Looking for Alaska

Miles’s mother tries to help him out upon his arrival at Culver Creek by offering to make his bed. However, he is keen to embrace his newfound independence. He has read about the adventures enjoyed by figures such as John F. Kennedy and Humphrey Bogart at boarding school, and he hopes to follow in their footsteps. He is also keen to meet his roommate, Chip Martin.

Before starting out on his new adventure, Miles attends to the practical matters of unpacking and showering. He then encounters Chip, and the two make their introductions. Chip was admitted to Culver on a scholarship, and his parents divorced when he was a sophomore. He is gifted academically and has a knack for memorizing the names of countries and capital cities.

After they have finished unpacking and furnishing their dorm room, Chip gives Miles an introduction to life at Culver Creek. There are two types of students—regular boarders such as themselves and “Weekday Warriors” who return home at the weekend—and they are constantly at odds. Chip also warns Miles that it is necessary to be careful around the teachers and other students, though he adds that he hates being careful. Miles smirks at this and reflects that he does not want to be careful during his time at Culver Creek.

Chip tells Miles to refer to him by his nickname “the Colonel,” and he gives Miles a nickname of his own: Pudge, which is an ironic reference to his slight frame. Miles then follows the Colonel to a dorm room occupied by a girl called Alaska. Here, Miles not only notices that the room is full of books but is stunned by the sight of “the hottest girl in the whole of human history” (14). Alaska is a friend of the Colonel and sells him a pack of cigarettes, but she departs shortly afterwards in order to find another of their friends, Takumi. Meanwhile, Miles accompanies the Colonel to the edge of a lake that lies within the school’s grounds. The Colonel then lights up a cigarette and Miles decides to do likewise, though, as he is not used to smoking, he cannot help coughing and wheezing.

Miles spots a swan nearby, and the Colonel explains that it is an aggressive creature that was put there as a security measure by “the Eagle.” The Eagle is the school dean who lives within the dorm circle and “sees all” (16). On this note, the Colonel tells Miles that he can expect to get in trouble during his time at Culver Creek but, the vast majority of the time, his parents do not have to know. This is because the school has a reputation to protect and does not want parents to think that their children are running riot. The Colonel’s other piece of advice is to never rat on other students.

The Colonel then leaves to meet his girlfriend, Sara, while Miles remains at the lake. His ruminations are interrupted by Alaska’s voice, and, when she appears before him, he is struck by her beauty and voluptuousness. Alaska quizzes Miles on his knowledge of famous last words and tells him that there is one example that has captured her own interest. She has been reading The General in His Labyrinth, which tells of the last days of military leader Simon Bolivar, and she is intrigued by Bolivar’s last words: “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” Alaska wonders whether the labyrinth refers to living or dying, and Miles expects her to answer this question. However, when he realizes that she is posing the question to him, he replies that he does not know.

Miles shifts topic to the numerous books stacked in Alaska’s room, and Alaska says that she intends to read them all at some point; however, while at Culver Creek, “there is so much to do: cigarettes to smoke, sex to have, swings to swing on. I'll have more time for reading when I'm old and boring” (20). She goes on to tell Miles about her early days at the school: like the Colonel, she was admitted on a scholarship, and the two formed a bond on account of their “shared interest in booze and mischief” (20). They have also become skilled in pulling pranks, with Alaska acting as the creative force and the Colonel as the military mastermind.

Alaska observes that Miles is quieter than the Colonel, but she tells him that she finds him cute. However, she already has a boyfriend, whom she says that she loves. She subsequently makes a deal with Miles: if he can decipher what the labyrinth is and how to get out of it, she will find him a girlfriend.

As they walk home later that evening, Alaska asks Miles whether he sometimes feels uneasy while walking at night and wants to run home—even though it is “silly and embarrassing” (21). Miles admits that he has felt this way, and, after a moment’s silence, Alaska grabs his hand and starts running, pulling him along behind her.

The following afternoon, Miles quizzes the Colonel about Alaska and learns that she is seemingly devoted to her boyfriend, Jake (who is at college on a scholarship). Earlier that day, Miles had also been introduced to the Eagle, who warned him not to abuse the freedom that is afforded to students at Culver Creek. The Eagle had looked at him sternly before departing, and Alaska dubs this “the Look of Doom” (21).

Miles accompanies the Colonel to the cafeteria and gets his first taste of the deep-fried cuisine favored in Alabama. The Colonel then introduces Miles to Takumi (who is part of their circle of friends), and discussion turns to Alaska’s former roommate, Marya, who was expelled the previous year for smoking, drinking, and lying naked in bed with her boyfriend, Paul. The rumor is that someone ratted them out to the Eagle, and Takumi intends to find the culprit. The Colonel remarks that Paul deserved what he got on account of being a Weekday Warrior. However, Takumi points out that the Colonel’s girlfriend is a Weekday Warrior as well.

When the Colonel goes out later that evening, Miles does not quiz him on where he is headed or ask to accompany him. He instead decides to get a good night’s sleep before his first day of classes, but, after several hours, he is woken suddenly to find himself being shaken, grabbed, and led out of the room, with the Colonel saying, “Have a good time. Go easy on him, Kevin” (24). After being led across the soccer field, Miles anticipates that he is going to be subjected to dunking in the lake: a typical initiation procedure that he believes he can handle. However, when the students start wrapping duct tape around him, he begins to worry. He pleads with them not to go through with what they are planning, but one of the students—Kevin—says that he deserves it for hanging out with the Colonel. The students then hurl Miles into the water and he feels himself sinking, but his panic subsides as he floats towards the surface and manages to free himself of the duct tape. He also notices that the students have had the courtesy to leave him a towel.

Miles does not feel like going back to his room, as he is scared that Kevin and his accomplices might be waiting there. Besides which, he does not feel very friendly towards the Colonel after his earlier comment about enjoying the prank. Miles goes to see Alaska instead, and she looks concerned at first before laughing and saying, “Guess you went for a swim, huh?” (27). Miles now feels as though everyone at school has known about the prank, and he wonders why they all went along with it. In his confusion, Miles looks at Alaska blankly. However, she tells him to stop being melodramatic, as there are people in the world with real problems—people such as herself.

When Miles returns to his room, the Colonel is likewise in good spirits about the prank and tells Miles that it happens to everybody. Still, when Miles says that Kevin and the other students duct-taped him, the Colonel’s mood becomes serious. He thought that they would just throw Miles in the lake, yet he now sees that they took the prank to another level and put Miles in danger. He subsequently vows that he will make the culprits pay for what they have done, and he shoots down Miles’s suggestion to tell the Eagle. As he emphasizes, students sort out their own problems at Culver Creek rather than running to the teacher. Miles then remarks that Alaska had been mean to him that night, but the Colonel is not surprised and refers to her as “moody” (28).

That night, Miles goes to bed fully clothed and resolves to continue doing so on account of the prank. He also observes that, for probably the first time in his life, he feels a sense of danger and excitement due to never knowing what is going to happen or when.

When he wakes up the day after the prank, the Colonel discovers that Kevin and his friends have urinated in his shoes. Now, he is all the more adamant about getting revenge.

Sitting across from Alaska in French class, Miles reflects that she can be mean but that she seemed intelligent when she had spoken to him about the labyrinth. He compares her enigmatic smile to that of the Mona Lisa.

As Miles makes his way around the school during the rest of the day, he feels unsettled: the student population seems overwhelming, the classes are hard, and he cannot decipher who he should be trying to know. The World Religions class, however, appears to offer some respite, as Miles imagines that he might be able to get an A grade easily.

When the Colonel and Takumi join Miles in class, they inform him that Alaska is angry about what happened the previous night. Miles is surprised at this, but they tell him that she had not known the full story, plus people can be moody sometimes. The Colonel is now set on retaliation and, at his request, Miles identifies the culprits as they file into the room.

An elderly teacher then walks to the front of the room and introduces himself as Dr. Hyde. He makes it clear that he is there to speak and the students are there to listen, as he has accumulated knowledge that far surpasses that of his audience. As he speaks, Miles realizes that the class will not be an easy A, yet Miles likes Dr. Hyde’s approach and much prefers it to discussion classes. He also finds the subject matter thought-provoking, and, when Dr. Hyde talks about the nature of being, Miles finds himself thinking about the labyrinth. After class is finished, Miles realizes that the teacher has made him take religion seriously for the first time.

Miles falls asleep during his free period later that afternoon but is woken by Alaska. He is still cross with her, especially as she teases him about the previous night, but she tells him that she is only joking. She had not known the full extent of what Kevin and the other students were planning, and she echoes the Colonel’s desire for revenge; however, she also tells Miles that he needs to be tough.

At the end of his first week at Culver Creek, Miles enters the dorm room to find that the Colonel is getting ready for a date with Sara. He is struggling to master the art of ironing and had asked Alaska for help, but she criticized him for trying to “impose the patriarchal paradigm” (34) on her. After the Colonel has settled on wearing a wrinkled shirt, Sara arrives and she and the Colonel start squabbling. She is not impressed with his rumpled appearance and, after a heated exchange, the Colonel announces that he is not going anywhere with her. She consequently storms out, and, after she has gone, Miles remarks that she seems nice—a comment that causes the Colonel to laugh.

Soon afterwards, they hear the ringing of the payphone outside the dorm room and Miles takes the call. It is from Sara, who asks to speak to the Colonel, and a quarrel again ensues. As the Colonel recounts to Miles, the Weekday Warriors have been saying that he was the one who ratted out Marya and Paul, and that is why they urinated in his shoes. That is also why they subjected Miles to a potentially dangerous prank.

The Colonel reveals that he and Sara have never gotten along: unlike his parents, who used to have periods during which they were amicable, despite their otherwise volatile relationship, there was no honeymoon period with Sara. He says that he stays with her because she stays with him and that they deserve each other. Miles does not understand, but the Colonel returns to the topic of the Weekday Warriors, speculating that it was probably one of them who ratted on Marya and Paul and that they have shifted the blame to him.