The characters in the book have started to come out and
display who they are and what they want as I’ve read more and more. Pudge is
not as quiet and shy as he used to be and has actually made quite a few friends
while still maintaining good grades. The Colonel has convinced Pudge to try
smoking and it doesn’t take him long to get hooked. On top of that, Alaska got
him to try his first drink of alcohol, which he wasn’t very fond of. He still
has not made much progress on getting what he wants: Alaska. Every time he gets
close to kissing her she says,” You’re adorable, but I love my boyfriend.” She
has been loyal to her boyfriend throughout the whole book so far, but her
personality tells me that won’t stay for long. Besides Alaska, Pudge wants to
keep getting good grades while having fun with his friends. The Colonel &
Alaska both seem to desire the same things. They care about having fun with
their friends and pulling the best pranks they can. It seems that getting an
education isn’t the first thing on their priority list. The Eagle wants all the
kids to follow the rules and do their best to excel in school. He wants them to
have fun too, just as long as they don’t cross any lines.
One theme that’s
beginning to appear in the story is Self Discovery. I’ve mostly seen this theme
in Pudge so far. When he first came to Culver Creek he was shy, lonely and
unsocial. But because of The Colonel & Alaska, Pudge has begun to discover
his true self. Another theme that has appeared is Independence. A lot of new
independence is given to Pudge, which helps support the other theme because it
helps him to discover who he is and what he really enjoys doing. He’s started
off fresh, away from his family & old school. I predict that Death will be
another theme to appear in this book because Alaska and Pudge talk a lot about
her mom’s death and they both think about what will happen when they die. Also,
Pudge studies a lot of people’s last words, and I feel like that will be
involved with something later in the book.
After reading quite a bit of this
book I’ve noticed that it’s structured in a creative way. Instead of chapters,
the book is in a countdown. For example, the book starts off saying,” one
hundred thirty-six days before.” And as you keep reading, the days slowly
decrease. I think it’s very creative because this structure helps events form
in the story and it also foreshadows that something is going to happen when the
countdown reaches zero. While looking around and reading things about this book
on the web I came across a video by John Green, the author of Looking for Alaska. In this video he
talks about the Printz award and also how he wrote the book. Here is the link
to the video:
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