Can we Really Trust Miles "Pudge" Halter?
The narrator, Miles "Pudge" Halter from 'Looking For Alaska,' appears to be an unreliable narrator. From pages 80-170, there were many examples that express the possibility that the narrator is in fact unreliable. After Alaska's death, it's almost as if he completely forgets about who Alaska really was because he get's so caught up in the good of her opposed to the bad. Colonel calls him out on it saying, "Do you even remember the person she actually was? Do you remember how she could be a selfish bitch? That was part of her, and you used to know it. It's like now you only care about the Alaska you made up."- (165) This proves that even Colonel picked up on the unreliability of Pudge as a narrator. His unreliability was generated upon the death of Alaska. Before she passed, he was mesmerized by her and although he knew that she was not the one to always make smart choices, after the car accident he spoke of her as if she was so much better than what she really was.
When Pudge found out about Alaska's accident when the 'Eagle' announced the tragedy to the entire school at the gym, he immediately blamed himself. Afterwards, he convinced himself that it was not his fault at all and even at one point refused to believe that she was even dead. He then started to convince himself that Alaska truly loved Pudge but Colonel disagrees with that and feels that in fact he should stop trying to convince himself and just accept that in reality it was his fault. Colonel tries to pull Pudge into reality by calling him out in saying, "If she loved you so much, why did she leave you that night? And if you loved her so much, why'd you help her go? I was drunk. What's your excuse?"-Colonel (171) This shows that Pudge is unreliable as a narrator because he tries to convince the audience that it wasn't his fault when in reality Colonel has a very good point, why didn't he stop Alaska from leaving instead of helping her?
Alaska came up with this drinking game called best day, worst day and whoever loses has to drink. While playing the game, Pudge's turn comes up and he explains, "Best day of my life was today. And the story is that I woke up next to a very pretty Hungarian girl..."-(115) the only problem is, Lara is not Hungarian she's Romanian and so you would think since Pudge claims that he is in love with Lara and not Alaska, that he should at least know where she's from. This makes him an unreliable narrator because he is lying by saying that he is in love with Lara but truly is in love with Alaska. This sends mixed communications to the readers about his relationships and therefor makes him unreliable.Gunnar, did you notice any mixed communications with Pudge when talking about his feelings between Alaska and Lara throughout your pages in the book?
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