Looking For Alaska

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Prompt - Are the characters realistic? Why or why not?

I think that a lot of the characters are realistic, but some, not so much. For example, the main character, Miles. Miles seems like a very real person because John Green described him as being someone who just wants to leave his usual life and try to look for something else. In this case, Miles is looking for "The Great Perhaps" which is basically something that one of his favorite poets said, just before he was about to die. I think that Miles has one big trait, that for me, really isn't realistic. Miles remembers a lot of last words. So basically, Miles remembers that last word or phrase that famous people have said before their death. I find this to be not realistic because, I mean, who would really remember so many last words off of the top of their head. Like, in the book, one of Miles' friends, Takumi, who would just name a random famous person, and Miles would know their last words right away. I feel like even though Miles has this "talent", he is still a very realistic person.

Another character that I feel is very realistic would be Chip, or as his friends call him, "The Colonel". Chip got this weird nickname for being known to always be the mastermind behind all the pranks played at Culver Creek. The Colonel seems like a very realistic kid because he comes from a kind of bad background, but is super smart. He seems like the type of person that knows when to act stupid, and when to actually pay attention to the world. The Colonel feels like the most realistic person in the book, in a way that he is so crazy about loyalty and trust, but how he really doesn't care about anything.

Alaska Young, has to be a real person. John Green described her personality so well, that I feel like I know her. John described her as being a girl who is so beautiful and care-free. In the beginning of the book, she talks so freely about other people and tells her friends that she always has their back, but in a huge plot twist, all of her friends find out that she had ratted out Mayra last year. Mayra was a girl that went to Culver Creek last year and had been expelled because she had broken several rules. Now, in Culver Creek, the students have this pact where no one tells on anyone, no matter how much you hate them. So someone had to rat out Mayra. No one really knew who, and people suspected that The Colonel had, but then, Takumi found out that it was Alaska. I feel like this act of backstabbing is very real because in a school like Culver Creek, it really is one person for themselves.