Looking for Alaska

Aptly nicknamed “the Colonel,” Chip is Miles’s roommate and acts as the ringleader for their circle of friends. He is more confident, audacious, and proactive than Miles, and he excels in planning and carrying out pranks. These pranks are often part of an ongoing feud with the “Weekday Warriors”—affluent students who go home for weekends— and Miles initially thinks that Chip’s issue with rich people is exaggerated. However, when he visits Chip’s home during Thanksgiving, he realizes the driving force behind this mindset.

Chip comes from a poor background and lives in trailer park with his mother. His father cheated on his mother and was abusive towards her, and he subsequently left without saying goodbye. Chip has not seen his father since then and looks back on this as the worst day of his life. However, despite their threadbare lifestyle, Chip loves his mother and dreams of providing a better future for her. For instance, he says that the best day of his life will be the day when he can buy his mother a house and thank her for all that she has done for him.

Chip’s past has inspired him to succeed in life and pay his mother back for her support. Indeed, despite his rebellious behavior, he achieves high grades and was admitted into Culver Creek on a scholarship. In the same way that Miles memorizes people’s last words, Chip also reveals a talent of his own: the ability to memorize facts such as the names of countries and capital cities.

Chip is fiercely loyal and does not believe in ratting on people. He also shows himself to be a practical person in contrast to the more philosophical and literary interests displayed by Miles and Alaska. For instance, while Alaska is focused on how to escape from “this labyrinth of suffering,” Chip wants to know why some people have such “rotten lots in life.” Still, while his manner of speaking and writing may not be so flowery, the dissatisfaction that he expresses is not all that different.

Chip is a down to earth, logical individual, and, whenever he feels upset or annoyed, he can attribute this to a particular event, such as his frequent disagreements with his girlfriend, Sara. This is why he gets so frustrated by Alaska: he does not know the cause of her mood swings and outbursts. He sees the world in black and white, whereas Alaska can be vague and hard to decipher. Nevertheless, he shares a genuine friendship with Alaska and the two often engage in witty repartee.

After Alaska’s death, Chip is plagued with guilt and remorse for having let her drive away that night. Moreover, his logical mindset prompts him to try to uncover the cause of her death and he adopts the role of detective. He and Miles work together on this investigation but finally have to accept that they will never know for sure. Driving past the site where Alaska died proves an intense experience for both of them, and, as Chip embraces Miles and starts sobbing, we see his vulnerable and emotional side.

Before they go home for the summer, Miles asks “So how will we ever get out of this labyrinth, Colonel?” (216), and Chip’s reply is that he wishes that he knew; especially since not knowing does not put his soul at rest. Finally, he sums up his best response: Alaska had written “straight and fast” in her copy of The General in His Labyrinth, and this would indeed seem to be the only way out. Chip, however, would rather stay in the labyrinth—even with all its suffering.

Chip therefore differs from Miles, who concludes that forgiveness is the way out, and he echoes Alaska’s comments on the universality of suffering. The difference is that Chip chooses to make his way through the labyrinth and its obstacles rather than take the “straight and fast” exit.  

Alaska is a friend of the Colonel and consequently becomes a friend to Miles as well. Miles is struck by her beauty and would like to pursue a romantic relationship with her but Alaska has a boyfriend, Jake, who is in college. Alaska is flirtatious nonetheless, but Miles starts to realize that she has a volatile personality. Sometimes she is upbeat and engages in witty exchanges, as well as pranks. However, at other times she becomes upset, manic, or sullen, and Miles cannot understand what is wrong with her; both he and the Colonel get annoyed with her moodiness. On this note, Alaska observes that Miles is in love with an idealized vision of her and that the reality is not so perfect; quite the contrary, she is a very damaged person.

The reason behind her mood shifts becomes evident during the best day/worst day game that the group plays. When she was eight years old, Alaska witnessed her mother collapse as the result of an aneurysm, and, after the initial shock, she had sat by her mother’s body until her father arrived. She now feels guilty for not having dialed 911 and believes that her father blamed her for her mother’s death. The tragedy is made all the more acute in that Alaska classes the best day of her life as the day prior to that, when she went to the zoo with her mother. We are therefore conscious that she loved her mother and feels both the loss and the associated guilt strongly. This explains the distress that she sometimes exhibits when people talk about family.

Alaska is an avid reader and some of her reading habits are telling. For instance, she is effusive in her praise of the lines “You shall love your crooked neighbour/ With your crooked heart,” as featured in the William Auden poem ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’; these lines appeal to her fragile, damaged personality. She is also a fan of Edna St. Vincent Millay, who she terms her “hero” (89) and refers Miles to one of Millay’s poems dealing with depression.

Most of all, Alaska is fascinated by the concept of the labyrinth, as featured in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s The General in His Labyrinth. Marquez’s novel poses the question, “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?” and Alaska has become preoccupied with discovering the answer. At first, she wonders whether the labyrinth represents life or death, but she later concludes that it represents suffering. After her death, Miles sees a note that she has written beside the quotation—“straight and fast”—and he believes that this is the answer she finally arrived at. Whether Alaska killed herself is something that neither the characters nor readers can know for sure, but the manner of her death arguably embodies this idea of exiting the labyrinth “straight and fast.”

Alaska is a complex, contradictory character, as she herself acknowledges. She often comes across as confident and playful but is prone to philosophical musings and fits of despair and depression on account of her past. She also expresses feminist principles; for instance, she believes in female solidarity and disapproves of the objectification of women (this is the basis of the “subverting the patriarchal paradigm” prank that her friends pull in her honor). She is frequently rebellious in her behavior, and she smokes and drinks regularly—sometimes to excess. She is not all that different to her friends in this respect, but she informs Miles that she drinks because she is a “deeply unhappy person” (124) and does not smoke to live but to die. 

Takumi is part of Alaska and the Colonel’s inner circle of friends, and he plays a key role in some of their pranks. He is enthusiastic and a skilled rapper, though, for the most part, we know little of his emotional life and background. In the best/worst day game, he says that the best day of his life was when he lost his virginity, but he laughingly states, “if you think I'm going to tell you that story, you're gonna have to get me drunker than this” (116). However, in a more somber, candid admission, he reveals the worst day of his life: his grandmother had been killed in a car crash and, as part of a Buddhist funeral, her body was erected on a funeral pyre. This was the first time that Takumi had ever seen his grandmother, and it left a lasting impression.

Takumi proves himself to be tenacious in his attempt to uncover the truth about who ratted on Marya and Paul, and he is the only one to successfully deduce that it was Alaska. He also takes Miles aside at one point to impress upon him the importance of loyalty and accepting the consequences of one’s actions—even if it means expulsion. Unlike Alaska, Takumi says that he would rather accept punishment rather than rat out a friend; however, when he finds out that Alaska was responsible, he does not reveal this information to the teachers or other students. He tells Miles in confidence, knowing that he is fond of Alaska. Takumi therefore displays his loyalty to Alaska and protects her, rather than throwing her to the wolves.

Despite his generally upbeat demeanor, Takumi becomes annoyed when Miles and the Colonel keep him in the dark during their investigations after Alaska’s death. Not only is his inquisitive, dogged nature suited to detective work (as shown by his previous success in the case of Marya and Paul), but he loved Alaska and resents Miles and Colonel for acting as though they have a monopoly over her. As he tells them, they are not the only ones who have lost a friend. He also reveals a vital piece of information via the note that he leaves at the end of the novel. While Miles and the Colonel have been preoccupied with their own guilt, Takumi discloses that he saw Alaska on the night of her death. He believes that she looked to him to know the right thing to say and do, but, at that moment, he was at a loss.

Takumi assumed that Alaska was just looking for flowers and that she was drunk and emotional—he did not think that she would drive off that night. Like Miles and the Colonel, then, he feels guilty and as though he failed his friend. His anger at Miles and the Colonel for neglecting him initially prompted him to keep this information secret, yet he continued to cling to it even after this anger had dissipated. As he tells them via his letter, he is not even sure why he did so; most likely, he felt that it was something exclusive to him. Miles and the Colonel had their own connections with Alaska, while this was his and his alone.

Takumi only divulges this knowledge after he has left for Japan, so he remains a cryptic figure and the others cannot quiz him further. What his letter confirms, though, is that he has been harboring feelings of guilt and sorrow—feelings that he is seemingly only able to reveal via this letter. Takumi ends the letter with an apology and reaffirms the magnetic effects that Alaska exercised on those around her by stating, “I know you loved her. It was hard not to” (218). 

Lara is a student from Romania and is friends with Alaska. With Alaska’s encouragement, Miles and Lara start dating; however, while Miles likes Lara, he is infatuated with Alaska. Lara is loyal and reliable but she does not possess the same air of mystery or excitement. Likewise, Lara is readily available while Alaska is tantalizingly out of reach.

Miles and Lara’s first date goes badly, with Miles vomiting over Lara after having been hit on the head during a basketball game. Despite this, Lara accompanies Miles to the hospital and is not put off from pursuing their relationship. In this respect, Lara appears more interested in Miles than he is in her, though Miles goes along with the relationship and has his first sexual encounter with Lara (an awkward scenario in which Lara and Miles show themselves to be equally inexperienced). Miles toys with the idea of pursuing the relationship, but he is preoccupied with Alaska and Lara consequently becomes something of an afterthought.

Lara enjoys being part of Alaska’s circle of friends and taking part in pranks and games. In the best/worst day game, she classes her arrival in America as the best day of her life, as it was the first time that her parents treated her as an adult. She was the only member of her family who knew English, and, as such, had to take care of practical matters such as filling in immigration forms and ordering food. She and her family live a more financially comfortable life in America than in Romania. In spite of this, she also considers this same day to be the worst day of her life, as it was such a dramatic change: she left everything behind and had to be responsible for things that would not concern a typical twelve-year-old.

Miles observes that he and Lara have something in common in that neither one is skilled when it comes to expressing themselves—Lara has been so focused on speaking for her parents that she has not learnt to speak for herself. This mutual difficulty creates problems in that Miles and Lara cannot communicate with each another, and Miles avoids Lara after Alaska’s death because he does not know what to say. However, he comes to realize that his avoidance has made Lara’s pain all the worse, as she has had to deal with this in addition to the loss of Alaska.

While Lara may not be the best communicator, she ultimately comes across as a genuine, caring individual who values her friends.

Dubbed “the Eagle” by the students, Mr. Starnes is the school Dean and lives within the dorm circle of the campus. The students are constantly on guard against him, as he seems to have eyes in the back of his head, and he warns Miles not to abuse the freedom that students are afforded at Culver Creek. During this introduction, Miles feels that Mr. Starnes is staring at him in a manner that is “either serious or seriously malicious” (21), and Alaska dubs this “the Look of Doom.” As the Colonel tells Miles, the next time he sees that look, he will know that he is in trouble.

At one point, Miles observes Mr. Starnes smiling and shaking his head after having caught Alaska smoking—despite presumably being extremely angry. When he and Alaska discuss this episode, Alaska says that Mr. Starnes loves the students really, but he loves the school even more. In his eyes, he is acting in the best interests of the school and its student body. He also presides over the school’s jury and, as judge, has the right to overturn its decisions.

Mr. Starnes is strict and metes out punishment accordingly; however, after learning of Alaska’s death, Miles sees him “crying, noiselessly...He stared at me, but it was not the Look of Doom. His eyes blinking the tears down his face, the Eagle looked, for all the world, sorry” (139). Also, he does not punish Miles and his friends for the final prank that they play on Alaska’s behalf: he tells them that he knows they are responsible and warns them not to do anything of the kind again, but he smiles and admits “But, Lord, ‘subverting the patriarchal paradigm’—it's like she wrote the speech” (210). He therefore reveals a more human side on occasion.