Looking For Alaska - John Green

     What is death? Is it something to hate, love, or is it a way to “escape this labyrinth of suffering”? To Alaska Young, death is a combination of all. In the novel “Looking for Alaska” John Green writes about Alaska Young’s death differently than other authors. In the story a socially awkward boy, Miles, who is looking for something to make his life meaningful, decides to go to a boarding school. And like he hoped, something new and exciting did come his way, Alaska Young.

     Regardless of the idea that death is depressing, John Green makes Alaska’s death less melancholy. He accomplishes this by making the characters find closure. If the characters find closure, so will the reader. On pages 213-214, Miles and his friend drive to the place where Alaska spent her last minutes. There, Miles tells his friend what he truly feels about Alaska’s death, “‘Sometimes I liked it,’ I said. ‘Sometimes I liked it that she was dead.’” This line doesn’t mean that he wanted her to die, but instead, he was relieved at some moments after she passed. Alaska was a confusing person, not only for the reader, but also for the other characters. Miles had trouble comprehending what she was going through because she had a tough time expressing her feelings. This line is him simply saying that maybe Alaska was someone who wasn’t meant to stay, and she was there more to show him a direction to take his life. He liked that she was gone because she already gave him what she could, and he knew she was going through tough times. Also, when he said this line, he was making a conclusion to his grief. Most authors don’t put in this concluding part to a death and that is what makes John Green’s “Looking for Alaska” unique.

     The format of the novel is uncommon. In the beginning part, before Alaska’s death, it felt slow because of the anticipation. The reader can tell what is coming which makes it seem a bit slow. But, the format itself is unique and it helps the reader see how the characters are finding closure because it keeps track of time. John Green makes the first half of the novel the “before” she died and the second half the “after”. Throughout the “after” of the story, Miles and his friends look for the reason Alaska died. They try to figure out if it was suicide or simply a car accident. Even though it remains a mystery, their search for the answer helps them and the reader become less upset about her death. The format affects this part because if the reader was to just read the story, they might not think about how long or short of a time it has been since her death, but when the reader sees that on page 213, it is one hundred eighteen days after, yet they are still looking for the answer, he or she will understand how hard it is to truly find closure. On page 213 Miles and his friend also realize what it must have been like for her. The narrator Miles thinks, “Straight and fast. Maybe she just decided at the last second.” The format helps the reader understand the book’s main ideas more because the reader can see how closure takes time.

     Normally, people don’t talk about dying. But, Alaska makes a point of being eccentric and talking about death more than usual. On page 44 she says, “Y’all smoke to enjoy it, I smoke to die” When first reading this, thoughts like ‘she is an attention seeker’ popped up, but when she told about her mother’s death, it was different. She wasn’t so much an attention seeker anymore, but someone to pity and wish for the best for. She struggled with wishing to die and fearing death. That is why she wanted to get out of the “labyrinth” straight and fast. This is another way she talked about death. When she first met Miles, she asked him how to “escape this labyrinth of suffering” which really means how to get out of this world. The answer is death and she never did answer it. Alaska is afraid of but wishes for death because she believes it is what she deserves. Since John Green made Alaska’s character talk about death, the other characters and the reader don’t find it as heartbreaking or surprising that she did die.

     The uniqueness of John Green’s style of writing about Alaska’s death affects the reader. Death is always a depressing thing to think, talk, hear, or write about, but it really depends on the way someone puts it. The author manages to make it less depressing, no matter if it’s the way he built Alaska’s character, or how he phrased the death in general. Everyone has to deal with death some point in their life, and John Green’s “Looking for Alaska” makes readers understand what closure is and how to find it.