Summer Reading Assignment: Entry Two

As with every novel, each character has its own unique complexities. To increase the amount of interest given to that character, they are given one or more certain desires, or goals they would like to fulfill in life. And with the variety of characters in Looking for Alaska by John Green, that's a given.

What are the desire of Miles "Pudge" Halter? Well, let's just say they are also the desires of many other boys who are attending boarding school at Culver Creek. Go to parties, hook up with a girl (or two, maybe more...) and the rest is classified, yet quite obvious. However, his goals go way farther than just that. He wants to make some friends that are not just drama geeks and people who have no one else to talk to. That's when he met the Colonel, Takumi and Alaska, so right off the bat he got some boxes already checked off.

The only desire that the Colonel, Chip Martin acquires is to have another fun year at Culver Creek. He also did some things that he should have done a while ago, such as breaking up with his picky, frustrating girlfriend Sara. Another goal of his is to end the constant torment of the Weekday Warriors gang at the school. After the hateful acts they have committed towards him and Alaska, their main target, for seeing each other such as urinating in their shoes and flooding their dorm rooms, payback and vengeance is at bay for his list of missions to accomplish.

Takumi's goal is simple. Impress some people. He has lots of talents, and he wants to show them off. He is the class clown of Culver Creek. He gains an audience every time he cracks a joke or slips up. He's also almost a professional rapper. On Page 68, he starts a rap cycle when he hangs out with Pudge, the Colonel, Alaska and Lara. They all eventually join in, cracking their own creative rhymes.
He also doesn't want to get caught, because you can't catch the Fox.

Alaska doesn't have that many desires. She feels as if her life's wishes have already been fulfilled. She has a faithful boyfriend, she has tons of other friends who are always on her side. However, throughout the continuation of the novel, she seems to have an empty space inside, the gap constantly widening. I suspect that she is secretly falling in love with Pudge. That being said, Pudge secretly falls in love with Alaska, for her beauty and personality, so this situation will very much engage the reader to see what happens next.

A theme that is starting to convey throughout the book is that whenever the chips are down or the going gets rough, your friends shall always be by your side. Whether it'd be your defeat by a bitter rival or just some type of personal misfortune, your pals will have your back.

The structure of Looking for Alaska is very much conventional, only however there are no chapters. There are two main sections, "Before," and "After." The different "chapters"are formed in a sort of "countdown" fashion, for example "Ninety Eight Days Before." That fragment being in the "Before" section of the novel.