So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane Analysis

So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.

Quote Analysis

This quote reflects the hesitations of the main character of the story, Miles, who can’t spell his unrequited feelings for Alaska. He is enchanted by her character, so troubled and alluring simultaneously, but he feels too inferior to her and has too low self-esteem to give it a try. Moreover, Alaska has a boyfriend, that adds even more tension, because the morals of Miles don’t allow him to advance. Also he, through the eyes of love, sees her gorgeous and mysterious and himself clumsy and average. The sexuality of Alaska also draws Miles to her like some force of nature.

Maybe the comparison with rain is a reflection of their teenage sexual desires that awaken, as some uncontrollable force that can’t be understood and explained by logic. In this sense yes, Alaska’s passion and fierce spirit are more like a hurricane, but her traumas make her as dangerous as hurricane too. This qualities attract Miles, who feels himself average near her, just a “drizzle”, but he is just developing normally, on his own pace. He also didn’t have so much of equally traumatizing experience, so Miles didn’t have to grow up quickly, it wasn’t a matter of survival for him. He is just a normal teenager, who is very attracted to a beautiful and mysterious girl with a strong spirit, but his romantic feelings, sexual tension and lack of self-confidence make him hyperbolize and overreact.