Book Structure

In Looking for Alaska, the structure of how the book is layer out is worth discussing.  The whole book is set up in a way that not all books are set up. There is a big event that takes place halfway through the book. This meaning "before" would be before the event. Each short chapter is labeled to indicate how many days before or after that event halfway through the book takes place.  It's like the book is placed as a big countdown. So once its one day before, the next page would be one day after. As you start reading and discover that the first little chapter is taking place “one hundred thirty-six days before," but before what? Before long, Miles meets Alaska, Colonel, and Alaska's friends, Takumi and Lara.   

 


Miles is learning a lot about life and school. He spends a lot of time hanging out with friends. He’s breaking the rules a little bit by drinking and staying up late…What could go wrong?  As the number of days before the big event occurs, our anxiety increases exponentially.  Why? We still our never told straight up what before and after means. The events are getting bigger.  Miles and his friends are planning a big prank and he’s getting closer to Alaska, which is what he wanted all along.  Here’s a graphical representation of how we’re feeling as we read:

Text-to-World

In Looking for Alaska, I've realized that Pudge and Alaska have a bond. But Pudge pictures their bond as more than friends, but Alaska has a boyfriend. This puts Pudge is the situation of jealousy. Jealousy is a big problem in teenage years involving girls and boys and who likes who. This would be Text-to-World because anyone around the world can feel this. It isn't something that just happens in one country. But even though their relationship is close and Pudge doesn't really have a strong opinion about anything. I can still tell by the way he talks about her. He says things like "they were acting so cute with each other but I wish it was me" or things relating to how he feels about Alaska being with Jake, her boyfriend.

Alaska almost acts kind of flirty towards Pudge which could maybe give Pudge the wrong idea. I hope Pudge and Alaska gain a stronger relationship with each other and towards the world. I feel like something big is going to happen involving adventure with each other.

Blog Assessment #1

Some specific phrases that show my writing voice would be “That made me think about how when we are kids, we dream about becoming this great person when we get older and we want to be able to do things that older kids do. But once you're growing up, it's a trap.” This shows my personality as a writer because I really like to look deep into the meaning behind what the writer is trying to show and how it’s impacting the characters. So in this case, when Alaska talks about her name and how she got it, it made me think about how life works and how you’re getting older every second. My personality relates to this because I like acting like a little kid again and once you grow up, you’re stuck. You can’t go back, so you have to embrace it while it lasts.

An example of diction that I included in my blog is, “Even though them just meeting doesn't mean they are going to be "best friends" you can already sense a feeling of them being close in a way that can't be described. Hopefully as the book continues the sense of strong friendship increases.” This is an example of informal diction because it represents the plain language that is used every day like strong friendships being made. An example of syntax that I included in my blog is, “This situation seems wrong to both Alaska and Miles, but Alaska is the only one to actually stand up for him, acting like a sister to him.” This is word order/ sentence structure because Alaska isn’t actually his sister so saying “like a sister” is a simile talking about their relationship in the story.

Her Name

Looking for Alaska continued...

While Pudge and Alaska are together, Pudge likes to find out more about her. He asks her questions and makes comments to find out Alaska's life before the boarding school in Culver Creek, including how her name came to be. Pudge asks Alaska how she got her name and what's the meaning behind it. "Not to ask the obvious question, but why Alaska?" he asked. At first you would think it would just be a one sentence answer on how she got her name. But it was much more. She told him about how her parents couldn't decide so she went by "Mary" at one point, and then on her seventh birthday her parents let her pick. She picked Alaska. Why? I asked myself and so did Pudge. It means "that which the sea breaks against" and Alaska said she liked that. But what really made me think while I was reading was when she said, "But at the time, I just saw Alaska up there. And it was big, just like I wanted to be.

This part of the story I thought has a lot of meaning and weight to make me think about. She picked her name based on a state that she liked the meaning to it. But also because it was big, and that's what she wanted to be. She wanted to grow up. That made me think about how when we are kids, we dream about becoming this great person when we get older and we want to be able to do things that older kids do. But once you're growing up, it's a trap. You want to be a little kid again. But you can't take back the time that she once had as a little kid.

Krista Ramsey

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/15/krista-locking-into-the-magic-of-legos/5521245/

Legos are something that kids will never have enough of and they are something that gives kids freedom of adventure and being whoever they want to be. This is a summary of this article because it explains what legos mean to kids and how much they enjoy them.

"Like sparklers and hugs, Legos are things a child can never have enough of. Wise parents not only understand this, but support their child's Lego habit, sometimes to the tune of hundreds or thousands of dollars over the course of a childhood." 

This line has an impact on the reader because it tells us how legos are loved by kids and it will always be a part of their childhood. Some observations of syntax that I noticed is that the word child is used more than once. This is used to get the point through the reader's heads that children are the one's that love legos.

Ramsey's writing style is that she writes in short small paragraphs to make it easier than if it was one big chunk. She also includes questions for the reader to think about. 

Questions:
1) Have you always wanted to be a writer?
2) Before you became a writer, what was one of your job options that you thought about?
3) If you weren't a writer, what do you think you would be doing now instead?

Developing Characters

As I continue to read Looking for Alaska, I have found that Pudge and Alaska have started to make a lot more effort to speak and communicate to each other, even though I'm not very far into the book. For example, both of them are in a religion class together and Pudge seems to be very interested in what the teacher talks about but gets distracted with the outside world. When he is caught off guard looking out the window, Dr. Hyde, the religion teacher, tells him to leave the classroom. This situation seems wrong to both Alaska and Miles, but Alaska is the only one to actually stand up for him, acting like a sister to him. After he gathered his belongings, Alaska tells the professor that this is BS and why would he get kicked out for looking out of a window? It makes sense to me but after that, he tells both of them to leave. 

They start to enjoy each other's presence and make an effort to talk about what's going on in their lives. When they go to this field of clovers in a park with colonel, they have a lot of fun. Even though them just meeting doesn't mean they are going to be "best friends" you can already sense a feeling of them being close in a way that can't be described. Hopefully as the book continues, the sense of strong friendship increases. 


This link shows how to see how the characters are developed.


http://www.charactercincinnati.org/sixsteps.html

Meet Alaska

I have recently been introduced to a new character in Looking for Alaska and her name is Alaska.
Since the book is in First person, Miles Halter's view, him meeting Alaska was different than if I was meeting her. Miles sees her as a very attractive girl and so far she hasn't really made a great deal of conversation with him. Chip takes Miles to her dorm room to get cigarettes, even though Miles doesn't smoke. Both of the boys go down to the creek to talk and then Alaska comes down to meet them. Miles is just stunned at how beautiful she is and describes her features very thoroughly. Since Chip is older than Miles, he tells him about the school and who to avoid. Alaska tells both of them about some weird experiences that she had over the summer and Miles doesn't seem very interested in her story but seems very interested in Alaska herself.

I have a feeling that Alaska and Miles are going to get to know each other alot more and discover the world around them with Colonel. I found this drawing that I thought was really cute and was similar to what I pictured the characters would look like. The only thing was that Colonel looks like he is  mad for some reason and I'm wondering why that is. Alaska looks super happy to be with them but mostly Pudge because she has her arm around him so I think that's a sign that something is going to happen.