book, is a rollercoaster fir my emotions.

In this section Miles is talking about something as ordinary as class. He in cooperates the only teacher he talks about in this book. The teacher changes Miles way of thinking, especially after Alaska’s death. He mixes in the past from when he got kicked out of class because he was thinking about Alaska. His love for her was shown by that. Everyone else’s love for her is shown by the fact that a teacher changed a final exam just for her.  The talk about the labyrinth is a great part in this section. A lot of the book and Alaska way of thinking was about getting out of the labyrinth of suffering.

The book that started Alaska's want out of the labyrinth of suffering.