The Literary Analyst

Pages 21-44

SUMMARY

Miles becomes smitten with Alaska and hounds Chip with a series of questions abut who she is. Later Miles meets up with some of Chip’s friends for lunch and he meets Takumi for the first time.

In the middle of the night three “shadowy figures” enter Mile’s dorm room, two grab him and duct tape him and hurl him into the water.  After the ordeal Miles goes to Alaska’s room seeking sympathy and an explanation for his near-drowning experience. Instead he is met with casual indifference from Alaska and she tells him that she has real problems. When Miles seeks an explanation from Chip, Chip explains that being thrown in the lake happens to everyone, you just swim out and walk home. However, when Chip learns that Miles was duct taped he proposes revenge. When Miles attends his World Religions class for the first time he points out to Chip the guys that dumped him in the water.

In the World Religions class the teacher Dr. Hyde explains that the students will be studying Islam, Christianity and Buddhism and will be exploring questions such as:

1. What is the nature of being a person?
2. What is the best way to go about being a person?
3. How did we come to be, and what will become of us when we are no longer?
4. Summary: What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?

During the World Religions class Miles becomes distracted by the woods beyond the window, this causes him to lose focus on what Dr. Hyde is saying. Consequently, Miles is kicked out of Dr. Hyde’s class along with Alaska who sticks up for his moment of distraction.  After Miles is kicked out he and Alaska go looking for four-leaf clovers, when they find one, Alaska calls it a genetic freak, plucks one of the leaves and proclaims, “luck is for suckers.” Once class is complete, Takumi, Alaska, Chip and Miles go into the woods to the smoking hole.

ANALYSIS

Earlier in the book Miles states, “I’d never been born again with the baptism and weeping and all that, but it couldn’t feel much better than being born again as a guy with no known past” (8).  However, Miles does somewhat experience a baptism, his mummified dump in the water by the “shadowy figures” symbolizes the Christian death, burial and resurrection of baptism. Miles’ dunk in the water symbolizes his rebirth into a new life or journey of the Great Perhaps.

In the Robert Frost poem, mentioned earlier, you recall that he was distracted by the lull of the woods and momentarily considered embracing its beck and call. Well Miles has a similar experience in his World Religions class wherein he becomes distracted by the beauty and seductive nature of the woods:

“I was looking at the wooded, slow-sloping hill beyond the lake…The trees seemed to clothe the hill, and just as I would never think to notice a particular cotton thread in the magnificently tight orange tank top Alaska wore that day, I couldn’t see the trees for the forest” (39).

From the classroom the woods to Miles look beautiful, connected, inviting, and mesmerizing enough for him to lose focus. The beautiful, connected and mesmerizing nature of the woods is also paralleled with Alaska. However, later on when Alaska, Miles, Takumi and Chip go deeper into the woods, the woods are completely different from what was viewed from Dr. Hyde’s classroom:

“The ground was thick with fallen branches, decaying pine needles, and brambly green bushes…the smaller oak and maple trees, which from Dr. Hyde’s classroom had been invisible beneath the more majestic pines, showed hints of an as-yet-thermally-unforeseeable fall: Their still-green leaves were beginning to droop” (41).

Miles was looking where he wasn’t supposed to be looking, as demonstrated when Alaska taps Miles on the shoulder and he ends up looking the wrong way and as demonstrated when Miles becomes distracted by the seduction of Alaska’s cleavage. The woods description and Miles’ distraction by Alaska’s tap and cleavage all demonstrate that Miles is being lulled into the beauty and mesmerizing nature of Alaska or maybe even death but he is missing the ugly truth (fallen branches, droopy leaves) because he is, “looking where I wasn’t supposed to” (40).  Like Robert Frost he is being distracted and lulled by beauty, mystery and desire but missing the ugliness of death and decay that is foreshadowing what is to come.

Previous post in the series:
Looking For Alaska Study Guide Part 1.

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Looking for Alaska

In this series of posts I will be exploring Looking For Alaska in depth, including summaries and analysis, here is part 1:

Pages 1-20

SUMMARY

Miles Halter’s mom throws him a going away party a week before he leaves for a boarding school in Birmingham, Alabama called Culver Creek Preparatory School. Only two people show up to his party, Marie and Will, and he finds them uninteresting. His parents wonder if his lack of friends is the reason why he wants to leave, Miles uses Francois Rabelais’s last words, “I go to seek a Great Perhaps” as his reason.

Miles arrives at Culver Creek, unpacks and is ready to be separated from his parents. When parting, Mile’s dad advises him to not do anything stupid and to not do drugs, drink, or smoke. After taking a shower Miles meets his roommate Chip Martin, Chip shows Miles his ability to memorize countries and Miles shows off his ability to memorize last words, beginning with Henrik Ibsen.

Chip points out the two types of groups at Culver Creek, the regular boarders and the Weekday Warriors who he sees as the rich cool kids that he does not like. Chip makes it clear to Miles that he is not his entrée into the Culver Creek social life. Chip renames Miles Pudge, to be ironic as Miles is skinny, and tells Miles to call him Colonel.

Both Chip and Miles walk five doors down to room 48 where Miles meets Alaska for the first time and describes her as the hottest girl in human history.  Miles buy’s cigarettes from Alaska and later Miles and Chip meet up “at the lake” where Miles smokes for the first time.  Chip leaves and Alaska meets up with Miles “at the lake” and Miles shares more last words that he knows. In exchange, Alaska shares the last words of Simon Bolivar from, The General in his Labyrinth. Miles recognizes Simon Bolivar’s last words as great and also sees the beauty and curves of Alaska. Alaska then challenges Miles with the questions; is the labyrinth living or dying? Is Simon Bolivar trying to escape the world or the end of it? Consequently, Alaska and Miles make a deal, Alaska will get Miles laid if he can figure out what the labyrinth is and how to get out of it.

ANALYSIS

Miles leads a boring and friendless existence and consequently seeks a Great Perhaps. The Great Perhaps embodies adventure, a chance at better life experiences, unpredictability, happiness and more importantly hope for something better.

The embodiment of the Great Perhaps is also evident in Mile’s name, “I’m Miles Halter…as in ‘to go before I sleep’?” (10). In other words, Miles has a journey ahead of him that he must take before he dies. Sleep here symbolizes death. The aforementioned also refers to the Robert Frost poem titled,

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sounds the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

For Robert Frost the woods are attractive and seductive “The woods are lovely, dark and deep.” The woods are like a lullaby that puts you to sleep, almost like being cast under a spell. The woods here symbolize dark mystery and death. Frost does not succumb to the seduction of the woods, although he momentarily considers it, as he recognizes that he has, “Miles to go” or a life to be lived before he can respond to the beck and call of death.

The woods are also a metaphor for Alaska, “…she is beautiful.  In the dark beside me, she smelled of sweat and sunshine and vanilla, and on that thin-mooned night I could see little more than her silhouette except for when she smoked, when the burning cherry of the cigarette washed her face in pale red light. She had the kind of eyes that predisposed you to supporting her every endeavor” (19). Alaska herself is lovely, her description is washed in darkness, and the mysterious nature of Alaska demonstrates her depth. The “pale red light” symbolizes pleasure and desire and her eyes being responsible for, “predisposing you to supporting her every endeavor” reveals her seductive nature that is similar to the lull of the woods.

In the first section of the novel you are introduced to the last words of Simon Bolivar, “‘He…was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. “Damn it,” he sighed. “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” (19).  Miles then asks a central question in the novel, “What’s a labyrinth?”: this question is then followed by Miles realizing “the importance of curves,” wherein he describes the slopes and curves of Alaska’s body.

The literal definition of a labyrinth is:

1. A complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze
2. An intricate and confusing arrangement

The literal definition of a labyrinth alongside Miles’s description of Alaska’s body demonstrates that the labyrinth is a symbol for Alaska. Furthermore, this sheds light on the significance of the title, Looking for Alaska who herself seems to be a mysterious intricate maze.

But is the labyrinth only a symbol for Alaska or does it symbolize something more? Alaska states, “That’s the mystery, isn’t it? Is the labyrinth living of dying? Which is he trying to escape—the world or the end of it?” Clearly we can see here that the symbol of the labyrinth goes beyond just representing Alaska.  As the reader you are encouraged to join Miles on his quest to:

1. Figure out what the labyrinth is
2. Figure out how to get out of the labyrinth

Two central questions that frame the book.

Next post in the series:
Looking For Alaska Study Guide Part 2.

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