Reading Response

Taylor McGloin

812

                                      Reading Response

    A book that I have been reading and have chosen to write my response on is "Looking for Alaska" by John Green. During ELA we were all asked to come up with a critical thinking question and I chose "How does this book make you think more deeply about issues that are important to you?" And as I continued to read I elaborated on this idea and all the social issues encountered in the book. 

    One huge social issue in "Looking for Alaska" is underage drinking and drug use which occurs a lot in the book. That kind of stuff is not as common in middle school, as it is in college but this made me look in and think more about the consequences emotionally, physically, health wise etc. Alaska was very clueless when it came to thinking about all these substances and their effects on people. As I looked into it I realized more deeply how harmful underage drinking and drugs can be, considering the thought. had never really occurred before. "Out of control not looking back at it" says Alaska when high showing how out of control and crazy things can actually get. 

    Another social issue I looked into and started "thinking more deeply about" was Teen suicide/self harm, In this book Alaska was very depressed about her life and life in general. To cope with her problems she would cut her wrists and cut her thighs and as it built up more and more she finally made the decision to kill herself. Teen suicide and self harm is something very common in society right now. As I read this I also looked into the social issue bullying and learned more about it and studying this also made me think more about these kind of events in any situation. Seeing Alaska struggle when she says " I can't continue to do this day to day" made me want to study more about it. 

    In conclusion "Looking for Alaska" made me think deeper about social issues like abusing substances, underage drinking, bullying, depression, self harm and teen suicide. As I looked into it I learned a lot more about the effects of different situations.