The Great Perhaps

            In a world of scandal, revenge and media crazes, there are fewer and fewer things we can do as humans to make ourselves stand out. We accept most news even the genocide in Darfur or the hundreds killed every month in Afghanistan. These events have the mundane impact of scrubbing a counter. The world is shrouded in a veil of media that glorifies violence, death and sex to a point where we not only accept it but we barely see it. We are so caught up in our own self interest, that rarely now can we tell the difference between what should cause genuine shock and cheap thrills.

            One book broke through the veil for me. I have now finished Looking for Alaska by John Greene. A book that not only turns our plain, existentialistic lives on their heads but parades around with such bold, brilliant philosophy and meaning that you can't help but ask such deep poignant questions as why are we alive, what is there to live for and most importantly "how do we get out of this labyrinth."

            Its not often that a book makes such a mockery of society but can be so incredibly thought-provoking at the same time. We experience life at the rural Alabama boarding school through Pudge, our awkward, resilient main character with a passion for last words. Along with group of quirky, extraneous friends he sets out to experience humanity and seek "The Great Perhaps".

            An ornate fixture of the novel is the character, Alaska. She is gorgeous, brilliant, passionate, temperamental and incredibly philosophical. Alaska leads the group with boldness and brings out love in those lucky enough to cross her path, yet an air of mystery surrounds Alaska that continues into the compelling ending of the book and even the interpretive reader struggles to understand.
**Spoiler Alert**
           After an eventful evening of pranks and romance Alaska suddenly makes an entrance full of anger, despair and guilt. She then takes her car and drives of campus over eighty miles an hour crashing into a jack knifed truck and dies instantly, when she had more than enough time to swerve off the road safely. Both the reader and Alaska's friends struggle onward in an eternity of bewildered, hair-pulling, head-crushing angst.  We are left with an almost selfish parting gift from Alaska. Pondering and unwrapping her death was a morbid treat and in the end we arrive with desperate, self-indulgent suicide or an accidental attempt to barrel her way out of the labyrinth.


            While living with media, cheap thrills and a mundane blur of a world. You can only ask yourself, who wouldn't want to create your own identity, to stand apart, or make your short-lived existence mean something even in the most deep, morbid and passionate, confusing way you can. And so I commend you Alaska Young