LOOKING FOR ALASKA
Chapter Summaries
BEFORE
Chapter 1 – One hundred thirty-six days before
In the first chapter, Miles Halter is introduced as the main character. Miles is leaving his home and his parents in Florida to attend a boarding school in Alabama. His mother throws him a going away party. Miles does not expect anybody to show up to this party. Two people from his school show up, Marie and Will, but Miles does not feel in any way excited about this. It is revealed that Miles does not excel at small talk or socializing with others. His father and his uncles have attended Culver Creek, the boarding school he is going to attend, so this is family related. Miles mentions François Rabelais, a poet, who’s last words were “I go to seek a Great Perhaps”. This affects Miles in a way he cannot understand.
Chapter 2 – One hundred twenty-eight days before
Miles arrives at his destination at Culver Creek, where it is much hotter than he anticipated and that he was used to back in Florida. He says goodbye to his parents and gets settled into his new dorm room, room 43. Miles describes his room, which contains no air conditioning and a very small shower. He meets his new roommate, who introduces himself as Chip Martin. Chip makes Miles understand that his nickname is the Colonel and should therefor call him that from now on, and the Colonel gives the nickname “Pudge” to Miles. Chip introduces introduces Miles to Alaska Young, who lives in room 48, and who provides cigarettes. Miles is immediately attracted to her. Miles tries his first cigarette and hates it. The Colonel and Alaska inform Miles about the the main rule at Culver Creek : to not snitch. They also inform him about the Eagle, who is the dean of students and disciplines the students.
Chapter 3 – One hundred twenty-seven days before
Miles becomes increasingly interested with Alaska and is constantly asking the Colonel questions about her and her background. The Colonel introduces Miles to his friend Takumi. In the middle of that night, Miles gets kidnapped by a group that the Colonel refers to as the “weekend warriors”, because they are wealthy kids who can afford to go home on the weekends. They take Miles and tie him up, and they tell him they’re doing this because he hangs out with the Colonel, and they dump him into the lake. Miles eventually gets out, and gets back to his room. When Miles tells the Colonel what happened, the Colonel gets extremely angry because this is usually what they do to newcomers, but they have never tied them up. The Colonel is aware that Miles could have died and promises to seek revenge upon them.
Chapter 4 – One hundred twenty-six days before
This chapter begins with the first day of classes at Culver Creek. Miles attends his french class, his world religions class and his biology class. Miles especially enjoys his world religions class because of the teacher, Dr. Hyde, who seems very intriguing to him.
Chapter 5- One hundred twenty-two days before
The Colonel’s girlfriend, Sara, comes to the dorm room to pick up the Colonel to go to the opera with her parents. Sara gets angry with the Colonel because his shirt isn’t ironed and she ends up storming out and leaving the Colonel behind. Sara calls the Colonel briefly after and tells him that the weekend warriors believe he ratted out a couple, Paul and Marya, who got kicked out last year for drinking and smoking. The Colonel gets angry because he can’t believe Sara would believe that, but gets over the situation after a few minutes and a few drinks. The Colonel mixes vodka with his milk to ensure the Eagle can never find it.
Chapter 6 – One hundred ten days before
Miles gets distracted by looking outside the window in Dr. Hyde’s class, and gets kicked out for not paying attention. Alaska gets kicked out also for pointing out how ridiculous the reasoning was. Miles is very upset because he does not want to make a bad impression upon Dr. Hyde. After this event, Miles, Takumi, the Colonel and Alaska head down to the forest to smoke cigarettes.
Chapter 7 – One hundred nine days before
Miles and the Colonel attend the first basketball game of the season at Culver Creek. Miles expresses about how deeply he hates everything about sports. The weekend warriors try to make truce with Miles and the Colonel by explaining they pulled the prank on Miles as revenge for the Colonel snitching. Since the Colonel didn’t snitch, they decide to deny their truce. The Colonel still wants revenge. The Colonel explains to Miles how he has managed to get kicked out of every basketball game since he’s been at the school, because of his behavior and attempts to distract the visitor team.
Chapter 8 – One hundred eight days before
Dr. Hype approaches Miles to let him know that he needs to pay attention to the class because he can tell that he enjoys the class, but has to stay focused.
Chapter 9 – One hundred one days before
Miles goes with Alaska, in her car, with a few other people to McDonalds in order to study for their upcoming precalc test. A sophomore, Lara, a girl from Russia, ends up sitting on Miles’ lap. Miles is somewhat attracted to her. The group spend the afternoon studying together.
Chapter 10 – One hundred days before
Miles spends some time alone with Alaska and decides to ask her about her first name. Alaska explains that her parents could not agree on a name, so they decided to let her choose her own name when she is old enough to do so. She explained that she choose the name at the time because Alaska was a big place, and it was far from Alabama, like she wanted to be. She later explains that she loves the meaning of the word Alaska which means “that which the sea breaks against”. Miles becomes increasingly fond of Alaska after spending time alone with her.
Chapter 11- Nine-nine days before
Miles, Alaska, Takumi and the Colonel go out by the lake to smoke. After hearing some noises in the bush, the Eagle comes out and catches them smoking. At Culver Creek, this is an offense and the Eagle lets them know that they need to show up at Jury tomorrow, where their punishment will be decided.
Chapter 12 – Ninety-eight days before
Miles explains what exactly the jury is. The Jury is a group of 12 students elected by the faculty who decide the consequences for non-expellable offenses, like smoking. The Eagle serves as the judge and could overturn the decisions made by the Jury. The Colonel, Alaska, Takumi and Miles show up the Jury and Alaska and the Colonel end up taking the blame, and stating that Miles and Takumi were only witnesses. Alaska and the Colonel end up getting 10 hours of community work.
Chapter 13 – Eighty-nine days before
Alaska lets Miles know that she is going to try and set him up with Lara, the russian girl. Alaska tells Miles that they are going on a triple date on Friday : him and Lara, Alaska and her boyfriend Jake, The Colonel and Sara, and Takumi who will be tagging along.
Chapter 14 – Eighty-seven days before
During the triple date, with Takumi tagging along, the group go to the gym to watch one of the basketball games. The date was going well until Miles get hit in the face by the basketball and ends up with a concussion. Miles then proceeded to sit back down beside Lara, and puke all over her lap. Miles is very embarrassed about this, and returns to his dorm after going to see the nurse. Miles gets some rest, and the Colonel tells him about how Sara dumped him.
Chapter 15 – Eighty-four days before
A rain storm starts and doesn’t stop for a few days. Miles decides it is best to avoid Lara to save himself the embarrassment. Miles tries to speak to Alaska, but she acts very cold and condescending towards him.
Chapter 16 – Seventy-six days before
Dr. Hyde gives the student their essay topic for their exam, which is “What is the most important question human beings must answer? Choose your question wisely, and then examine how Islam, Buddhism and Christianity attempt to answer it.” Alaska informs Miles and the Colonel that the weekend warriors have played a prank on her that ended up flooding her entire room and ruining most of her stuff.
Chapter 17 – Sixty-seven days before
Miles spends some time with Takumi. Eventually, Takumi admits to Miles that Alaska is the one who snitched on Paul and Marya. Alaska had done something that could have sent her home, but the Eagle asks her for any information she had in order to stay at the boarding school, so she ratted them out. Miles definitely did not except Alaska to ever be a snitch, but understands the situation.
Chapter 18- Fifty-eight days before
Alaska tries to convince Miles to stay behind at Culver Creek during Thanksgiving. Alaska is one of the only students who stays back during the holidays because she does not want to go home. Miles doesn’t exactly understand why, but he decides he wants to stay with her, even though he is feeling a bit homesick.
Chapter 19 – Fifty-two days before
While everybody has gone home for Thanksgiving, Alaska and Miles spend time alone, and the first night they read and drink together under the stars. Miles feels tipsy for the first time in his life. He cannot stop thinking of how beautiful Alaska is and how badly he wants her.
Chapter 20 – Fifty-one days before
Miles and Alaska spend the next day trying to find ways to prank the weekend warriors while everyone is away. Alaska comes up with a plan to put blue industrial strength hair dye in their hair products while they’re away.
Chapter 21 – Forty-nine days before
Miles and Alaska spend the next day of their vacation raiding other students’ dorm rooms and finding their secret stashes of alcohol, cigarettes and other things. Alaska speaks openly to Miles about how degrading porn is towards women, making them seem like objects. Alaska then proceeds to lay down across Miles, and this makes him fall even more for her.
Chapter 22 – Forty-seven days before
The Colonel comes back to Culver Creek to bring Alaska and Miles back home with him for Thanksgiving. He says his mother could not bear the thought of having two of the Colonel’s close friends staying behind for Thanksgiving. They drive two hours together and eventually get his home, which is a trailer. The Colonel and his mother, Dolores are very poor and it is evident to Miles because of their lifestyle. Miles is overly happy because he gets to share a bed with Alaska, although nothing happens between them.
Chapter 23- Forty-six days before
Miles, Alaska, the Colonel and Dolores share Thanksgiving dinner together. According to Miles, it is the best Thanksgiving food he has ever had. All four of them mention what they are grateful for, and then the Colonel drives Alaska and Miles back to Culver Creek.
Chapter 24- Forty-four days before
Alaska heads to a store, Coosa Liquors, where she flirts with the clerk and he lets her buy alcohol and cigarettes. She buys three cartons of cigarettes, five bottles of wine and a fifth of vodka for the Colonel. Later on in the day, Alaska shows up to Miles’ dorm room, and she is a crying mess. Alaska explains to Miles that she told the Colonel about snitching on Marya and Paul, and the Colonel told her he couldn’t trust her on her own ever again. Alaska also tells Miles that she somehow manages to screw everything up, but Miles can’t figure out exactly what she is referring to.
Chapter 25 – Christmas
Miles goes back home for Christmas and spends quality time with his parents. He spends most of the two weeks studying for exams coming up, but he also realizes how much he missed his parents and how much they truly care about him.
Chapter 26 – Eight days before
Everybody comes back to Culver Creek after Christmas break, and Alaska tells Miles and the Colonel that she thinks it is necessary to have a pre-prank on the weekend warriors. The pre-prank is designed to lull the administration into a false sense of security. Alaska tell the Colonel that he will help her figure a prank out, and Miles feels angry because he feels like he is being excluded.
Chapter 27 – Four days before
The Colonel and Alaska spend a lot of time preparing the pre-prank, and excluding Miles. The only things Miles knew about the pre-prank is that it would be called “The Barn”, and that when they are ready for it, he should pack for two days. Miles spends the extra time he has working on his religion exam, and trying to find out the answer for it.
Chapter 28- Three days before
Miles, Takumi and the Colonel go see the Eagle in order to tell him they will be at the Colonel’s trailer this weekend, so that they could execute the pre-prank without the Eagle being able to accuse them. Alaska tells the Eagle she’s going to see Jake, and Lara tells him she’s meeting with an old friend in Atlanta. The pre-prank is to light fireworks so that the Eagle comes out to find out who is doing it, and while this happens, the Colonel breaks into the faculty computer network to send out letters to the weekend warrior’s families to tell them they’re failing classes. The plan goes well, and the Eagle chases after Miles and Takumi, but does not catch or see them. The Colonel sends out twenty letters to the parents about the failing grades, and the group of them go back to the barn, where they set up their sleeping bags, and drink wine.
Chapter 29 – Two days before
The next day, the Colonel, Takumi, Miles, Alaska and Lara spend their time drinking and just talking. They end up playing a drinking game, where everyone shares their best day ever, and their worse day ever. The person who wins doesn’t have to drink. The Colonel wins the best day ever because he explains how his best day will be when he buys his mother a house. However, for the worse day ever, Alaska wins it because she finally explains how when she was younger, she found her mother laying on the floor, jerking, and Alaska froze and sat beside her crying, thinking she has fallen asleep after she had stopped moving. When her father came home, he got mad at her, because her mother was dead and she was in shock, and hadn’t had called 911. This makes Miles understand a lot of things about Alaska. At the end of the night, Miles and Lara share a sleeping bag together, start kissing and eventually Miles asks Lara to be his girlfriend, and she agrees.
Chapter 30 – One day before
The five of them go back to Culver Creek, in separate groups, and the Eagle doesn’t suspect a thing. Miles spends most of his day sleeping, because he is hungover.
Chapter 31 – The last day
The next day was the beginning of the new semester. Miles and Lara spend some time together and get to second base. That night, Alaska comes to Miles and the Colonel’s room, to have drinks in order to celebrate the success of their pre-prank. Alaska and the Colonel get very drunk, and they end up playing truth or dare. Somehow, Alaska ends up making out with Miles. Alaska states that she’s tired to Miles, and tells him that this will be continued later. She falls asleep instantly, and Miles tells her he loves her. Alaska wakes up abruptly later on, screaming, sobbing and crying, and tells Miles and the Colonel that she forgot about something, and she tells them to get rid of the Eagle for her so she can leave. They light up fireworks in the forest to distract the Eagle from hearing Alaska drive away, and Alaska drives away, drunk and crying.
AFTER
Chapter 32- The day after
The next morning, everyone is called to the gym for an assembly. Miles tells the Eagle to wait for Alaska to start, but the Eagle does not listen. Eventually, the Eagle explains to everybody that Alaska has gotten into an accident last night and has passed away. Miles runs out of the gym, and starts throwing up, thinking it was completely his fault for letting her go the night before. He is in denial about her death, and does not think it can be true. The Eagle explains to Miles that the death was instant, that she hit a cruiser without even swerving, she drove right into it. The Colonel and Miles hug and comfort each other, and keep saying how sorry they are to one another.
Chapter 33- Two days after
Miles feels paralyzed and is unable to sleep after this. Miles and the Colonel discuss their anger and how they feel as though they should have stopped her from leaving that night. The funeral will be the next day, and Miles has a nightmare about Alaska that night.
Chapter 34- Four days after
Miles and the Colonel discuss how hard it was to read Alaska’s thoughts and feelings, and that it’s going to be impossible to try and understand what happened in her head that night.
Chapter 35 – Six days after
Lara, the Colonel, Takumi and Miles head out to Alaska’s hometown, Vine Station for the funeral. Miles has a breakdown and confesses to the Colonel how much he loved Alaska. Miles meets Alaska’s father for the first time, and he explains that she has a closed casket because at her mother’s funeral, it was open casket and Alaska made her dad promise to never let her have an open casket funeral.
Chapter 36 – Seven days after
Miles is not able to do much after Alaska’s death. The Eagle lets the Colonel know that Alaska’s aunt is coming by her dorm to pick her up her stuff, so Miles and him should clean it out first if there are things she wouldn’t want her family to find. Miles takes a book she had left in her room, named The General in His Labyrinth. In this book, beside the quote “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!”, Alaska wrote “straight and fast.” Miles and the Colonel try to dissect this new information by applying it to Alaska driving straight and fast into the cruiser that night.
Chapter 37 – Eight days after
On the first day of the new semester, Dr. Hyde tells the class that their essay question for this semester will be the question that Alaska had written about in her final exam for the previous semester : “How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?”
Chapter 38 – Nine days after
The Colonel comes up with a new theory regarding Alaska’s death. He explains to Miles that it was Jake that called her on the pay phone, they got in a fight, and she drove off extremely angry. She then proceeds to kill herself by going straight into the cruiser because she’s so upset. The Colonel proposes that he should call Jake to find out if she had called him that night, but Miles wants nothing to do with him.
Chapter 39 – Thirteen days after
Miles and the Colonel decide to walk to Pelham Police Department in search for witnesses of that night. The officer who was a witness explains to them that he got out of his cruiser once he saw the car coming straight ahead, and he says he’s never seen anything like it, because she didn’t brake or swerve. The officer also tells them there were white tulips at the back of her car, and Miles and the Colonel know that those tulips were a gift from Jake.
Chapter 40 – Fourteen days after
Miles and the Colonel try to find signs in the past that Alaska could have been suicidal. They don’t find anything, except that she had been drinking excessively and that she had lost her mother. They try to find answers, but soon give up, convincing themselves they will find the answers they need eventually. They conclude that it was not a suicide. A weekend warrior, Holly Moser, who was not friends with Alaska, tries to convince them both that Alaska tried to give her a sign before she died, by flashing her car lights at her in the Waffle House. Miles and the Colonel get very irritated by this, knowing that she is only saying such things to get attention.
Chapter 41 – Twenty days after
The Colonel gets in a verbal fight with Miles because he is very upset that Miles is refusing to communicate with Jake. The Colonel does not think that Alaska would have left Jake for Miles, and he tells Miles to get that out of his head. Miles gets angry, and walks away from the Colonel. Miles takes some time apart to think about Alaska and his anger towards her for leaving him after turning him into a different person. Miles gets back to the room, and makes up with the Colonel. The Colonel tells Miles he has decided to wait to talk to Jake, because he wants to investigate other theories first.
Chapter 42 – Twenty-one days after
Miles spends time with Takumi after class, and they go to McDonalds. It feels empty without Alaska there, but Miles and Takumi get some time to discuss things for the first time. Miles tells him he’s sorry, but he cannot get himself to tell Takumi the whole story, about how he let her go that night. Takumi lets Miles know that Lara was wondering if they were still dating, and Miles tells him things are too complicated.
Chapter 43 – Twenty-seven days after
Miles and the Colonel come up with a plan to get booze and steal the Eagle’s breathalyzer. They want to do this in order to drink as much as Alaska did that night to see how drunk she really was. Miles goes to see the Eagle to talk to him about how the Colonel is doing bad in latin because of how hard Alaska’s death has been on him, while the Colonel steals the breathalyzer. The Colonel tries to get to Alaska’s level of drunk that night, and the Eagle comes by and catches them smoking, however he lets it go and leaves. They conclude that Alaska couldn’t have been able to drive in that state, and could have fallen asleep at the wheel.
Chapter 44 – Twenty-eight days after
Takumi admits to Miles and the Colonel that he knows they set off the fireworks that night, and he also says he let her go too. The Colonel reveals that they have exhausted all other strategies and it is time for him to call Jake and find out what he knows.
Chapter 45 – Twenty-nine days after
Takumi tells Miles he’s tired of him acting as if he was the only guy who ever liked Alaska. Miles tells Takumi how she kissed him that night, and he is surprised. The Colonel comes back after talking to Jake, and he tells them how Jake said they didn’t fight about anything. They simply talked for five minutes, and out of nowhere, Alaska freaked out and hung up. Jake had no idea where she was headed when she drove off.
Chapter 46 – Thirty-seven days after
Miles bumps into Lara by accident, and apologizes to her. She does not react to anything and walks away. Miles starts feelings bad but needs her to understand the reason behind why he’s acting this way.
Chapter 47- Forty-five days after
Miles goes to Coosa Liquors, the store where Alaska would always go to supply cigarettes and liquor. Miles goes inside and buys cigarettes. This reminds him more and more of Alaska. Miles, the Colonel and Takumi take a drive around town smoking cigarettes, without saying a word to each other.
Chapter 48 – Forty-six days after
Takumi convinces Miles to go apologize to Lara, because Takumi knows Alaska wouldn’t be pleased to know how Miles was acting towards her if she was still here. Miles apologizes to Lara and she accepts his apology. That night, Miles, Takumi, Lara and the Colonel go to smoking hole to discuss the possible theories about Alaska’s death. They don’t conclude to anything, they simply spin around in circles and are getting tired of it.
Chapter 49 – Fifty-one days after
Dr. Hyde’s lesson that day makes Miles think intensely about Alaska and how he cannot fantom the idea of her kissing him, and then going to call Jake and talk to him the way she did. Miles still hopes to find an answer to the mystery of her death, and won’t give up, even though the Colonel is out of ideas.
Chapter 50 – Sixty-two days after
While Miles is talking to his mother on the pay phone near his dorm, he notices that the doodles done by Alaska on the phone booth. When she was talking to Jake, she had told him that she had been doodling while they were on the phone. Miles sees that she drew a white daisy. Miles informs the Colonel about this, and they realize that whatever she had forgotten that made her freak out, the daisy had reminded her of this, and she went to grab the white tulips in her room.
Chapter 51 – Sixty-nine days after
The Colonel tells Miles about a prank that Alaska had wanted to plan, named “Subverting the Patriarchal Paradigm.” The Colonel explains that they should do this prank in memory of her, and they should have one every year as a memorial.
Chapter 52 – Eighty-three days after
The Colonel comes back from spring break with a notebook full of sketches and plans for the upcoming prank on behalf of Alaska. The Colonel brings together Miles, Takumi and Lara in order to explain to prank and explain how it will be executed.
Chapter 53- Eight-four days after
During spring time, Culver Creek took a Friday afternoon off to let two important people, like politicians or small-time celebrities, do speeches in front of the school. The prank is to get the Eagle to agree to letting Dr. William Morse come as a speaker, who is a professor in adolescent sexuality. Miles calls his dad, and asks him to pretend to be Dr. Morse to the Eagle, and his dad agrees, since he was once a student who pulled pranks at Culver Creek. The Eagle calls him, and everything goes as planned.
Chapter 54- One hundred two days after
The real person who was playing Dr. William Morse at Culver Creek that day, was a man named Maxx. He was in fact a male stripper. Maxx does a speech in front of the school about adolescent sexuality. In the middle of his speech, Lara interrupts him to say : “You’re hot! Take off your clothes!” Maxx starts stripping in front of the school, and shouts : “This one’s for Alaska Young.” The Eagle gets the crowd to eventually calm down. Takumi, Miles and the Colonel go back to their room, and the Eagle comes by and lets them know he could tell right away Alaska planned that prank. He tells them not to do it again, and that they will not get punished for it.
Chapter 55 – One hundred fourteen days after
Finally, after all this time, Takumi, Miles and the Colonel find a theory that makes sense to them all. They realize that Alaska’s mother passed away on January 9th, and Alaska died on the 10th. Alaska was doodling the flowers, and realizes that she has forgotten her anniversary of her mother’s death, freaks out and goes to drive to the graveyard. She’s not thinking straight because she’s angry and drunk, and thinks she can drive past the cop car, but drives right into in.
Chapter 56 – One hundred eighteen days after
After finding out the satisfying theory, Miles and the Colonel decide to try one more thing. They decide to drive through the same exact place Alaska drove through, at the same speed. This is exhilarating for both Miles and the Colonel, and after they get through it alive, they hug and find a sort of inside peace for the first time after her death.
Chapter 57 -One hundred nineteen days after
Lara, Miles, the Colonel and Takumi spend most their time studying together, and not talking much. And they enjoy things being this way.
Chapter 58- One hundred twenty-two days after
Miles thinks about what he going to write his essay in religion class about, regarding the labyrinth. This reminds him of Alaska.
Chapter 59 – One hundred thirty-six days after
With 24 hours left before handing in his religion essay, Miles has not started yet. When Miles goes into his room, he sees a piece of lime green stationary with a note written on it. The note is from Takumi and indicates a lot of important information for Miles. Takumi writes about how he is not attending the graduation and is leaving for Japan the next day, so he will not have time to tell these things to Miles. He writes about how he saw Alaska that night too, at the phone booth, and she was extremely sad. Alaska told Takumi that her mother was dead eight years ago that day and every year she puts flowers on her mother’s grave, and she had forgotten. Takumi didn’t stop her because he didn’t think she was stupid enough to get into a car that drunk. This clears up a lot of things for Miles. In the end, Miles forgives Alaska and hopes he will forever remember her.
