After high school he was accepted into a private liberal art college called Kenyon College, which was all they way in Ohio so he had to move away from his family. During his time in Kenyon John Green got a double degree in English and another in Religious Studies. After college he worked as a student chaplain in a children's hospital. During the time he was thinking of becoming an Episcopal Priest, but being surrounded by children with terminal- illnesses inspired him to become writer. After that he became a writer for Booklist, a book reviewing journal. While working as a critique he began writing Looking For Alaska. In a Q&A John Green was asked many questions about the book, like “How did you make up the chapter names?” or “How long did it take to write Looking For Alaska?” One of the questions that caught my eye was “Is Alaska based off a person you knew?” And his answer was an entire paragraph explaining one of his friends, who yes was a girl, died and he also explain their relationship and how he respected her and liked her.
Q. Is Alaska based off of someone you knew?
A. I dislike answering this question honestly, because the dead cannot speak for themselves and because the novel is really and truly fictional. Also, some of my classmates were understandably upset about the ways in which the novel re imagined and reinvented certain events that actually happened to us, and I want insofar as possible not to further that hurt.
That noted: When I was a student at Indian Springs, a classmate of mine died, and her death was devastating to the entire community. My relationship with her was nothing like Pudge’s relationship with Alaska (I was much more like the fake mourners that Pudge rails against), but she was someone I liked and admired a lot, and even now that it has been almost 20 years, I still don’t feel reconciled to what happened.
That’s all I’ll say about this, I think. I understand the urge to find the historical facts that may be hidden inside of novels, and I’m not going to deny that Alaska is in many ways an autobiographical novel, but I ignored the facts whenever it suited me, and the story that resulted is truly imagined and I hope that it will be read that way.
Q. Is Alaska based off of someone you knew?
A. I dislike answering this question honestly, because the dead cannot speak for themselves and because the novel is really and truly fictional. Also, some of my classmates were understandably upset about the ways in which the novel re imagined and reinvented certain events that actually happened to us, and I want insofar as possible not to further that hurt.
That noted: When I was a student at Indian Springs, a classmate of mine died, and her death was devastating to the entire community. My relationship with her was nothing like Pudge’s relationship with Alaska (I was much more like the fake mourners that Pudge rails against), but she was someone I liked and admired a lot, and even now that it has been almost 20 years, I still don’t feel reconciled to what happened.
That’s all I’ll say about this, I think. I understand the urge to find the historical facts that may be hidden inside of novels, and I’m not going to deny that Alaska is in many ways an autobiographical novel, but I ignored the facts whenever it suited me, and the story that resulted is truly imagined and I hope that it will be read that way.