Independent Reading Response: How different are people allowed to be in this text?

            It's an odd thing to contemplate, how different people are allowed to be. As opposed to how different people are. In the book Looking for Alaska by John Green, all of the main and secondary characters have very contradictory personalities. In some areas of their lives, these characters are rebellious and wild, while in other parts they behave in the complete opposite manner. I think the characters, like Miles and Alaska, are allowed to have different personalities in different aspects of their lives.
           John Green starts off the book by portraying Alaska as a wild teenage girl, who doesn't care what people think of her. "Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die" (Green 44). Alaska told this to her friends with such a carefree attitude around it. She made it seem like what she was saying was no big deal. Although, Alaska isn't always her carefree character. At one point in the book, the Colonel was talking about Lara, one of his friends, and what he thought of her body. Alaska responded to his comment with: "DO NOT OBJECTIFY WOMEN'S BODIES" (Green 60). This shows that while Alaska does have a tough side, she is a intelligent young woman, who is bright enough to know when a man is being disrespectful to a woman. Alaska, like most of the other characters is a very contradictory personality.
            Miles, the main character, doesn't exactly have two different personalities like Alaska does. In the beginning of the book John Green introduces him as a lonely nerd. But when Miles moves to Culver Creek Boarding School, that changes. He instantly finds a new group of friends, who aren't "his kind of people." Alaska, the Colonel and Takumi are all wild, much different than Miles had been back in Florida. But Miles quickly becomes one of them, he smokes, drinks and pranks without a second thought. Miles wasn't exactly pressured into being this person, he just followed by example. "I knew my job: sit tight and shut up" (Green 58). Miles thought this during a student trial where Alaska and the Colonel were being convicted of drinking on campus. Although Miles grew up as a well-behaved child, and he felt as if his old personality wouldn't be acceptable for his new friends. After following his friends' behavior for a few weeks, he began to adapt to the smoking and drinking and that character overtook him. I don't think Miles was allowed to be very different, but in the end he seems to enjoy his new carefree self. So maybe his change was (in some ways) for the best.
            The Colonel. Even by hearing his nickname you can tell he is a special personality. A Colonel is a highly ranking officer in the military, and that's exactly how I would describe his relationship with Alaska and Miles. He controls the group's actions, by scheming the pranks and forcing Miles to buy him cigarettes. The Colonel is portrayed as a tough guy, and he is like that at some moments, but at others he can be a sensitive genius. When Alaska tells the group the story of her mother's death, the Colonel softens up. He asks Alaska "Why didn't you ever tell me?" (Green 120). This shows how he can have a sensitive side while still being a rebel. He felt bad for Alaska and wanted to help her. The reader can see the Colonel's devilish side very early in the book. After the Colonel and Miles had been pranked (again)  by "the Weekend Warriors", the Colonel told Miles to "point those guys out to me if you see them today" (Green 29). The Colonel wanted to get back at the pranksters, and he didn't care if it only made the war worse.
            I think that everyone, in their own way, has one personality at home and one at school. For example, at home I'm a bit more laid back than I am at school. Those two personalities are almost natural. I found Miles, the Colonel, and Alaska's personalities interesting because the two were so extreme. I think the way that these characters act shows that, yes, they are allowed to be different. It is almost encouraged to be different, and stick out from the crowd. Miles' group of friends seems to be made up of the outcasts of Culver Creek Boarding School.

Characters in Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobsen is the main character in Paper Towns by John Green. The book is about Quentin and his friends, Ben, Radar and Lacey and their search for Margo, Quentin's "friend", who ran away. Since Margo is a legal adult, at age 18, the police don't do feel the need to search for her. Quentin is a very complicated character, therefore he has many strengths and weaknesses. 

Margo was Quentin's childhood best friend, and as they grew older they grew apart, like most childhood friends do. But Quentin always had a little bit of a crush on Margo and it rekindled when she showed up at his window late one night summoning him. Later in the book, when Margo ran away from home and didn't come back (around the time she had previous times), Quentin began to worry and look for clues that she had left, which she had done in previous "run-aways",  leaving these clues showed Quentin that she didn't care if she was found. Quentin knew when he found the first clue he could find her, I think he felt a bit of a connection with her through the clues, which made him determined to uncover the mystery behind Margo's disappearance.  He didn't ever give up, after facing many complicated obstacles, he continued on his mission to find Margo. This shows that one of his strengths is determination. That he'll do whatever it takes to reach his goal.

When Quentin does show up at Margo's hiding place, he realizes that Margo wasn't looking to be found, her clues were left unintentionally and all his hours of work were pointless. This is when I discovered one of Quentin's weaknesses. He sets high hopes, and when he realizes what the reality of the situation is and it's not what he had imagined, he gets really upset/ disappointed. When Quentin, Ben, Radar and Lacey finally found Margo in New York she seemed irratated or even mad. She didn't mean for them to find her and she was angry that they had, this disappointed Quentin but also angered him, he had driven 21 hours to find her, yet she didn't want to be found.

In conclusion, Quentin's strengths and weaknesses connect directly to the plot line of the book, Paper Towns. Quentin is a very determined character who is willing to do almost anything for a person he loves, like Margo.