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11. Ninety-Nine Days Before
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Looking for Alaska, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
How to Live and Die
Mystery and the Unknown
Loyalty and Forgiveness
Memory and Memorial
Identity
Mischief
Summary
Analysis
Miles, the Colonel, Takumi, and Alaska go to see the Jury, which is a group of twelve students who determine punishments for non-expellable infractions. Alaska nervously tells Miles not to say anything. She worries that she will get in trouble and upset her dad. Miles doesn’t understand, and asks if Alaska’s mom smokes. Alaska says that she used to.
The Jury represents an alternative form of justice to that which the students dole out among themselves. Alaska is suddenly very concerned about getting in trouble, and even though Miles is terrified himself, he doesn’t understand why she suddenly cares so much.
Themes
Alaska and the Colonel take the fall for smoking and keep Miles and Takumi out of trouble. Alaska has been in trouble enough times that she is nearing a call home, and the Colonel can’t afford to lose his scholarship, so Miles doesn’t understand why they would be willing to get in trouble to protect him when he has much less to lose than they do.
Miles is still new to the way the students at Culver Creek deal with punishments, and he is not used to having friends that would sacrifice themselves on his behalf. This act has strong Christian undertones, particularly in the context of Miles’ World Religions class.
Themes
