Looking For Alaska
By: Madison Faulkner
Looking for Alaska
Other books by John Green:
- Fault In Our Stars
- Paper Towns
- Let It Snow
- Will Grayson
- An Abundance of Katherins
Nothing was the same after that one drunk night.
The Past
Alaska Young
Miles (Pudge) Halter
"If people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane." - Pudge
Culver Creek
The Forest
Cigaretts
"I go to seek a great perhaps" - Alaska
~~~~
~~~~
~~~~
Rages to Riches
The archetype that best fits Looking For Alaska would be Rags to Riches. In the beginning, Pudge began with nothing. He had no friends in the school he was attending and lied to his parents that he was popular.(Green, 5) On the first day of Culver Creek, Pudge had made a two new friends, Colonel and Alaska, and had many new experiences. He had everything he wanted, until one drunk night he lost it all. Colonel, Alaska and Pudge were in Alaska’s dorm room where they were drinking wine. In the their drunken state, they all decided to play truth or dare. Alaska asked first, turning to Pudging and saying “truth or dare.” (130) Pudge wanted a dare, so in result Alaska dared him to hook up with her. (130) They had a heated make out session for a couple of minutes until Alaska stopped them because she had gotten a phone call from her boyfriend. She answered the phone and went outside to take the call. (131) After the call, she frantically told Pudge and Colonel that she needed to get out of Culver Creek, and she did. The next day they had an assembly, the principal told them that Alaska was in a car crash and didn’t make it. (139)
In result to Alaska’s death, Pudge blamed himself. He wanted to know why she left that night, so the Colonel and Pudge tried to solve the mystery. As a result, they concluded that Alaska forgot about the anniversary of her mother’s death. She left because she was racing to get to the cemetery but she got in a car accident. (211) Knowing this, Pudge had gotten some closure and soon became himself. Just like how a Rags and Riches archetype should be, lose it all but gain it back.
Citation
Green, John. Looking for Alaska: A Novel. New York: Dutton Children's, 2005. Print.