MEET JOHN AND HANK GREEN: Part 2: John’s Novels
- Dec 11, 2014
- 4 min read
By: Omar Ateyah
Creative Writer
John Green’s novels from left to right: Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, Will Grayson (co-written with David Levithan), and The Fault In Our Stars (courtesy of Google images)
John Green always knew he wanted to be a writer, whether in his excitable childhood or in his often painful and awkward adolescence. In fact here’s a video of John reading a poem that he wrote in elementary school:
In 2005, John published his first novel, Looking for Alaska, which went on to be No. 1 on the New York Times Bestsellers List as well as winning the Printz Award. Looking for Alaska is about a young man named Miles “Pudge” Halter who leaves his boring and somnolent life in Florida to attend a boarding school in Alabama called Culver Creek. At Culver Creek, Pudge befriends the angry yet brilliant Chip “the Colonel”, the Japanese rapper Takumi, but of all, Pudge meets and is enthralled by Alaska Young, the wonder of a girl whose dorm is near his. Alaska appears to be the definition of adventure and excitement, the one who may launch Pudge into “The Great Perhaps” he has always dreamt of. However, as tragedy strikes, Pudge will have to acknowledge the true meaning of suffering and what really awaits a person after they die.
This novel is concerned with a labyrinth, the labyrinth that every individual must solve on his/her own behalf. The labyrinth is suffering; and how do we escape it? How do we evade the things that haunt us? Ultimately, while Alaska may appear to be otherwise, I have come to the conclusion that Alaska was Pudge’s labyrinth. This does not necessarily mean that Alaska is a bad person; the issue at hand concerns Pudge and his inability to exit his internal conflict with the girl who is only a girl, despite how miraculous she may seem. This hamartia that Pudge possesses makes him sink into misery for he is chasing something that does not exist.
Also, as Pudge studies Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism he tries to find an answer to the question of What’s next? When our bodies decay underground, where does the part that makes us who we are go? Does it really make sense that our true being simply disappears?
The next year John Green published his second novel, An Abundance of Katherines. The novel tells the story of Colin Singleton, a child prodigy that has just graduated high school, who has a problem. Since he was a very young boy, he has been with nineteen girls, each named Katherine, and every single one of them has left him. After the nineteenth time, Colin is absolutely depressed and also fearful that he will not emerge as a revered genius. His best friend, Hassan, believes that the only cure for Colin’s problem is a road trip. The two travel in Colin’s car, and then they find themselves in the small town of Gutshot, Tennessee where they meet Lindsay Lee Wells and her mother, Hollis. Adventure ensues with pig hunts, rumbles, and above all, Colin develops a romantic theorem to calculate the outcomes of all relationships. Will this prodigious young man blossom into a full blown genius with a happy life?
Colin grapples with the conflict of many; what mark will I leave upon the earth and will I be remembered? What a reader learns is that this world is not infinite and the future is not predictable so why attempt to live in it? Why not live in the moment and try to live your life in the best way possible? Colin learns that all our achievements and every living soul will simply be a memory or a story.
In 2008, John’s third novel, Paper Towns, hit the shelves. Paper Towns follows the story of Quentin “Q” Jacobsen, a high school senior, who lives next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman, the most fantastical being in his eyes. Naturally, such a girl would never pay much attention to him, but one night, Margo summons Q and the two of them set out on an adventure of pranks and break-ins around Orlando, Florida. After the magical night, Margo simply disappears. She does not show up to school for days and days, and Q then begins to notice clues left by Margo that are strictly for him and they take him all around Orlando and beyond as he tries to figure out who Margo really was.
The message in Paper Towns is the dangers of imaging a person as more or less than such. In this novel, Q is constantly imagining Margo as a peculiar phenomenon rather than what she is: a missing girl. Q’s fantasies prevent him from living the last few weeks of his senior year and cause him to become consumed by his own mind. We also learn Margo’s struggle as she is constantly viewed as an origami paper: a girl who is never really who she wants to be but a portrayal of what others view her as.
(To Be Continued…)
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