LOOKING FOR ALASKA

CONTRASTS AND CONTRADICTIONS

• Miles starts to change from his good self life to rebelling against everything his parents taught him
• He started drinking and smoking
• He began doing pranks that could get him expelled (set off fireworks all over the campus)
• He acts this way because he is free from his parents, and he gets to live a life of independence
• His actions show that his friends are going to cause trouble during the story

AGAIN AND AGAIN

• Alaska is searching for her way out of the Labyrinth
• She reads books about what the Labyrinth is and how to escape it
• The author continuously brings this up because he is hinting that Alaska is suicidal and needs help, but she won't speak up
• This is her way of asking for help

MEMORY MOMENT

• Miles remembers how he used to pull pranks at home and how'd he'd get in trouble for it
• When the group would try to pull pranks, he'd always wait behind and catch up after remembering this
• This memory is important because it shows us that Miles was strictly disciplined for doing pranks, and this makes him questions his actions

AHA MOMENT

• Miles realized the Labyrinth is suffering
• He goes to tell Alaska but she had killed herself in a car crash
• Alaska realized this before, got drunk and crashed her car, but made it look like an accident
• This changes things because Alaska could've handled her suffering in a different way instead of committing suicide, if Miles would've found out sooner

TOUGH QUESTIONS

• How do we escape the Labyrinth?
• Alaska thinks physical things help you escape
• She's still convinced that she's stuck, so she continues to do more things, such as drinking and smoking
• The question makes the reader wonder about what type of Labyrinth is Alaska trying to escape

WORDS OF THE WISER

• The Labyrinth is neither life nor death, it is suffering and pain
• Alaska showed this by constantly suffering of not knowing what the Labyrinth was
• She realized this and had killed herself, so she escaped the Labyrinth
• The life decision is death for Alaska, she wants to end her suffering
• This affects Miles because he was in love with her, and has to cope with his suffering in a different way