Does the Colonel (Chip) give himself and Pudge (Miles) new names to counteract their feelings of being outsiders at Culver Creek? Or is he hoping the new identities will change their realities and/or enhance their reputations? How easily is Pudge/Miles manipulated by Chip and Alaska? Does Alaska have power over the boys because she is attractive or is it simply because adolescent males with raging hormones are ripe for manipulation by any female? Is it their flaw? Does jealousy/suspicion make it difficult, if not impossible for males and females to be good friends? Start blogging about this book as it relates to the theme topics in Othello.
42 comments:
no its not impossible to become good friends with someone of the opposite gender nowadays but the its more common then in elementary when girls and boys just repel each other.
as for the main character being attracted to the colonal could it possibly be because they are outsiders?
No, it's not impossible for them to be friends because throughout the book they were both supportive to each other and very understanding about what eachother was going through at different times.
Why does the colonel bring pudge along with him with out asking him if he want to?
Alaska has a boyfriend, and she say's she loves him and clearly shows it. But why does she act all flirty towards Miles(Pudge)? Will she cheat on her boyfriend with him? Or will she lead Pudge on?
The Colonel was very sure that Pudge was going to follow him because Pudge is an outsider and he does what everyone else does.
Why did Pudge and Colonel let Alaska drive while drunk?? They knew they should of stoped her, why didn't they??
I noticed that when Pudge first arrived at the school, he was an outsider, but once he made some friends, he kinda came out of his shell. Back home, he had no friends, and no one came to his goodbye party, but once he moved, he started to become more open and socialable.
Why do you think Miles is going along with everyone else?For example the prank thing and the drinking and smoking. Is it just to fit in or because he wants to?
response...I think that Pudge and the Colonel were also too drunk to know what they were doing! They realized that they should have stopped her until after she left when it was too late!
Pudge always remembers that Alaska told him "to be continued..." Do you think it's going to continue? Is she really dead?
no, it's not going to continue, because she is dead. They may never know why alaska went out so late and drunk, or what exactly happened to her at the moment of the crash. She may be with them in spirt, but not life form.
When they were testing to see how drunk alaska was, they found out that she was really drunk,what was the reason that caused her to crash,her being drunk or did she want to kill herself?
mireyas6cerra said...
When they were testing to see how drunk alaska was, they found out that she was really drunk,what was the reason that caused her to crash,her being drunk or did she want to kill herself?
Answer
Alaska's self destructive behavior is the cause of her death, aside from being drunk. She thinks she keeps messing things up (i.e. marya incident, her mom's death, her unfaithfulness to jake) and its piling up inside her. When she realized the mess up she made after calling Jake before she died, she acted w/o thinking (prolly the effect of alchohol) and makes irrational choices ending in a very tragic result. Like the note said on the simon bolivar biography: straight and fast is her way out of the labyrinth. So its most likely a suicide.
Is the prank they're going to pull in honor of Alaska or is it just because they feel they have to do a prank? Did it work?
Is the prank they're going to pull in honor of Alaska or is it just because they feel they have to do a prank? Did it work?
I think they pulled the stripper prank for Alaska, especially the speech. The speech sounds like something Alaska would write, it creates an illusion to everybody that she is still alive and well enough to pull a prank that elaborate.
What do you guys think Alaska's tragic flaw?
Why do you guys think that Alaska didn't say why she was leaving or what had happened when she freaked out?
In response to Alaska's tragic flaw i believe it was her constant drinking and drugs and her self depression that had her tragic flaw beacuse of her lack of confidence and blaming her for many things like her mother dying,unfaithfullness to jake.
response to Alaska leaving without telling anyone why is because of her own mood(let alone being extremely drunk)and place of mind which was suicidal at best at the time.
response to Alaska cheating on Jake with was probably her leading on like their previous moments of flirting or she could have been spilt between them.
why didn't Alaska tell anyone that she felt guilty for so many things? And that was the reason that she freaked out and left, because all her emotions got together and she exploded.
alaska was a person who kept her problems to herself. she didn't talk to people about her problems to many. like for example, no one know that it was her mom's death anniversaryexcept for takumi, and if she does tell people, it's in a under the surface way.
to anwser kevins5kreuger: they did do the stripper prank in memory of alaska. She came up with the idea, and she wanted to do it, so they did it for her. notice how pudge said to someone it wasn't them, it was alaska. and also before the stipper started stripping, he said this is for alaska.
Emphasizing on my answer about
"notice how pudge said to someone it wasn't them, it was alaska."
it was alaska's plan BUT SHE DIDN'T PUT IT TOGETHER. So technically, she planned it and Colonel and the others put it into action to project the illusion that Alaska is still alive. But in reality she is just rotting 6 feet under dirt.
why didn't Alaska tell anyone that she felt guilty for so many things?
Because she is afraid to face the reality of her mess ups. She keeps repressing them (the trauma of knowing she could have saved her mother and its her fault she died), bottling them up until theres the moment when she forgot about her mom's death anniversary because she is too pre-occupied with the super-prank they were planning.
alaska was a person who kept her problems to herself. she didn't talk to people about her problems to many.
She just don't talk about her mom's death because it reminds her of how much she messed up. Then she didn't tell anone about the marya incident because everyone is gonna think she is a snitch, and whenever she does talk about it, it reminds her of her other mess ups. Whenever she remembers the trauma of her childhood past, she is very vulnerable mentally and makes stupid decisions (which is what happened before she died, accompanied by alchohol makes more irrational decisions).
What does the Great Perhaps symbolize? Why does Miles want to find it?
Why were all of them such as , Miles, Alaska, the Colonel, Takumi, and Lara all into smoking and drinking?Did they do all of this to fit in and to be cool and to get rid of their problems by drinking!
They all fit in to it because of their problems, like Miles who wants to have friends and a new life or Alaska who needs to express herself in pulling pranks.
If Alaska was still alive would her relationship with Miles be the same?
Who among the main cast of characters has changed the most since the beginning to the end?
response...to "If Alaska was still alive would her relationship with Miles be the same?"
I think that their relationship would have been going on and off because of thier change in personality. For example Miles never set a real relationship with Lara and Alaska had a boyfriend but she was cheating on him with Miles.
In response to..."What does the Great Perhaps symbolize? Why does Miles want to find it?"
At his old school he never had friends and he wanted to see if by changing schools he would perhaps find some friends. He also has a lot of "what if's" like , what if tried stopping Alaska from driving off, What would happen? A great perhaps is a big question that he ask himself throughout the whole book.
Response to..."Who among the main cast of characters has changed the most since the beginning to the end?"
I think that Pudge changed the most because he never had friends and then he did and hje used to never drink or smoke,and he also got his first girl friend through out the book and he was actualy cool because he had a llot of friends.
Was Pudge actualy interested to find more about the author that wrote about the labyrinth or was is just to impress Alaska?
in responce to mireya, i think pudge wanted to both impress alaska and find out about the author. he is a guy who likes to find out information(expecially last words someone says), and he was like in love with alaska.
changing schools really helped his self esteem and make him feel like someone cause he had negative thoughts, but it stopped after he got to know people and had his first gf(as mireya said).
Do you guys think Alaska manipulated Pudge the way Iago controlled Othello?
Alaska flirted with Pudge as Iago filled Othello's head with lies.
In the end part of the book when every one learned Alaska had died in a car accident(maybe suicide)how did it affect the mood of the remaining part of the ending?
What did pranks mean to Alaska during the book?
Did Miles's view and meaning of life change after Alaska died?
In the end part of the book when every one learned Alaska had died in a car accident(maybe suicide)how did it affect the mood of the remaining part of the ending?
The tone of the book became dark, depressed, and sad. Pudge and the Colonel wanted to know why and how Alaska died. Through investigating her room, her actions, and her attitude: they found out how fragile and weak the strong, outspoken Alaska they knew.
Hi,
(I wrote Looking for Alaska.)
I just want to say that I think some really fascinating questions have been raised here, and that a lot of you have obviously read the book with a lot of thoughtfulness and depth--and you've really looked with great perceptiveness into the minds of the characters and their motivations.
Thanks for that. I feel very fortunate to have readers who take my books seriously.
Best,
John
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