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1-Page Summary of Looking For Alaska
Overall Summary
A teenager leaves behind his mundane life in Florida to attend a boarding school called Culver Creek. He is inspired by biographies of notable figures who attended boarding schools, and he wants to experience the “Great Perhaps”. In other words, he’s motivated by the notion that something great may happen at this new school.
Miles settles in quickly at Culver Creek and becomes good friends with his roommate, Chip. Chip’s leadership skills have earned him the nickname “the Colonel.” Miles also becomes infatuated with one of the Colonel’s close friends, Alaska. She finds Miles cute but already has a boyfriend so she sets up Miles with another girl named Lara. However, while Lara is sweet, Miles is much more drawn to Alaska.
Alaska becomes moody and emotionally unstable over time. She claims that she has no home, but refuses to explain why. Miles gets frustrated by this because he tells her that he doesn’t understand her behavior. Alaska responds by saying that Miles only likes the fun side of her personality and not who she really is, which upsets him even more.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book, The General in His Labyrinth, is about the final days of Simon Bolivar. In his last moments, he said that he was lost in a labyrinth. Alaska wonders whether this refers to life or death, but she finally decides that it refers to suffering because life is characterized by suffering for her.
Miles is a thoughtful person, and he likes to think about existential questions. He’s in awe of his college professor because she makes him think about religion for the first time. He decides to write an essay on what happens after people die due to fear that there is no afterlife.
In the novel, “An Abundance of Katherines”, by John Green, Alaska leads a game in which each person has to describe their best and worst days. In this section of the book, we learn some significant information about Alaska’s life. She describes her best day as when she was at school with her mother on a field trip to the zoo. Her worst day was after that one because it was when her mother died from an aneurysm. This left Alaska feeling alone and scared and guilty for not calling 911 right away so that she could be there for her mom while she passed away.
Alaska is in a relationship with Miles, but she kisses him one night. The Colonel and Miles let her go because they are drunk and Alaska seems hysterical.
The next day, it is revealed that Alaska has died in a car crash. Miles and the Colonel feel guilty about this because they were supposed to be looking after her. In order to understand what happened, they create a story of how things could have unfolded based on evidence from the scene (white tulips found in her car). They conclude that she must have been remembering something related to her mother’s death when she left campus. She most likely went home intending to visit her mother’s grave but ended up dying in an accident instead.
Miles and his friends learn all they can about Alaska’s death. Still, Dr. Hyde leaves Alaska’s question on the blackboard for them to think about: “How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?” Miles and Colonel find that life is marred by suffering but prefer staying in it than departing like Alaska did. For Miles, forgiveness is the only way out. He could succumb to guilt and recrimination, but he regards Alaska as a cautionary tale.
Miles now knows that even though someone dies, their energy cannot be completely destroyed. Therefore, he imagines that Alaska was reborn as a baby somewhere and is living happily there.
