Tolog Review: Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska
by John Green 
reviewed by Leah Rassam 

There is always the “awe” moment in a movie, that point where everyone drops their jaw and gazes at the screen, wishing a spontaneous moment like the one in the film could happen in their lives. People look at the screen, hoping for a couple of seconds, until reality kicks in. For Miles Halter, this is not the case. He has always been waiting for that “moment”. He calls it the “Great Perhaps.”

Miles Halter’s life is boring so he decides to attend Culver Creek, a boarding school where he is looking to find his “Great Perhaps” and make friends. Before going to Culver he never made an effort to get to know people; Miles merely had acquaintances. So when he stumbles upon of group of people he enjoys hanging out with, he is surprised to find out they like his company. When the teacher disciplines Miles for daydreaming, his new friend, Alaska, defends him telling the teacher, “I’m sorry but that’s bullshit. You can’t just throw him out of class when you drone on and on for an hour every day, and we’re not allowed to glance out the window?” (39). Miles is still trying to grasp the idea of having friends, and he does not know how to react and show his support. Throughout the novel there is a change in his personality, and he grows as a character. Miles goes from being a kid with no friends to someone who has a close knit group of friends.

Miles continues search to for his “awe” moment. What Miles does not realize is that his “Great Perhaps” is happening in the relationships he has formed that will affect him for the rest of his life. The moment he has been dreaming of will actually be a collection of memories coming from the people he surrounds himself with: his friends. These are Miles’s thoughts after Alaska dies in a car accident. “For she had embodied the Great Perhaps- she had proved to me that it was worth it to leave behind my minor life for grander maybes, and now she was gone and with her my faith in perhaps” (172). After her death Miles and his friends analyze whether or not she killed herself or if it was really an accident. Miles now begins to see how moments only stay for a couple of seconds, but the relationships will be remembered forever. He sees this in his relationship with Alaska. 

John Green showcases how life is fragile and yet must go on. He demonstrates how we cannot wait for our own personal dreams to come, but must continue to live life to the fullest. Through the development of his character Miles, Green emphasizes how life can change dramatically in a moment. It then becomes clear that we have to live to our potential and cherish the relationships and friends we have that help us become the best version of ourselves that we can be.