Mariah Ryan's Teach This #1

Teach This: Looking for Alaska

Which text: John Green’s Looking for Alaska

            In the novel, Looking for Alaska, we experience the new journey Miles “Pudge” Halter desperately seeks out to have in two separate parts: Before and After. John Green sets the story into the separate parts to clearly define the change everyone experiences after the tragic event.             Miles is unsatisfied with his routine life and lack of friends that he picks up and moves schools—Culver Creek Boarding School—the start of his junior year. His drastic move from his family gives him a chance to seek out a “Great Perhaps”. Upon arrival, Miles makes friends with three students: Chip “Colonel” Martin, Takumi, and Alaska. Their friendships develop and Miles starts to have romantic feelings towards Alaska, though she has a college boyfriend that she seems to be pretty serious with. Miles continues to try and win over Alaska’s affection, but it proves to be failed attempts. After a drunken make-out session between the two, Alaska quickly leaves and drives away after hanging up with her boyfriend who called; Alaska has forgotten about their eight-month anniversary.

            The second section of the book opens with all the students gathering to the gym. It is announced Alaska has died in a terrible car accident. However, the actual cause of Alaska’s death remains a mystery. Was it truly an accident, or did she indeed kill herself—you learn in the novel many things Alaska struggles with (I don’t want to give it away because I do love this book a lot!) This struggle Miles deals with is part of his journey, though it is not the path he was hoping to endure when he moved to Culver Creek. Miles is assigned an essay in which he must answer how he will get out of his personal labyrinth of suffering (from his favorite teacher who instructs the religions class). It is here Miles writes himself out of his misery and finds himself ending one journey, only to begin the next.

Why this text:

            One of the biggest advantages of teaching a mystery novel in a classroom is the suspense that builds within the students. The constant questioning in their minds motivate the students to keep reading to find the resolution to the circumstance. It is with suspense that teachers can build intrinsic motivation within their classroom that will hopefully extend past the English classroom. Bucher and Hinton point out how “the plot of each mystery is the idea of ‘good versus evil, order versus chaos, illusion versus reality, and the necessity of thought as a tool for survival’” (165). In John Green’s Looking for Alaska we see many of these juxtaposing ideas playing with the storyline and the characters themselves as they struggle through what actually happened the night Alaska wrecked her car. It is because Looking for Alaska challenges the reader to consider all possible scenarios of Alaska’s death and exactly how Miles will overcome his grief that students will think critically beyond the text about mental illness, identity, and love.

            One of the biggest successes in Looking for Alaska is the ambiguity of the ending. After the accident, readers learn more about Alaska and her history with depression and anxiety—which we can see her coping with as she drinks heavily within the dorms of her charter school. Alaska’s rebellious nature is not only destructive, but a large part why many argue her accident was just an accident and not a suicide. Bucher and Hinton point out that teaching mystery novels need to “reveal some truth about society and what we hope are the working[s] of our universe” (168). It is through Alaska’s parting that Miles is forced to find his own identity without it being attached to Alaska. It is up to this point we watch Miles desperately fighting for Alaska’s love, though it continues to be unrequited. John Green puts the readers into a tough situation: are they to believe that it was Alaska's time to part from this world, or should they assume she could not continue on and ultimately took her own life? Students can question the idea of free-will or universal fate through Alaska's death, which is part of what a mystery novel is suppose to do. Teachers can have students consider what they know about Alaska’s accident and make a claim using textual evidence.

            The idea of teenage rebellion run rampant throughout the chapters as Miles and his friends plan pranks and trick people into doing ridiculous things. It is even at the end where Miles and Chip pull off the most epic prank and dedicate it to Alaska—for she was the one who enjoyed the pranking and getting revenge more than anyone. This group of kids continually go against societal norms: underage drinking, smoking cigarettes, and sex. These teenagers feel like misfits amongst their superiors, and this is an aspect of teenage life that many young adult readers will be able to identify with. Readers have the chance to establish a connection with these characters, as all of them possess qualities adults see in typical teenage development. Issues such as hazing and being a social pariah are important situations that all students experience at some level: sports teams and clubs might have their new members do something embarrassing or become the new “whipping boy” and maybe some students have untraditional values or enjoy the “less popular” fad. Either way, Looking for Alaska can give those students hope that good company will surround you just when you need it. Each character in the novel has something different to offer the others, and that message speaks to the diversity that individuals need to retain as they move through life so they are offer their gives to someone who might really need it.

            Looking for Alaska bridges the gap between reality and fiction. The scenarios that are portrayed throughout the plot are ones we hear about on the local news stations and hear as we walk down our school hallways. One reason I find novels such as Looking for Alaska so valuable is due to the life lessons it can teach, as well as the enriching literary value it holds in the educational realm. Part of our duty as educators is to mold our students into critical thinkers, empathetic beings, and world changers. Ignoring serious topics like mental illness, identity issues, and bullying do not make them go away but instead heighten the problem. If society continues to think “oh, this would never happen to my little [fill in name]” they are seriously mistaken. However, having an open dialogue with students gives them an outlet and allows them a choice instead of feeling helpless and alone. Looking for Alaska combines an exceptional mixture of life lessons and complex issues that will spark discussion long before the last pages are read.

How to teach this text:

1. Group Discussion:

            During the novel, Miles continues to obsess with getting to his own “Great Perhaps” while Alaska is concerned with how she will escape the labyrinth. For one lesson, I would like to have students really dive deep into what each character means by this. Part of the lesson would involve group discussion—what does Miles mean when he says at the beginning he wants to find his great perhaps? What does the word perhaps mean and how does that apply? I would then like to parallel that to Alaska’s concern of escaping the labyrinth—is this a clue into her potential suicide? Does her obsession about escaping her own struggles speak to the way she copes? How do the two work simultaneously together? This group discussion would open up many new ideas and interpretations about the novel

2. Your final words:

            We quickly learn Miles’ fascination with famous last words: “I go to seek a Great Perhaps”—Francois Rabelias and “It’s very beautiful over there”—Thomas Edison are just two of many. I would like to have students research famous last words and think about what they would make their own. Students will be required to find one “famous last words” from someone in history and explain how they connect with it while creating their own “famous last words”. I would have them research the meaning behind each word they have picked and have them justify how it relates to their life (thus far) as a whole. Students could have a visual that represented their own famous last words, but one is not necessary. This could be a consideration for a final project to present to the class.

3. Old Man’s Final Writing Assignment:

            Part of Miles’ awakening and ability to accept Alaska’s death is through the Old Man’s writing assignment which requires them to face their own struggles to escape their personal labyrinth. Students would take on this writing assignment as a creative outlet. While I would collect them for a grade, I would focus more on their language and expressions used over proper grammar and technical details. I want students to fully engage in the novel. I want them to take on a role as someone who has just experienced great loss, and how that loss in turn allowed them to find their own identity. It would be beneficial for students to use experiences in the text (to provide evidence to me they actually kept up with the readings) and relate their own personal opinions about Alaska’s outcome—in other words, take a stance and defend it through your writing assignment. Students can make the format one of their choice: paragraph, letter, email, etc. and use graphics of their choice if desired. This almost stream of conscious assignment would wrap up the lesson on Looking for Alaska nicely considering Miles’ leaves us with his own assignment in the final pages.

References:
Bucher, Katherine and Hinton, KaaVonia. Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaulation, and    Appreciation. 3^rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.

Green, John. Looking for Alaska. New York: Penguin Group, 2005. Print.