Literary Blog Number 2: Character Sketch

1.) The protagonist of Looking for Alaska is Miles "Pudge" Halter, a 17 year-old boy with an obsession for famous last words. Miles grew up in Florida with his Mom and Dad, throughout his life he spent a lot of time alone and never made many close friends. Miles spends most of his time reading biographies of famous authors and poets, memorizing famous last words and searching for his  "Great Perhaps."
Since the book is written in first person format from Miles' point of view, his physical appearance isn't discussed often.  Miles is described as being very tall and thin, hence his ironic nickname, "Pudge," given to him by his boarding school roommate, Chip "Colonel" Martins. We don't know what his hair, eye or skin colour is.
Miles changes very much throughout the book. At the beginning he starts out very shy and likes to keep to himself and as the book progresses he slowly becomes more outspoken and rebellious. Miles has a thirst for knowledge and unlike most typical teenagers he enjoys going to school. But when Miles meets Alaska Young, the most gorgeous girl he's ever seen, his lifestyle begins to change. He starts smoking cigarettes, not paying attention in class, breaking Culver Creeks biggest rules, getting kicked out of basketball games and planning elaborate pranks.
Overall Miles is a very kind and intelligent character that doesn't like to go against the group or be a leader.


If Looking for Alaska  was made into a movie I would cast Freddie Highmore as Miles.

2.) The novel is set in Birmingham, Alabama, at Culver Creek Boarding school, over the course of Miles’ junior year of high school. The majority of the story so far takes place at Culver Creek but Miles and his friends often make trips to the nearby city of Birmingham. Birmingham provides a place where the main characters aren’t restricted by as many rules as they are at school and is a setting often associated with an overall happy feeling. The city is also the place where Alaska buys alcohol and cigarettes with her fake ID, so it also holds a feeling of rebellion. 

Culver Creek has a much different feeling then Birmingham. All of the students there are either paying tuition or have an academic scholarship, so maintaining good grades is very important to every student. The school seems to be very controlled and provides the perfect backdrop for the trouble that the main characters get into. There are many rules at Culver Creek that are enforced by The Eagle, the school’s headmaster with zero tolerance for troublemaking, and that seems to fuel the main characters to break the rules and cause as much trouble as they can.

Birmingham reminds be of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the setting for the novel, The Perks Of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Both places are relatively large cities and provide a place for the main characters of each novel to have more freedom and have fun. Culver Creek did not remind me of any place that I’ve been or read of, but I imagined it to look like a smaller version of Harvard University.