Saturday, 12 July 2014

I Go To Seek A Great Perhaps.

Hello dear readers!
I think I've spent this entire week blogging or thinking about blogging and I have to say it has given my creative side great satisfaction. I really want to thank everybody who has taken the time to sit down and read whatever I have written so far and I hope you all continue to enjoy my work.

So I was looking up Interesting Topics for Conversations when I came across this site that had the question; "What historical figure do you identify yourself with?"


Well, I cannot talk about history. Nor can I identify myself with any of them for the simple reason that if they are notable they have done at least something great with their lives where as I very regretfully have not done anything worthy of note yet.

The good news is though, I have the rest of my life to get there and I will, hopefully.

Since I cannot talk about history I will talk about fiction. They say that it is no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.
Source(s)- Mark Twain/Brainy Quotes.

And well Alaska Young makes perfect sense to me.





The 2 central questions that she constantly battles with throughout the book are questions that I often ask myself as well. 

"What is the best way to go about being a person..what are the rules of this game and how might we best play it?"

And then of course, there's my personal favourite.

"How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?"

I'm well aware of the fact that Alaska is portrayed in an illustrious manner but that is not why I identify with her. Towards the end of the book the labyrinth, how to escape it and what the labyrinth actually is are the main concerns of the characters but what I noticed was that Miles' image of Alaska being the perfect girl slowly shatters and he ultimately realizes that Alaska herself is the labyrinth. 

For example when he says: “I realized the importance of curves, of the thousand places where girls’ bodies ease from one place to another, from arc of the foot to ankle to calf, from calf to hip to waist to breast to neck to ski-slope nose to forehead to shoulder to the concave arch of the back to the butt to the etc. I’d noticed curves before, of course, but I had never quite apprehended their significance." The different curves of Alaska's body refer to the curves and edges you would find in a maze.

Alaska is different from the other characters because she is aware that the labyrinth exists whereas the others are at first oblivious. With this in mind she drowns herself in the labyrinth that compromises of pain and suffering and being mistreated. She constantly blames herself and with this I can wholeheartedly identify many a time when things take an unexpected turn. 

I didn't agree with John Green when he said "The only way out of the labyrinth is to forgive." But I did agree with Miles when he said "The labyrinth blows but I choose it." There is no proper way out but we keep living, we keep choosing the labyrinth. 

Every.
Single.
Time.

And finally I have to say that the way to go about being a person is ...undecided. It is very much like the Great Perhaps. There is no set way to live. Alaska's strategy is straight and fast before suffering anymore. And I identify with her but I don't agree with her. She's beautiful and smart but she's selfish. 

How do you think you can escape the labyrinth?

Until next time 
XXO
Sara Malik.©


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