Culver Creek Boarding School

The novel "Looking for Alaska"by John Green, recites the tales of Miles Halter, also known as Pudge. Pudge is a shy teenager, sometimes insecure and obsessed with people's last words. He starts his story when he enrolles in Culver Creek Boarding School and leaves his parents down in Florida. On arrival day he meets Chip Martin, nicknamed the Colonel, his roommate that later introduces his friend Takumi and Alaska Young.  Alaska is the hottest, smartest and funniest girl around campus and her whole life is just one huge party.  Part of being the newbie around means some silly pranks but for Pudge it isn't that fun when he is thrown into the lake, tied and naked by some kids nicknamed the Weekday Warriors (the rich kids).  Later when Pudge tells the Colonel about his late night swim, he goes nuts and decides that they need to take back on them. After, they go to a basketball game in which they get kicked out and also are caught smoking by the Eagle. Pudge is now starting to change his lifestyle a lot, from being a friendless kid to being the rebellious group of the school.

QUOTES & INQUIRY “I was looking at the wooded, slow-sloping hill beyond the lake. And from Hyde’s classroom things did seem connected: The tres seemed to clothe the hill…. I couldn’t see the trees for the forest- everything so intricately woven together that it made no sense to think of one tree as independent from that hill (Green, 39.)”

 While reading this passage in the story, I found myself thinking how things in my life are the same, every aspect of my life is interconnected so I must have balance and order.

 It is imperative for me and everyone to know and measure the importance of things around them in order to have stability.

The idea that everything is interconnected is a really good concept for me to be able to plan out my life since I now know the importance of making sure everything is taken care. This is like taking care of a garden, if I only water the the flowers, the grass and trees will die and then it will require extra work to bring them back to healthy plants.

"You just use the future to escape the present (Green, 54.)
When I read this quote that Alaska mentioned while talking to Pudge about the labyrinth of life, it made me think how much people fear life. We try to avoid what happens right now justifying it with the future because it is easier that way, words are far easier than actions. Also I think us humans only focus on the final goal instead in the path to get to it, therefore we skip the hard parts of life by fantasying perfection.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Since I just started the book I find that it is kind of boring hearing about Pudge's life for now, but can see how conflict will start building up. Yet I first  need to understand how each character thinks in order to understand the climax. Alaska's character brings me most of my attention since she is so unique. John Green has made a great job  characterising her and making her story, quite a tale.