by Helen Abbott

Created on: March 21, 2009

Note:- my page references come from the first print run of the UK HarperCollins paperback.

What follows is part analysis, part philosophical/theological discussion based on the book Looking for Alaska by John Green. These are the thoughts that have been running through my head since I read the book - blame my brain for the incoherency. He has produced one of those rare books that manage to be deep and moving without being pretentious or preachy (unlike for example The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom). It is important to note that what follows is my interpretation about the book and its themes.

The final words of dying poet Franois Rabelais were I go to seek a Great Perhaps'. Miles decides to search for the Great Perhaps', to seek "real friends and a more-than-minor life" (p.260), at Culver Creek boarding school. He doesn't want to wait till death before his life begins. So the intial question is: what is the Great Perhaps'?

Taken literally the search for the Great Perhaps' is of course a paradoxical one; if one knew exactly what it was then it would not be a Perhaps', but rather a Definite'. Alaska is something of a personification of this. Alaska and her death are the biggest unknowns of all. Her personality is unpredictable, stemming from the part she played in her mother's death (if she called 911 would it have made a difference anyway?). Miles and the Colonel will never solve the mystery of Alaska's death (was it suicide?) because they can never know for sure what Alaska was thinking the moments before her death.

Alaska's biggest question was "How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?" (p.189). This is the question Miles must answer to move on. So what exactly is the labyrinth? After her mother's death Alaska "collapsed into the enigma of herself" (p.260). The labyrinth that Alaska is stuck in is therefore her own construction. It is a metaphysical maze of her own fears, her own regrets - 'the enigma of herself'. Similarly Miles' labyrinth is the part he may or may not have played in Alaska's death. Alaska escapes her labyrinth through her death whereas Miles escapes his labyrinth through enlightenment.

It is possible that in the moment before her death Alaska saw a way out and took it. We know that Alaska was self-destructive. Alaska's way through the labyrinth of suffering' was to drink and smoke herself to death: "Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die" (p.57). According to Zen however everything that comes together falls apart'.

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