Characterization: The explanation of the four traits
John Green’s book Looking for Alaska is an interesting piece of literature which contains the life of a group of youngsters in an Alabama boarding school. The book illuminates the difficulties encountered by the protagonist (Alaska) and outcomes inflicted by them. Analyzing the major character, Alaska, in this story one can see that the main construct of the story is to go deep down into the innermost problems that teenagers might experience in life.
The four specific characteristic traits found in the story are as follows:
- brave
- determined
- mysterious
- happy
Alaska is somewhat mysterious in her attitudes toward people and life. It means that she never reveals her real nature in front of others. Analyzing her nature Halter feels confusion and anxiety. She never gives convincing answers to the questions asked by Lara and Bonnie Kunzel (Green 67). Her mind is full of ostensive blames on love and death in terms of communicating with friends. Her destructive nature forces a reader to think about her mysterious nature. Lara often feels difficulty to understand her friend’s nature and Alaska’s silliness and braveness when she faces death creates fear to Lara’s mind (Green 73). She seems very happy in front of her friends. She appears very romantic when she reached her lover, and she also becomes very serious in front of others.
Alaska is happy when one sees in her character a tendency to receive friendship. She enjoys her life as a romantic story. She always receives her fellow beings full of joy and satisfaction. Alaska never reveals her inner conflicts to others and she is highly conscious about other people’s happiness when they are talking with her. She makes different attempts to find out happiness outside friendship, but fails to reach out such state of mind.
Being determined, Alaska gets another set of character traits described in the book. Throughout the story the author shows his readiness to explore the concepts of peer pressure, sexual experience, grief, and death. Her being determined made Alaska strong in attitudes with people she adored a bit condescending.
Her last words explore her braveness and determination to follow her life philosophy. She cries: “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” (Green 156) Her tragedy including the death of her mother changed her mind and she acquired more braveness and determination. To be precise, the problem of Alaska is particularly in her reliability and open-mindedness. She encountered pros and cons of life earlier than it could happen to an ordinary man. Thus, Alaska is more encouraged to state her reflection on life as long as she has got the idea of being brave to survive. Nevertheless, it was left in the domain of theory for Alaska. Due to the “labyrinths” surrounding her life here and there, she got confused about the way to choose. In this respect she chose labyrinth going into decline. Nonetheless, a reader should work out the main ideas on why this brave girl took her life once having appeared at a dead-end of her soul perspectives.
A visual connection
The pictures selected above reflect characteristic features of the book in terms of the main characters. In this respect the main idea goes around the main events that happened in life of Alaska. Such a splendid collage incorporates the episodes from the book that evaluate the significance of life, friendship, love, first experience, “great perhaps” and death (Green 6). Based on the visualization of the main feelings experienced throughout the story, the pictures are well-crafted to explain the gist of the book.
The first picture is, perhaps, the representation of the general attempts of teenagers toward self-esteem in life. It is patterned with a gesture of the main character, Alaska, who can blame everything around her for that complicated nature of it. The picture shows teen pranking and inclination to try everything forbidden. Based on the example of main traits of character supposed with Alaska, the picture gives grounds to state her mischievous attitude to life. She shows in gesture her indifference toward what is right or wrong at large. She copes with her inner inflictions. The latter are consider loneliness, friendship, and love she had with Miles.
The second picture is a visual aid to imagine the friendship that came out to be between Alaska, Pudge, and the Colonel. One can see and check it in the book that Alaska adored such a great friendship. She could never leave her relationships with Pudge and the Colonel off. Her happiness was based on it. One also might notice that Alaska is with a cigarette in her hand demonstrating, therefore, her as a kind of “bad girl.” Devastating is the fact that the Colonel and Miles sit closer to her with an inclination to put up with her mischievous temper.
The third one is the illustration of Alaska’s tragedy. When the candle is out it means that light has disappeared respectively. The light is a characterization of Alaska’s life. Her death caused the smoke instead of the continuing candle fire. Alaska’s energy and ability to go things round (candle fire) seems to have disappeared at once. It is described on the dark backdrop. With her being gone, Miles and the Colonel still keep everything she said or done in mind.
The fourth is a kind of commemoration on Pudge’s mind. Alaska died, but she stayed alive in hearts of those who loved her. A kiss is a symbol of kind-heartedness in feelings. It is also a trace of sincerity or purity of heart intentions. In the second part of the book Miles admits the perfect time with Alaska as something distant at the time: “And in the almostness of the moment, I cared at least enough” (Green 73).
The fifth picture is a kind of speculation over the way to get out from the “labyrinth of suffering” (Green 156). Alaska found it in physical suicide. However, she could try it by forgiving and longing for love (James 4). That was a challenge for her and a reminder for readers on the whole. It might be noted that she is described inside the building as long as she was obliged to share thoughts of different writers and Vonnegut, in particular. It is also three moments which describe Alaska as a thinking person at her early ages.
Passage Finder
Passage 1
At the beginning, she doubts a bit about the way things are correlated, and the way a man should provide his “positive behavior” in terms of good traits of character. She admits once: “Jesus, I’m not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they’re gonna do. I’m just going to do it. Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia” (Green 47). This passage shows the way Alaska starts perceiving the century-long question about the sense in life and its gist for a man. Alaska is brave in her steps forward. This is the feature of her character that is illuminated for several times in the book. First, there are episodes in which Alaska shows her brevity which can be treated explicitly. It corresponds to her aptness, so to speak, in smoking, drinking, and having sex. This evaluates her as an easy-to-do girl who disrespects public opinion and the outer pressure on the whole. Her energy and capability of analyzing different events in her early life gave her brevity to be who she was exactly. This trend of her character is described in a passage when she tells guys about the death of her mother. This trouble in life made Alaska more firm and predictable. Since that time hardships start. That moment Alaska first thought of playing against the rules life draws up to people.
The first reason to state that she is brave is that her mischievous character provides Alaska with what is needed exactly to be courageous in life. With these ideas in mind, Alaska never gives up before the difficulties which are more of moral or “inner” coloring. However, they are adjusted to her each time she talks to Miles. The protagonist knows that she would never thought of suicide, but, unfortunately, it is also the feature of how Alaska treats brevity of her character. She could not stop the flow of fatal events in her life. She felt bans from the outside.
The second reason is that public opinion and restraints that touched upon her only annoyed her. Thus, she shows brevity. She lost her temper when she describes her feelings to Miles: “It’s the eternal struggle, Pudge. The good versus the naughty…. Sometimes you lose a battle. But mischief always wins the war” (Green 54). This scene breaks down any objection to Alaska. She knows the way things are arranged. Moreover, she knew it more from books than from personal experience. That is the point. She accommodated the reality of the humanity previously described by what she saw in her life. Teen suggestions and assumptions which covered the essence of Alaska’s mind drove her to render null all optimistic ramifications in life of a human being. It is of the similar kind when she persuades her friends in the darkness of what is concerned with life. Alaska is, of course, brave as long as she is quite straightforward in telling people what she thinks is right and in doing what she feels likely to be done. Nonetheless, she is helpless to adjust the situation. Either are Miles, Chip, and Takumi. Thus, her brevity is a kind of her counter attack on the hardships of life. Her intentions are ultimately weighed, and her actions correspond to her decision making.
Passage 2
The scene when Miles dragged out Alaska of the hay early in the morning characterizes her as determined and of no loyalty to nobody but herself. It is seen when she sticks to the point: “Pudge”, she said, faux-condescending, “The sound is an integral part of the artistic experience of this video game. Muting Decapitation would be like reading only every other word of Jane Eyre…” (Green 48). This episode delineates the features of self-esteem and brilliance of her mind.
Albert Camus would say that Alaska in her early ages managed to run into the absurdity of life. She got bewildered once, and she could not find the way out. Her physical suicide is the demonstration of how teenagers need more self-expression and truth of life to be disclosed to them. The example of Alaska is nameworthy. To go further, it is quite applicable to state that Alaska is determined in her mind and her actions. The concept of the book that is divided into two parts – “days before” and “days after” – correlates the episodes before the main ominous event comes out to be. It is the time when Alaska determines the pathway for her to get through.
The first reason is that Alaska has a manner to talk with people as if she is a bit higher over them in everything. Her knowledge and affection by books gave her such a right to talk with peers. Moreover, she usually thinks that condescending attitudes are normal on the part of hers. In this respect she is also determined in showing her disgust or anxiety about something people do extrinsically. This peculiar feature made Alaska different. Her surroundings, Miles, the Colonel, Takumi, were obliged to praise Alaska for her brilliance and open-mindedness in everything concerning human theme. Thus, she performed her sense of personal determined character by faux-condescending claims and statements which usually end by an outstanding remark. That is the point at which Alaska began thinking of everything and her life, in particular, in a bit awkward way.
Staying usually in, Miles could recognize the type of Alaska’s character. The above listed passage identifies that Alaska would never mind one’s inaccuracy unless it disturbs her. The second reason for her determined trait of character is that this quality of hers stops her each time she seeks justice as of herself. To convey it, it is no wonder that energetic and frisky evaluation of Alaska was enough to make boys around her take her jinks for granted. She was furious as well as stable in her intentions to perceive the world. It seems that Miles could only serve as an assistant to Alaska’s dreams and their materialization. Her most favorite book The General in his labyrinth serves for her as a peculiar demonstration of her hardships. These are mainly concerned with her inability to find out what she has been longing for since having come to the Culver Creek boarding school. She got lost in the labyrinth of her life. However, she never neglected the essence of her friendship even though patterned with loneliness.
Thus, one of the main traits of Alaska’s character – being determined – plays a great role in surveying how she treats her friends. On the other hand, the protagonist clearly understands owing to her shelves of books that this trait is the paramount when talking about tolerance and indulgence to people. It is reputable for her that she never blames her friends and people around. Instead, she uses the charms of language and literary thought. Hence, her determined estimation of life in its span goes with her witty claims and her inner trouble which should have been “deciphered” by her friends and Miles, particularly.
Passage 3
Alaska’s mysterious character is patterned with numerous ruminations about the sense of life that seems to have been lost already. Her mystery was disclosed by Miles and the Colonel after Alaska was dead in the car crash. The words by Simon Bolivar were incorporated in Alaska’s personal opinion on that: “You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it” (Green 52). This scene illuminates when the protagonist was highly motivated to get the gist of what she and her friends were doing at the time.
To say more, when Miles and Alaska are reading Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, they both understand that there is no way out from the bookwormish nature of Alaska and the naïve attitudes of Miles. Each moment they spent together is fixed in Miles’s fragile soul. “As promised in the list, she bought a Kurt Vonnegut book, Cat’s Cradle, and she read aloud to me, her soft voice mingling with the frog’s croaking” (Green 79)… This passage bilaterally outlines happiness and mysterious feature of Alaska’s inner world. Moreover, she preoccupies a reader with her savvy remarks on what is going on wrongly with her. As was aforementioned, she is at a dead-end. Her loneliness is likely to be higher than her friendship with Miles and the Colonel. In this respect she favors both to spend their teen years together. This mystery fits into Alaska’s traits of character. Life, its peculiarities, death, and sexuality are perplexed into a vortex of personal discoveries in each among the main characters. It is a driving power of the story at large. They are in search for their unique ‘place under the sun.’
Passage 4
Alaska is happy to be free in doing and compassing what she wants in life. No one can stop her. Thus, Alaska is a happy character in the story, but one should understand it in one’s way. The question is that she is full of sorrow inside, but when with friends, she can simply release her joy and high spirits. She dreams of acquiring the same glory as her favorite characters from the books had. She needs more fantastic adventures in life. However, her self-criticism gets her stuck around the negative influences. She becomes depressed when she realizes the sincerity of intentions on the part of Miles. She understands that he has a thing with her.
What is more, Alaska is happy to realize that she is not alone, for Miles and the Colonel are around. It is described when they once walked down the street talking on Miles’s hobby of gathering statements of the most eminent authors. The ‘great perhaps’ of Miles is in part reflects ‘labyrinths’ of Alaska. She seems to find no answer through the communication. She represents the best philosophy, i.e. “ask for more.” However, it results in darkness of her whole life. Perhaps, Miles and the Colonel could help her in such a mysterious way of life. They could have opened her eyes on the positive coloring of life. Alas, she showed perseverance in everything related to the so-called sense of living. Alaska seems as a typical trouble-maker. When she smokes, drinks, and has sex, she hereby wants to get happiness in it. Her desire to “paint” her surroundings in bright colors is entire, but it ends up when she deepens in the inner conflicts of herself. So, happiness and sorrow are on the same edge for Alaska. This is the mystery of hers.
Making Connections
All in all, the idea of the book Looking for Alaska by John Green is in the versatility of century-long postulates for making life picaresque. The question is that friendship, loneliness, personal inability to struggle against the hardships of the world around – these topics are implemented in the book. Their significance is equivocal a bit. However, when reading the book and reflecting every word, every idea highlighted by the main characters in the book, everything becomes clear.
Four traits of Alaska’s character that have been listed above provide an explicit picture of who Alaska is. This girl is similar to those people who are struggling, for they know secrets of living a bit. She cannot fail to last her life. It was her destiny that she imposed the truth of teen living as it is. Alaska is described in harmony with what classics and just outstanding people said about the gist of life. She incorporated this skill in her ordinary talking with friends. She is not stupid but a convinced searcher for the main ideals in life. She is savvy in inferring about something in the world around. Thus, she noticed the mechanisms which drive the living at large. It is especially vital to admit that Alaska behaved as a dreamer. Moreover, she talked largely, as a philosopher. Her philosophy is in the fact that no one lives senseless life even if it is absurd enough. To continue, she puts her ideas in the following statement: “I couldn’t see the trees for the forest – everything so intricately woven together that it made no sense to think of one tree as independent from that hill” (Green 37). In this Alaska is considered to be reasonable in her reasoning about life.
The example of Alaska is apparent for those teens who are suffering from getting the slightest idea about the value of friendship, loneliness, religion, death and dying young, sense of life, and others. It is applicable to suggest that John Green is capable of discussing suchlike themes in a varied manner. Every word he inserted in the text of the book signals about some features in describing main characters’ traits. Further still, Alaska and everything that was going on in the book is described through the vision of Miles. Thus, the prescriptions which are outlined on the title page of the book under the title itself follow first friend, first girl, last words (Green 1). In turn these words highlight Miles’s first experience in friendship, love, and sorrow. It is appropriate to mention that each of the passages described above implicate the main themes primordially outlined by the author.
John Green managed to touch on each reader’s soul by the way teenagesr get the idea of the surrounding world. The book serves as an additional insruction on how teens communicate and seek their truth to be glorified within “public fallacies.” The story of Miles, as the main hero of the book, is also touching for the use of different epithets to describe the love they had with Alaska and the friendship that entirely fixed on Miles’s mind. The episode which describes it is full of sorrow and recollection:
Her underwear, her jeans, the comforter, my corduroys and my boxers between us, I thought. Five layers, and yet I felt it, the nervous warmth of touching – a pale reflection of the fireworks of one mouth on another, but a reflection nonetheless (Green 73).
Presentation
The whole concept of the book might be represented through the vision of Miles. It is better for a person performing the representation to become as one with the main character. It is predominant that a speaker feels the same feelings which fulfill Miles in the book. Such preparatory measures are extra significant to make the representation live. In this respect a speaker should bear the main themes of the book in mind. Such a strict requirement will reduce the extent of gags in the speech. Making conversation patterned expressly by what John Green wanted to state is the pivotal need to demonstrate appropriate level of recognition as of the book.
Thus, the first part of the presentation is to clearly outline the place of the book in the world literature. It is better to outline the significance of the book in the discourse of “generation gap.” Preliminary opening part is recommended to be full of general notions. It means that a speaker should provide brief information on the book, its author, destination of the main themes in educational curriculum, etc. Attracting the audience by means of correlative data in brief would complement speaker’s efforts in discussing the story by Green in detail.
Once the introduction is through, a speaker should follow the discussion by characterizing the style, structure, and setting maintained in the body of the book. It is necessary to showcase the peculiarity of books division into two main parts: 136 days before (wherein Before) and countdown of days after (wherein After) (Green 2). Thus, the culmination should be outlined in the middle of the book. In fact, a speaker should mention that the mainstream event is in the “heart” of the book. It is done by the author, perhaps, to demonstrate the nature of Miles’s intentions. On the other hand, it symbolizes that one should live for the day. Past and Future are nothing if the present is not adjusted correctly.
Later on, it is about time to point out the role of the main characters. Enumerating them briefly, one should provide some associations as for each. Thus, the a speaker starts with the figure of Miles, as a narrator, and goes on mentioning Alaska, Chip, Takumi, etc. The figure of Alaska should be outlined in its sexy and mischievous outlook spiced with her love for pranks and bad habits. Then, here comes the character of the Colonel and so on and so forth. One is necessarily to provide some connections between them, their preferences in life, their vision of life and people in it. Focusing on the reasons for the tragedy that happened to Alaska, a speaker outlines how author interprets such an outcome going in eternity.
Finally, it is the moment to state personal reflections on the book. It is up to be a constructive speech full of speaker’s rumination on how one should treat the actions and words by Alaska. On the other hand, a speaker should think of the main message incorporated by Green in the book as it reflects on speaker’s mind and soul. Here should one demonstrate the extent of getting the main idea of the book as concerned with the life of teenagers in the flow of ideas said to realize the meaning of life. Once again, the themes of friendship and love should apply to the way a person should understand the story by John Green.
Works cited
Green, John. Looking for Alaska. New York, NY: Dutton Juvenile, 2005.
James, Kathryn. Death, Gender, and Sexuality in Adolescent Literature. London: Taylor & Francis, 2008.