Realistic Fiction
Although 'Looking For Alaska' is a fiction novel, the way that the author describes the situations and experiences throughout the book, convinces the reader that it is a non-fiction book due to how realistic the situations are.
When Pudge and Alaska undid the bottle of vodka from a field just off campus, Pudge experiences one of his first encounters with peer pressure. Alaska unscrews the bottle, takes a sip and passes it to Pudge and says, "Don't worry about the Eagle tonight" then Pudge explains, "I thought about it for a moment as I held the bottle by the neck, but I wanted to trust her, and so I did. I took a minor sip, as as soon as I swallowed, I felt my body rejecting the stinging syrup of it. It washed back up my esophagus, but I swallowed hard, and there, yes, I did it. I was drinking on campus." -(81) Although Pudge was extremely uncomfortable with the whole situation of breaking the rules and drinking on campus, he let his feelings for Alaska get in the way and fell into peer pressure. This is something that happens to students in high school and post secondary all of the time which makes this situation very realistic to the real world.
The very first day that Pudge meets Alaska and the Colonel, Colonel convinces Pudge to go have smoke with them in the designated 'smoking hole'. Of course smoking isn't something that Pudge had ever considered doing because it's completely out of character but due to the fact that he is looking for someplace to fit in, he does anyways. His explanation is "1) I was on an Adirondack swing by myself, and 2) I had cigarettes, and 3) I figured that if everyone else could smoke cigarette without coughing, I could damn well, too."-(18) Once again this goes back to realistic possibilities of peer pressure and wanting to fit in with the crowd. His explanation is an explanation in which many young smokers may recite almost the same thing about trying it because they figure if everyone else can than why can't they. I believe that if he had denied the cigarette that it would quite possibly make the story unrealistic due to the increase of teenaged smoking influenced by peer pressure.
One of the most realistic situations in the entire book was Alaska's death. I know that I have referred to this in all of my blogs but that is because if how realistic and significant of and event it really was. Throughout your life you will always experience loss and most likely on multiple occasions and Pudge happened to experience loss in one of the worst ways. Alaska, the girl that he loved and his best friend died in a car crash while intoxicated, and Pudge knew that she was drunk and still let her drive, in fact he helped her escape. He was put into a very tough position when he saw the hurt in Alaska's eyes while she begged him to help her escape and that is the only reason that he let her go. After he found out about the accident and that she was gone, he began reading into it for some sort of explanation. -(165) Pudge suspected possible suicide and began looking up symptoms then looking back to see if Alaska has experienced any of them. Pudge shut himself down as any teenager in his position would. Having to experience what Pudge experienced, reflects the realistic attributes in Pudge's character when he shows guilt, sympathy and pain while mourning his loss. Were there any reasons regarding Alaska's death that you found made him a non-realistic character?
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