The Worst Day: Putting Alaska's Life in Perspective Megan Wenzel College

“After. Nothing is ever the same” (Green 12). After the worst day of Alaska Young’s life, her whole world is turned upside down and rearranged. John Green’s novel, Looking for Alaska, demonstrates the power and importance that death, suffering, and unhappiness have in life. Following the traumatic death of her mother, Alaska struggles to let go of the guilt and sadness associated with this one day of her life. These emotions are transformed into habits that continue to define who she is. Alaska’s excessive activeness, risky behaviors, obsession with suffering, and familial relationships are a direct effect of the worst day of her life.

At Culver Creek, Alaska is always the first to have an idea, the first to lead a prank, the first to do something new. She is constantly leading the way and making decisions for herself and those around her. One of her friends, Miles, cannot help but decide, “That if people were rain, (he) was drizzle and she was a hurricane” (88). This hurricane that Alaska has become envelops her friends in a way that her passivity could not envelop her mother when she was dying. When Alaska’s mother began to die, Alaska only screamed and cried while her mother held her head and jerked around on the floor....