Previous
Last Words
One of the clearer symbols in Looking for Alaska is the labyrinth. Alaska loves the last words of Simón Bolívar: “Damn it, how will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” At the beginning of the book, Alaska isn’t sure if Bolívar’s labyrinth symbolizes life or death, but she eventually decides that life’s most important question is “How will we escape this labyrinth of suffering?” Labyrinths differ from mazes in that labyrinths have only one possible path, winding though it might be, while mazes have many different potential paths. Whether or not Alaska intended to die, she seems certain that her life, tracked through the labyrinth, will be an unhappy one, and that the only way to survive will be “straight & fast”—either to go through it recklessly or not go through it at all. Miles has a more Christian understanding of labyrinths, although he is not particularly religious. In Christianity, with which Green is very familiar, labyrinths symbolize a journey towards salvation. It is not an easy road, and it’s full of twists and turns, but if one follows the path, one will arrive at God’s doorstep. Because life is not a maze, there are no dead ends. Miles embraces the labyrinthine nature of life, and once he decides to move forward rather than look back, he is excited about where his path might take him.
The Labyrinth Quotes in Looking for Alaska
The Looking for Alaska quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Labyrinth. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
2. One Hundred Twenty-Eight Days Before
Quotes
“That’s the mystery, isn’t it? Is the labyrinth living or dying? Which is he trying to escape—the world or the end of it?”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
10. One Hundred Days Before
Quotes
“Jesus, I’m not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they’re gonna do. I’m just going to do it. Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia…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 past.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
59. One Hundred Thirty-Six Days After
Quotes
“He was gone, and I did not have time to tell him what I had just now realized: that I forgave him, and that she forgave us, and that we had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Looking for Alaska LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Labyrinth Symbol Timeline in Looking for Alaska
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Labyrinth appears in Looking for Alaska. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
2. One Hundred Twenty-Eight Days Before
...Bolívar died just after saying: “Damn it. How will I ever get out of this labyrinth.” Miles asks Alaska what the labyrinth is, and as she contemplates her answer, he thinks...
(full context)
...she promises to find Miles a girlfriend if he helps her figure out what the labyrinth is. Alaska then asks Miles if he ever runs home in the dark because he...
(full context)
4. One Hundred Twenty-Six Days Before
...important pursuit in history: the search for meaning.” This phrase makes Miles think of Alaska’s labyrinth. Miles likes the Old Man and looks forward to being taught and lectured to rather...
(full context)
19. Fifty-Two Days Before
...Just as he is about to say it, she says that she’s realized that the labyrinth isn’t life or death, but suffering, which she defines as “[d]oing wrong, and having wrong...
(full context)
35. Six Days After
...her, and that the love shouldn’t be in the past tense. He wonders if the labyrinth of death could really be worse the labyrinth he currently feels like he’s in.
(full context)
36. Seven Days After
...find the words “Straight & Fast” written beside the question about how to escape the labyrinth. The note is in blue ink instead of black, and is completely legible, so Alaska...
(full context)
37. Eight Days After
...Dr. Hyde decides to write Alaska’s exam question—How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering—on the board, and leave it for the rest of the year. He says...
(full context)
38. Nine Days After
...driving, she saw the jackknifed truck and realized it could be “the end to her labyrinthine mystery.” Miles tells the Colonel that she couldn’t have been thinking about Jake because she...
(full context)
41. Twenty Days After
...became his Great Perhaps. Now she has left him “Perhapsless” and “stuck in [her] goddamned labyrinth.” He thinks that maybe he can’t remember Alaska correctly because he never really knew her....
(full context)
58. One Hundred Twenty-Two Days After
...class. Each person must write about how he or she will get out of Alaska’s labyrinth. He tells them that they don’t need to do any research, and that he would...
(full context)
Miles asks the Colonel how he is going to escape the labyrinth, and the Colonel says that he has no idea. Miles responds that that’s not going...
(full context)
59. One Hundred Thirty-Six Days After
...his religion paper. He writes that before he came to Culver Creek, he avoided the labyrinth by pretending it didn’t exist. He and the Colonel messed up with Alaska just like...
(full context)
