Category: Looking for Alaska

J.K. Rowling and John Green are both very famous authors. J.K. Rowling and John Green were both creative and outstanding writers. J.K. Rowling is a fiction author while John Green is a realistic fiction author. Both of them had an interesting childhood and career besides their phenomenal style of writing. Green’s books reflect most of the troubles he faced in his life; for instance, his novel Turtles All The Way Down showed how he lived in constant fear. On the other hand, J.K Rowling’s fiction books showed her dreams, specially the famous book series Harry Potter. In this series, she imagined Harry and his mates on a journey in a supernatural place. Both of them are extraordinary authors. This report will be comparing their early life and childhood, style of writing and career, and their lives after career.

To begin with, J.K. Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, England on July 31st 1965 to James and Anne Rowling. Joanne had a younger sister Dianne. Joanne attended St Michael’s primary school and then moved to Wyedean’s school and college. She attended Moray House Teacher Training College in Manchester. After graduating she enrolled in the University of Exeter for BA (Bachelor of Arts) in French and classics. After graduating she moved to London and worked as a researcher and a bilingual secretary for Amnesty International. That was when she wrote a short story titled, what was the Name of that Nymph Again? This was published in the University of Exeter’s journal Pegasus. J.K. Rowling’s love of writing started when she was five and since then she never failed to pursue her dream of fiction writing. In 1991 Joanne moved to Portugal and taught English as a second language. There she married a T.V. journalist in 1992 and divorced him in 1993, after that she returned with her daughter to Britain. Moreover, John green was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 24, 1977 to Mike and Sydney Green. John had a younger brother, William Henry Hank Green. Soon after his birth he and his family moved to Michigan, then to Birmingham, and finally to Orlando. He enrolled in Lake Highland Preparatory school in Orlando, and Indian Springs School in Alabama. John graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and religious studies. After graduating he worked as a junior at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio for a very short time. He was officially a member of University of Chicago Divinity School, but he didn’t attend. He wanted to become a religious man, but his experience at the hospital and when he saw how the children suffered from very threatening diseases inspired him to write and later he wrote the book The Fault in Our Stars based on these experiences.

One of the most important things about authors is their styling of writing. John’s style of writing is realistic fiction. Green is passionate about people and his stories show the feelings of real people in real situations. John’s writing began when he started to write what he felt and what he saw in people. He writes to inspire and influence. John began his career as a publishing assistant and production editor for Booklist, a book review journal in Chicago. Other than reviewing books, john created radio essays. During this time he started writing Looking for Alaska. His first novel looking for Alaska was published in 2005. It was about teen romance he was inspired by his own experience at his school, Indian Springs. In 2012, the novel reached the New York Times Best Seller list for children’s works. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, it was released in 2006. It is a young adult novel, about equations the main character uses to simplify his romantic relationship. Furthermore, J.K. Rowling’s style of writing is fiction. Joanne uses her imagination and dreams and puts it in a story. While on a journey from Manchester to London, Rowling started writing the first Harry Potter book. When she moved to Scotland next to her sister Dianne, were she was in a bad situation with no job, Joanne started writing again was the only passion left for her. By 1995 she finished the manuscript of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, after being rejected by 12 publishers, finally Barry of Bloomsbury agreed to edit and publish her book. After sometime Joanne started planning the life of Harry Potter, his school Hogwarts School and his friends, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley. She came out with the book in 1998, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Much like the one before, the book was very well received.

Finally, this paragraph will compare their lives after their careers. John got married to Sarah Urist on May 21st 2006 she was a museum tutor before she started her own web series, The Art Assignment. They have two children their son Henry Green was born on January 20, 2010 and daughter Alice Green was born on June 3, 2013. Green has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and has discussed his struggles for people to be aware of this illness on his YouTube channel. On the other hand, Joanne got married to a Portuguese journalist on October 16th 1992. The following year, they had a baby girl. However, the two last long together and separated on November 17, 1993. She divorced on August 1994. In 2001, she got married for the second time to Neil Michael Murray. The couple was blessed with a son David and daughter Mackenzie.

In conclusion, J.K. Rowling and John Green are both famous authors. J.K. Rowling and John Green were both creative writers. J.K. Rowling is a fiction author while John Green is a realistic fiction author. They both had a difficult life but an amazing career. This report discussed their lives, careers, and lives after careers. Both J.K. Rowling and John Green are intelligent writers and they influence people with their writing although both of them use different styles.

Two of the main characters in the story, Miles ‘Pudge’ Halter, and Alaska Young, are vastly different. For two characters who are close friends, they are polar opposites. In the book, their friendship group has relied on loyalty and having one another’s back. Throughout the story, both characters proved that they are loyal and good friends, as often times Alaska took the fall for her friends, and Miles never ‘ratted’ anyone out.

Both Miles and Alaska are intelligent and have a strong presence, although their behavior is different. Miles is well-behaved and quiet, whilst Alaska is rebellious and unpredictable. Alaska comes from a troubled family, as her mum passed away when she was extremely young, which differs from Miles, since he had an average life back home, no family complications.

Alaska is the main character in the book, and she is a unique character. She is quite rebellious and mysterious, with a troublesome past. While attending Culver Creek, she gets herself into a fair bit of trouble, but her erratic behavior is later explained by the loss of her mother at a young age. Despite this, Alaska is a caring friend who loves her friends, which is shown by her extreme loyalty and how she always has her friends’ backs. Alaska is adventurous and isn’t afraid to have fun, although sometimes in the book she is portrayed as grumpy and moody. She definitely seems like an extremely interesting person to be friends with, and I would consider being friends with her, although some of her actions throughout the story got her into trouble. Alaska has some great friendship qualities about her though, which leads me to think she would be a good friend to have by your side.

Alaska, ‘Pudge’ (Miles), ‘The Colonel’ (Chip), Takumi and Lara went on a weekend trip in a forest outside the school, and thought it would be good revenge to put blue hair dye in one of the ‘Weekday Warriors’ (students that go home on weekends) after they played a prank on Alaska. My prediction for the rest of the story is that something tragic is going to happen to one of the main characters. I predict one of the main characters, likely Alaska, is going to get caught and expelled from their school (Culver Creek Preparatory High) due to the prank they pulled.

Personally, ‘Looking for Alaska’ is a great book to read for teenagers to young adults. The book tackles mature and sensitive subjects throughout the course of reading. therefore, I wouldn’t recommend this book for anyone under the age of 13. I feel as if the target audience with this book was 14-18-year-old people, which is who I would recommend this book for. If you are sensitive to subjects such as suicide, I wouldn’t suggest this book, although it is a great eye-opener for me personally, especially the ending, and I think everyone should read it at least once.

Most people think that being an author is just about writing a book and publishing it, however, it is so much more than that. I’m sitting in front of John Green listening to him talk about his personal life and his experience being an author the last 15 years. He is an award-winning, best-selling American author of young adults and teenagers. A big influencer, no doubt, as he was listed by Times Magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world. As he sits there thinking back with a wide authentic smile on his face, he remembers the first book he published, ‘Looking for Alaska’. He sold 18,429 copies!

After graduating, John Green worked as a student cleric in a children’s hospital. His dream was to become an Episcopal priest, however, his path led him in a different direction. He explains that the time he spent with the terminally ill kids in the hospital, motivated him to become a writer. He gained experience working as a publishing assistant for Booklist, and this is where he started writing his first book, Looking for Alaska in 2005.

John Green isn’t like most authors who write about fiction and vampires for young adults. He writes stories about difficult teenagers facing terrible situations. I think that’s why so many young adults are inspired by him because they can relate to his stories. His books contain very deep and powerful messages, it contains intellectual language and concepts, humor and compassion, and is interesting in a way that makes it entertaining and pleasant for young adults to read. I quote, ‘My responsibility is to try to tell true stories.’ He enjoys writing about teenagers as they have a lot of questions about love, relationships, justice and the meaning of life itself. Teenagers aren’t embarrassed to ask those questions about things that are new to them, according to John they approach it with a lot of excitement.

It’s not always easy being an author, there is a lot of frustration during the writing process. As he explains in his own words, ‘The hardest part is excepting when something isn’t working, and letting it go, and starting again.’ He has never given up, through hard times he has pushed through and never stopped believing. He gets a lot of inspiration from his own emotional experiences during his time in high school being bullied.

On a positive note, he gets very excited talking about the YouTube channel he is doing with his brother since they weren’t so close at first. Their first YouTube video was based on their relationship and was called brotherhood. On their YouTube channel, they mostly focus on relationships with each other and a lot of positivity in their videos. Before this YouTube channel that they created, they didn’t have a relationship at all and didn’t even talk to each other.

After my interview with John Green, I have learned a lot from him, and how small things in life can change your world completely. He has shown me a different perspective and how much effort is put into writing a novel. Mostly, I have learned it is okay to be upset, you’re allowed to have emotions. I think most young adults can relate to his books, because it shows us that through the hard times never to give up and to push through, to be happy with yourself and not to care what other people think of you. I think he is an amazing author, and what has happened in his past life is so interesting as well as, that he took his past life and made it such a positive thing and turn it into a book. That many young adults can take that advice from his past life and learn from it.

Everyone has their own persistent labyrinth that can lead them to their downfall or triumph. However, it all heavily depends on how they cope with their Labrinth. In Looking for Alaska, the protagonist is a mystery throughout the book, and the reader later learns that she coped with her suffering with an avoidant coping strategy. There are various healthy, effective ways of coping with intense suffering including exercising, talking to someone, and entertaining themselves. Due to the fact that Alaska had avoidant coping mechanisms, she never really dealt with her pain and suffering. Instead, she tried avoiding or lessening her pain by drinking alcohol and smoking. By Alaska being avoidant, she never faced her demons, and eventually her demons faced her.

What is known about the theory of coping is that there are good and bad coping mechanisms. Those coping mechanisms activate under different life circumstances, however, particularly it is how we manage conflict. For example, when we are under a lot of stress, we try to develop an adaptability to dealing with that stress. A healthy coping mechanism is having fun or entertaining yourself, by doing this your occupy your mind to have fun. This coping mechanism can be effective short term, however, if not combined with other coping mechanisms it will turn ineffective. “Y’all smoke to be cool. I smoke to die” (Green 44). In the book, instead of working through her suffering and finding healthy ways to cope with her problems, Alaska resorted to using unhealthy coping methods such as smoking cigarettes. Thousands of people die each year due to the harmful chemicals in cigarettes, which leads to various illnesses including cancer and can ultimately lead to death. It was a bad decision from Alaska to resort to smoking as one of her coping mechanisms.

Another healthy, effective way of coping with intense suffering is by exercising. Physical stress, can relieve mental stress (“Exercising to relax”). When a person exercises, there are hormones released that make you feel happy. Serotonin and norepinephrine are hormones that relieve feelings of depression, which usually accompany intense suffering. Endorphins are also released, which are known to induce positive emotions and reduce awareness of pain by staying focused on exercising. Although Alaska did not physically exercise, she did read. Joseph Addison once said, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” By exercising her mind, she was able to insert herself in different worlds, and gain different outlooks on life than her own. Reading increases mental stimulation and this can help to relieve stress.

After she died, Pudge and the Colonel started reflecting on all the conversations they had had with Alaska. Alaska never truly communicated how she felt, only through crypted sentences and rare vulnerable moments. It did not end up well for her, and her inner torments are what made her come to her demise. If she would have opened up to her friends about how she was feeling, it is very likely they could have helped her cope with her intense suffering. Everyday, she blamed herself for not dialing 911 and possibly saving her mother. The constant guilt and feeling of uselessness ate up at her, and this is why it is important to talk. Talking about ones intense suffering can be as informal as openly speaking with a trusted adult, counselor, or friend, or it can be with a therapist. Depending on how severe ones suffering could be, it may be ideal to visit a therapist. There are various types of therapies including psychotherapy, which is talk therapy. Going to therapy has been a very effective coping mechanism for intense suffering, and in most cases has been the most essential part of recovery. In a study conducted in Canada, it was proven that Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is very effective. “Patients’ mean self report scores went from abnormal to normal range after an average of 14.9 hours of therapy. Returns to work, reduced healthcare utilization, and medication stopping accounted for a cost reduction of over Cdn$400,000 at one year after therapy” (Abbass 1).

“You just use the future to escape the present” (Greene 54). In a conversation with Pudge, Alaska said these words and in the book it is clear to see that everyone has their own labyrinth. Alaska’s labyrinth was the past. It is very important to properly cope with past and present suffering, so that it will not become a labyrinth in the future. By exercising the mind and body, you engage yourself and hormones are released that aid in becoming emotionally cured. By entertaining oneself, you enable your brain to concentrate on something else. While an excess of distractions can be ineffective, a balance of distractions and communication is essential to coping with intense suffering. Lastly, communication is absolutely essential to not just coping, but healing as well. Most of the time, just communicating how you feel to someone you trust, can be what you need to let go. It is never easy to cope with intense suffering. Intense suffering can come in many forms, however, these three coping mechanisms can aid in being able to properly heal. “We need never be hopeless because we can never be irreparably broken” (Greene 220).

John Green is the author of Looking For Alaska. First friend, first girl, last words , is the words on the front of the book. These words says a lot about the whole book and the content. Because everything is about a girl who´s named Alaska. She’s the main character. This book is not a cliche teenager relationship book, is something different. This book shows things that normal teenagers can relate to and this makes the reader to want to keep reading.

Miles Halter is the protagonist in the book, I don’t think that he´s a normal teeneager. Miles leaves his parents in Florida to go to boarding school in Alabama. The boarding school is named Culver Creek. In the new school he gets a couple of friends which is totally new for him. His mates are called Alaska and Chip and early on in the story they gain a strong relation to each other.

Something that’s unique about Miles is that he likes to “collect” people’s last words. It’s usually well known people but after Alaska’s death he tries to figure out what hers meant. He wonders why she left in such a hurry and afterwards his life changes drastically, again. Chip called Miles for Pudge instead because he thought Miles is to skinny. Miles likes Alaska because he thinks that she is very hot and attractive.

Miles tried to kiss Alaska a few times but she stopped him and said that he shouldn’t ruin their friendship. He thinks she´s confusing her with all of her mood swings and actions. Alaska and Miles maked out when they played truth or dare. They were so drunk that night.

I think that one of the main events of the book is when three unknown people grabbed him from his bed in the middle of the night and duct-tape his arms to his torso and his legs together and thrown him into a lake. But the absolutely main event in the book is when alaska dies in a car accident .

This makes the reader think twice because it turns the whole novel. No One thinks one of the main characters will die before the end of the book , because usually the books ends with someone dying or that the characters live happily for the rest of their life. The day after alaska died gathered the Eagle the whole school together to tell about the tragedy. The Eagle told them that Alaska passed away. Miles will never know her last words or even see her one more time and that destroyed him.

Two quotes that I think describes Alaska’s personality and feelings very well is “you never get me, that’s the whole point”(100 days before page 15) and “there’s no home” ( 44 days before page 24). I think so because Alaska thinks that no one will ever understand how tough childhood she had. And I don’t think she ever felt that she have a home. She thinks that her dad blames her for her mothers death just because she didn’t call the ambulance or him to help her. That’s a hard situation for a child and she shouldn’t blame herself and definitely don’t think that her dad blames her for that, because it’s not she´s fault.

The novel Looking for Alaska, a book written by John Green is a story which is told in first person narrative form the form of the main character Miles Halter. Looking for Alaska takes place in a boarding school named Culver Creek Preparatory. John Green uses a variety of techniques such as symbolism, metaphors and dialogues in order to explore the ideas that developing friendships and building connections with others is essential for personal growth. Similarly, the idea that change is necessary in order to understand and to become familiar with oneself is also expressed through the use of a variety of techniques.

John Green uses a range of literary techniques in order to indicate to the reader that developing friendships and making connections is essential for personal growth. At the beginning of the novel, Miles’ mother ‘’persevered awash in delusion that [Miles] had kept [his] popularity secret from her [thorough his schooling]’’ (p. 9) despite this, Miles lived a lonely life where he had not built relationships with his peers. This use of direct characterization clearly displays that miles clearly considers himself as unpopular. The way of which Miles went about his day is explained as sad, uninteresting and boring; which contrasts to his new life at Culver Creek Preparatory. Furthermore, the literary technique of irony is used when Miles mentioned that he was forced to invite his’ ’school friends’’ (page 9) to his farewell party who he later describes as ‘’the ragtag bunch of drama people and English geeks I sat with by social necessity…’’ (pg. 9). The use of irony in this situation clearly outlines that fact that the people who Miles sat with at school were not really his friends but rather acquaintances. Eventually Miles’ family leaves him to explore a new chapter of his life; whilst Miles watched his parents leaving, he saw them ‘’…drive the winding road off campus.’’ The winding of the road that Miles’ parents took symbolizes the ups, downs and new turns that his life is going to take upon his parents leaving. Through the use of symbolism, the audience now discover that Miles has a new-found sense of independence after parting from his parents who he has always been close to. Not only will Miles’ life change after arriving at Culver Creek Preparatory but his parents’ lives will change as well.

Through new experience come a sense of identity. Green uses a range of techniques in order to portray characters emotions and personalities and to enforce the idea that when someone is put in new situations they learn new things. The literary technique of symbolism is used when Miles states that “[he] realized the importance of curves, of the thousand places where girls’ bodies ease from one place to another, from arc of the foot to ankle to calf… [he’d] noticed curves before, of course, but had never quite apprehended their significance.” (pg. 119) The curves of Alaska’s body symbolize the different angles or curves the one experiences whilst walking through a maze or a labyrinth. Through exploring the metaphoric labyrinth that Alaska is, Miles eventually figures out how to escape the labyrinth of pain and suffering which is where Miles poses the question of; “What is the best way to go about being a person? What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?” Alaska is a young woman who heavily influences Miles’ new-found sense of identity. When Miles and Alaska went to the ‘’Smoking hole’’ (pg.24) Miles is shocked that he goes to ‘’a school with a swan’’ (pg. 24) who Alaska later describes as ‘’…the spawn of Satan [and that] [Miles] should never get closer to [it] than [he is] now.’’ (pg. 24) The Swan in this situation is symbolic of Alaska. This is because she can be calm and beautiful at very first glace but she can also be destructive.