Looking For Alaska: Week of 9/29/14

Pages- 85-125

Prompt- What Writer's Techniques have you noticed in the book you are reading?

     I've noticed quite a few Writing Techniques used in Looking For Alaska By: John Green. I've also noticed that many of the techniques he uses, are similar to one's he uses in his other books. One big Technique that John Green uses is through the style of his writing. He uses suspense in multiple places, that you may not even look at as suspenseful. Certain passages cause you to wonder what it is that what he is writing means. We can see a form of suspense, in the title of each chapter. Every chapter is titled like, "148 Days Before," "77 Days Before," "16 Days Before," and so on and so forth. He's creating suspense because John Green is not telling us, what these days are leading up to! I honestly can't wait until I get past all of the days leading up to! I want to see what event will happen at the end of them all! Because we don't know what is going to happen at the end, it causes you to want to keep reading. You just want to find out what happens! It's especially suspenseful, exciting and almost nerve racking when you are getting close to the end of the "Days Before" Chapters. You're getting so close to finding out what is going to happen. Also, I think that John Green create suspense through the characters. He does this especially through Alaska. He ends a lot of chapters with quotes or thoughts from the characters, but doesn't provide reaction to what they've said or thought. It makes us want to know and learn more about the character. We want to know why they feel this way, and why they act the way they do. We also want to know why they would say what they said! For example, at the end of chapter, "110 Days Before," the very last line, said by Alaska, is, "Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die." The chapter just ends like that! No other character responded to it in any way. The next chapter doesn't even acknowledge it! It just makes you wonder, why does she smoke to die? What had happened to her, to cause her to want to die? Why would she ever have these thoughts when she has so much going for her? It just creates this new "fascination" with the story. It makes you want to keep reading, so hopefully you'll find out why she, "Smokes to die". John Green definitely keeps us intrigued with his writing. His Writing Technique of Style through suspense, is very clever!

     Another Writing Technique I believe John Green uses is through word choice. Through word choice, he is able to set the tone. He uses a very sophisticated vocabulary to convey the different tones of the story. The different tones include serious, bitter, jovial, sarcastic, intellectual, etc. The tone changes throughout the story left and right. The characters go from feeling joyful; everything is great! They are satisfied with themselves and life. Then all of a sudden they become more bitter about situations they are in. The story has a lot of "mood swings" to say the least. This greatly affects the tone. Though, the tone is able to be conveyed in a more knowledgeable, witty, mature way. This helps to create a better idea of the feeling of the novel. For example, we can see that the book has an intellectual tone when Alaska says, "Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (...) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future, the escape the present." Now, this quote isn't completely full of a more "refined" word choice. Though I believe if John used different words in place of certain ones, it wouldn't have the same affect. It wouldn't have the same intellectual, and Insightful tone. Nostalgia is a sentimental wanting for the past. A Labyrinth is a maze. The story wouldn't be the same if John Green would have just written that you spend your whole life stuck in a maze. It wouldn't be the same is John just said the future is just a wanting of the past. The quote wouldn't create the same effect of sounding sophisticated and scholarly. It's also the way that John Green words his writing! This quote really makes you think deeper into the story, and deeper about life itself. We spend our whole life stuck in this labyrinth. The thought of breaking out of it one day, just keeps you wanting to get out. Though, no one ever seems to pursue what they want. You're just using that thought to escape the future. It really helps us to see who Alaska really is. It also shows us that John Green writes with great philosophy and apprehension. That's how we can see that one of John Green's Writing Techniques is using an advanced vocabulary. As well as "wording" phrases and thoughts different ways. This is to convey the tone of the story and the intellectual thoughts and ideas of the characters.

     The last Writing Technique that I believe John Green uses is Descriptive writing. This is a part of his purpose, using detailed information to explain the story. In one of the more recent chapters I read, it says, "The Colonel's mom lived In a trailer, as in the kind of thing you might see attached to a large pickup truck, except this one was old and falling apart on its old cinder blocks, and probably couldn't have been hooked up to a truck without disintegrating. It wasn't even a particularly big trailer. The place was one really long room, with a full sized bed in the front, a kitchenette, and a living area in the back with a TV and a small bathroom--so small that in order to take a shower, you pretty much had to sit on the toilet." This is describing in great detail what the Colonel's Mothers trailer looked like. He does this by using comparisons, and connections. John Green, does not always describe the thoughts and actions through Miles "Pudge" Halters Point of view. He also uses dialogue between the characters to convey information and thoughts. Though, he mainly uses long descriptions like the example I provided above. That's not even one of the longest descriptions John Green uses in his writing! He usually uses large descriptions when Pudge meets a new person. Or, when he experiences a new setting (like the Colonel's Mother's trailer). John Green also uses exquisite detail when Pudge comes across new observations and thoughts. John Green, I can tell, likes to describe things in great detail. I think he does this so he can get his point across. If John Green were to just say the Colonel's Mother's trailer was run down, then it would have a different affect. We wouldn't be able to picture what he was thinking of when he wrote about the trailer. With the description provided, we are able to get a clearer image of what John was trying to convey! I find the story more easy to follow in that respect. I always know exactly what's going on. This is because John Green will describe the characters, and the setting, and what's going on, so well. That's why I believe that one of John Green's Writing Techniques is using Descriptive writing. He uses such amazingly detailed information to explain the story and what is going on.