Novel Looking for Alaska Tells the Story of Miles Halter
In life we face many issues and challenges. Perhaps the most challenging time is when we are Teens. Being a teen means being in that time period when we feel invincible, reckless and we are still trying to figure out who we are. For Miles Halter, he was just like everybody else. John Green’s novel Looking for Alaska tells the story of Miles Halter, a shy teenager who transfers to Culver Creek Boarding School for his junior year of high school, in search of the “Great Perhaps. ” While at Culver Creek, Miles faces many issues including trying to fit in, falling in love, and death.
When Miles lived in Florida he had no friends. He would always eat lunch by himself and everybody picked on him. When the chance came up for Miles to go to a boarding school in Alabama, he begged his parents to let him go. When Miles arrived at Culver creek he was greeted by his roommate Chip. The first night at his dorm Miles was awoken to some boys who picked him up and threw him in the lake. For many teenagers means starting over. You get to make new friends and nobody knows who you are. The challenges kids face when moving, however is trying to fit in when everybody knows each other.
The surroundings are new and you don’t really know anyone. For me moving when I was 13 it was the scariest thing in my life. I, like, everyone else had a hard time making friends, but eventually I did. Falling in love is also another issue teen’s face. When in high school there is always that boy or girl who catches your eye. When Miles started hanging out with his roommate Chip, he met Alaska Young. Alaska was the girl that didn’t care what anybody thought of her. She smoke, she drank, and she even pulled pranks, but Miles started falling in love with her.
The issue that Miles had to face with falling in love was that he was starting to turn bad. Miles started smoking and drinking just to look cool for Alaska. I think many Teenagers do things that they normally don’t do to impress a girl or boy whether it’s good or bad. After a night of partying Miles wakes up and gets a phone call. The person explains to miles that Alaska got in a car accident while intoxicated and died. Miles thinks it is one of Alaska’s pranks and starts to laugh. When Chip opens the door sobbing, Miles realizes that what the person said on the phone wasn’t pulling a prank.
Sobbing, Miles realizes that the girl he loved is dead. During her funeral, Miles is nowhere to be seen and is skipping class to get drunk and high. Many teens have to deal with a loved one dying. When a loved one dies many teens get the mindset that their live is not important without that person in it. All in all Miles did have to face more issues than many teens, but the struggles Miles had to face made him who he is. We all face issues during our teen live whether it’s trying to fit in, falling in love, or the death of a loved one. We must move on from these issues in the end, and they will make us the people we are.
