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16. Seventy-Six 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
It finally stops raining, and Miles sits outside thinking about the last words of Civil War commanders. Takumi finds him and the two go down to the Smoking Hole. When they get there, Takumi decides that it isn’t a safe spot, and he takes Miles to another spot in the forest where they smoke. He tells Miles that Alaska was the one who told on Marya, and that she might have told the Eagle about the Smoking Hole as well. The Eagle caught Alaska leaving campus with a bottle of wine in her car and he threatened to expel her unless she told him everything she knew.
Although Alaska acted as though she were not upset about getting in trouble when the Eagle caught her smoking with the Colonel, she clearly will do anything, even break Culver Creek’s most important unspoken rule, to avoid being expelled. Alaska teaches Miles that he should value loyalty over his own self-interest, but she does not follow her own advice.
Themes
Miles is skeptical at first, but Takumi explains that he figured out that no one could have known where Marya was that night except Alaska. He points out that it was actually smart of Alaska to tell on one of her friends, so no one would suspect her. Miles and Takumi can’t understand why Alaska is so afraid of getting expelled.
The fact that Alaska is willing to betray her fellow students in order to save herself suggests that she only values loyalty because it is convenient to be loyal at Culver Creek—not for its own sake. When put under pressure, she quickly abandons her principles.
Themes
Takumi tells Miles that the Colonel and Alaska are planning a prank, and Miles will need to be prepared to take the fall for it if necessary. Miles thinks back to the day he went before the Jury, and finally understands that Alaska took the blame so that she could demonstrate to him how to be a loyal friend.
Takumi and Miles are truly loyal friends, and they forgive Alaska. Further, they will take the fall for her if necessary, because they know how much she cares about staying at Culver Creek—and we will later learn that both Miles and Takumi are basically in love with Alaska at this point too.
Themes
