The theme in the novel Looking for Alaska and the film Paper Town is reflecting on the opportunities we have in life and dealing with adversity when it comes to family, friends, relationships, and even school. The topics are prevalent in both works because we have opportunities that we sometimes let go of, as a teenager, and cope with our problems in a different way, that won't always have a successful outcome. Whereas to, when we make mistakes or we are dragged into hard situations, it is hard to focus on being positive about our thoughts and decisions, and deal with finding the right solution to cope our difficulties.
Teens are portrayed similar in each work. In the novel, Looking for Alaska, the main character, Pudge, falls in love with Alaska. He is very caring towards her and experienced things with her, things he's never done before. For example, when Pudge was supposed to spend Thanksgiving's event in Florida with his family, he decided to be absent for the event to go out with Alaska. Pudge for the first time, experienced the feeling of being drunk. At the end, Pudge finds out Alaska died in a car accident and looks clues to why and how her life ended up in death. In the film, Paper Town, the main character is Quentin. He is very smart and cares a lot about his first childhood love, Margo. Margo convinced Quentin to sneak out and help her get revenge of her ex because he cheated on Margo with her best friend. It was late at night, Quentin had fun experiencing new things that could get in trouble. This is realistic because teenagers go through these situations in the stage of adolescence. We go through a stage of life where we make mistakes and learn from them. Pudge deals with adversity by remembering quotes people have said to him, and always think about what the quotes meant. Quentin deals with adversity by thinking things very deeply and at the end making connections to his thoughts. Pudge and Quentin both deal with adversity by listening to advice from their friends and realizing what Alaska and Margo were going through. This can show us about ourselves that we have to take the advice our elders give us and think about the things before we do them and make a mistake.
A film can have a visual view and actually see what is happening physically, something a text does not have. A novel can describe in words and show alliteration. This affects the story by being able to physically see the actions, and being able to impulse while reading.
