Independent Reading: Looking for Alaska

Characters (Continued)

Miles "Pudge" Halter- Miles has definitely continued to advance the plot as he continues to seek the Great Perhaps. Author John Green characterizes Pudge as a very weak-minded, dependent young man. Pudge's father warns him not to get drawn into the wrong crowd and not to drink, smoke, or do drugs. When Pudge get to Culver Creek, he begins to do the three out of four things his father instructed him not to do. At one point in the story, Miles is faced with ironing, which he is unable to do. This shows how dependent he was on his parent to iron and cook and clean. Pudge seems to also advance the theme of the story because he resembles the normal, clueless teenager these days. Pudge is characterized as a follower, he is always following either the Colonel or Alaska. This is very important because it shows Pudge as a person at the beginning and middle of the story.

Chip "the Colonel" Martin- Chip also continues to advance the story as the spirited, opinionative friend of Pudge's. Chip's character seems to be much more troubled than Miles because of his history. One time he gets in a big fight with his girlfriend and says, "We never get along. I mean, I didn't even briefly like her. Like, my mom and my dad- my dad would get pissed, and then he would beat the [crap]  out of my mom. And then my dad would be all nice, and they'd have like a honeymoon period. But with Sara, there's never a honeymoon period... I'm a bad boyfriend. She's a bad girlfriend. We deserve each other" (Green 38). This excerpt is incredibly powerful because it characterizes Chip as a character who has been given nothing but hate in his life and because of this, thinks he deserves hate in return. In the same circumstance, Chip is faced with ironing his shirt, and like Pudge, has no idea how to do it. This, however, differentiates him from Pudge because the reason he does not know how to iron is not because he has been fortunate enough to have it done for him, it's because he has no reason to need to iron anything. Also, he was never taught to iron or cook or clean.

Alaska Young- Alaska continues to advance the plot of the story as Pudge's main love interest and an important factor in the continuation of the search for the Great Perhaps. There is something so mysterious about Alaska that makes the reader so interested in her. John Green specifically leaves much of her life story out for this reason.