Discussion Questions for Looking for Alaska

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.             Discuss the book’s unusual structure (Before and After). Why do you suppose

Green chose this strategy for telling his story? How else might he have structured the same material?

2.             Miles tells the story in his own first-person voice. How might the book differ if it had been told in Alaska’s voice or the Colonel’s? Or in the voice of an omniscient narrator?  (Remember to define first-person narrator, define third person limited, and 3rd person omniscient narrator, please).

3.             The Colonel says,  “Everybody’s got a talent.”  What is/are yours? 

4.             Miles’s teacher Dr. Hyde tells him to “be present.” What does this mean?

5.             What do you think “The Great Perhaps” means?

6.             What is Bolivar’s “labyrinth?”

7.             Has this novel changed the way you regard human suffering? And death?

8.             One of the characters, Dr. Hyde says, “Everything that comes together falls apart.” Do you think the author agrees? How does he deal with this Zen belief in his novel?  What is Zen Buddhism?

9.             Alaska loves these two lines from the poet W. C. Auden: “You shall love your crooked neighbor / With your crooked heart.” What do these lines mean to you and why do you think Alaska likes them so much?

10.          Miles writes, “Teenagers think they are invincible.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

11.          This novel is filled with wonderful characters. Who is your favorite? Why? Do you know any people like these characters? Can you imagine Miles and the Colonel as adults? What might they be like? What professions do you suppose they might choose?