The novel follows Miles as the main character. He is a seventeen year old fascinated by people’s last words. He lives a mundane life desiring one that is more exciting. So “in search of the great perhaps” he decides to attend a boarding school in Alabama. The first person he meets is his roommate Chip who prefers the nickname “The Colonel”. He introduces Miles to his good friend, one of which includes Alaska. As the group grows closer they bring Miles into the world of cigarettes, pranks, and alcohol. The novel is split into two parts before and after. In the before we see the group as Miles joins them as a part of the group. They teach Miles about social order at the boarding school and Miles feels that he has finally found a group that he fits in with and they embody everything he hopes to become and live the life he hopes to obtain. Together the group goes through many new experiences including pranks, family life, and awkward sexual encounters. We also see Miles in his religious studies class which makes him question life and philosophy. The greatest prank they pull involves a hideout afterwards so no one will think they were somehow involved. At the hideout the group drinks and finds out about the death of Alaska’s mother for which she feels responsible. This teaches the audience a lot about why Alaska is the way she is. A few days later Miles, Alaska, and Chip are drinking in the dorm when Alaska freaks out and asks them to help her get off the campus which they oblige to.
Then the after portion of the novel begins. The students are called into the gym and it is announced that Alaska died in a car accident this makes Miles and Chip break down as they do not believe it but also feel guilty because they should have stopped her from leaving the campus drunk rather than helping her leave. Together the two try to solve the mystery surrounding Alaska’s death - was it and accident or a suicide? They go as far as to steal a breathalyzer and get as drunk as she was to see if she could have swerved her car and lived. They try to come to grips with her death and as a friend group the original four plan out and execute Alaska’s ultimate prank which involves a male stripper in an assembly. It goes successfully and is in memoriam of Alaska. Eventually everyone comes to terms with her death and their own grief. They are assigned a paper in their religious studies class that discusses getting out of their own labyrinth of suffering to which Miles writes about forgiveness and of course Alaska.
Themes
1.) Death - Death is very popular in this novel. None of the characters focus on the value of the life they are living or in Miles’ case the life of another person. They are focused on the death aspect rather than the enjoyment. Death shows up many times including Alaska’s death.
2.) Guilt - Guilt was a prevalent theme because it showed what the characters were struggling with in their lives. The characters had to learn as well when they should take responsibility or when they shouldn’t. They also learned that they have to let go of guilt in order to live, something Alaska wasn’t capable of doing.
3.) Personal Growth (pursuing the great perhaps) - Miles is unsatisfied with his current state in life so he leaves in hopes of finding/creating a better one. Miles has to learn to understand that the great perhaps is not a single moment but rather appreciating all of the moments that you do have. The only times he was recognizing this was during the pranks and after Alaska’s death when he came to the realization that he was alive and so long as he was he would always be experiencing the “great perhaps”.
4.) Friendship - We see Miles transition from a lonely teenager to one that has to learn to balance all that comes with relationships platonically and romantically.
Favorite Quote
“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present” (54).
This is my favorite quote because shows that the great perhaps is different for everyone and that the thing holding them back from achieving it is also going to be different for everyone. Miles is so fixated on having an exciting future that he does not look around at what is already happening to and for him. This is a great fault for him because he cannot appreciate the now, and only realizes that he should have after Alaska’s death.
Argument Overview
Miles was not in love with Alaska because he did not know her on a deeper than surface level.