Entry two July 7th: Looking For Alaska

As I mentioned in my previous entry, there are three main characters in the story Looking for Alaska. Each character, Miles, the Colonel, and Alaska, have a purpose of being in the story and they all have a reason for being known as a main character. Just like probably every other teen in the world, they all desire to be something and want to have something they might have to work for. For the main character Miles he desires to find himself and works to find the importance of who he really is. He does this by having a fresh, new start at a boarding school in Alabama, away from his few friends and little family back at home in Florida. Another main character, the Colonel, also has a desire for things. The Colonel desires to be the best at everything he can. He wants to be known by everyone as the risky teenage boy who doesn’t care what others think and what trouble he gets into. A third and final character is Alaska. Alaska, as I said before, is mysterious and confusing to others. She desires to be strong. Alaska deep down has a lot of pain in her life but she knows how to hide it. She wants everyone to see her as the tough girl that can get through anything, no matter how hurtful it is. These three characters all have something in common and that is the desire to want or to be someone or something.

A big theme I have noticed that is beginning to develop in this story is finding who you are through experiencing new things. The character Miles is looking to find himself and this is something that teenagers struggle with every day, finding who you really are. Every character by the end of the story finds something about themselves that they didn’t already know. They find themselves through the experiences they have encountered throughout the whole story. Another theme that I have noticed developing in this story is the meaning of life. Throughout the whole story there are a lot of ups and downs for each character. Each character somehow finds a way to get through their downs, although it might get difficult. In order to get through life, you have to have an idea of what life means and that death is inevitable. This theme is important because it can help the reader know the importance of life and how it can get you through it.

Almost every story is written differently. The way that the book Looking for Alaska is structured is that the author decided not to use chapters and instead he split the book into before and after. The before part of the story begins with "One Hundred and Thirty-six Days Before" and the after part ends with "One Hundred and Thirty-six Days After." This is important because it helps the reader be able to see what events led to the main event of the story, kind of like a timeline. This story has many big events and using the before and after method helps the reader be able to point out those events. In my opinion, I think the author structured this book in the most unique way he possibly could.