Summary and Character Analysis of Looking for Alaska

Human beings tend to measure their time and life around important events. For Christians, they date their time from the birth of Jesus Christ; in the United States, citizens tend to think of their lives as before and after the events that took place on September 11th. John Green, the author of several young adult novels, took this idea of measuring time around a specific time and event, and incorporated it into his novel, Looking for Alaska. Throughout the novel Green counts down to the one event that will change the characters' lives, the event that will mark the "before" and "after" points in their lives. Green uses this unique layout to tell the story of a group of teenagers growing together and finding themselves.

The beginning of the novel starts at one hundred thirty-six days before the life-changing event.

At this point in the novel, Miles Halter, the protagonist, is introduced to the readers as a student that is not very social and unpopular at his current high school. It is a week before Miles moves from Florida to Alabama to attend Culver Creek Preparatory School, a boarding school. His parents decided to throw him a going away party; however, only two people came to bid Miles farewell. Although his parents were disappointed with the amount of people who didn't attend the party, Miles' expectations were met. He admits to his unpopularity and antisocial behaviour in his narration of the novel. "I was more or less forced to invite all my 'school friends,' i.e., the ragtag bunch of drama people and English geeks I sat with by social necessity in the cavernous cafeteria of my public school..."(Green 3) But for some reason, his parents thought he was secretly hiding his popularity amongst his peers. As his parents constantly badger him for answers to why he wants to leave home so badly, he answers them with the last words of François Rabelais - "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." His parents are not very pleased with his answer, but they don't bother him about the subject as they leave for Alabama.

When Miles arrives at the dormitories at Culver Creek it is one hundred twenty-eight days before the event that will alter his and his soon-to-be friends' lives. Once he is in his dorm room, Miles goes into the bathroom to take a shower and there he describes his physical appearance. "...My thin arms didn't seem to get much bigger as they moved from wrist to shoulder, my chest lacked any hint of either fat or muscle..."(Green 9) After Miles is done taking his shower, he walks out of the bathroom to find his roommate, who introduces himself as Chip "The Colonel" Martin. When he sees the Colonel, he describes him as "a short, muscular guy with a shock of brown hair...He stood five feet and nothing, but was well built, like a scale model of Adonis, and with him arrived the stink of stale cigarette smoke."(Green 9) Shortly after becoming acquainted with one another, the Colonel gives Miles a nickname that sticks with him throughout the course of the novel; his nickname is Pudge, which is ironic because Miles has a small frame. The same day Pudge is introduced to the Colonel, he is introduced to Alaska Young,