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Significance Of The Labyrinth In Looking For Alaska

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The labyrinth is an idea that symbolizes the maze that is life. It winds through so many different kinds of suffering, some serious and some insignificant. Alaska Young in the story Looking for Alaska read about Simon Bolivar’s last moments in The General and His Labyrinth: “He was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. ‘Damn it,’ he sighed. ‘How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!’.” This quote heavily impacted Alaska because she realized its relevance to her confusing life. The labyrinth takes on a more significant meaning in the second half of the book because Miles is deeply affected by Alaska’s death, and he needs to understand the role of the labyrinth in his life and understand how it affected Alaska’s final moments in order to move on. …show more content…

It is the underlying question in most religions’ search for meaning. Miles’s religion teacher Mr. Hyde confirms this after Alaska’s death. “How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering? -A.Y. ‘I’m going to leave that up for the rest of the semester,’ he said. ‘Because everyone who has ever lost their way in life has felt the nagging insistence of that question. At some point we all look up and realize we are lost in a maze, and I don’t want us to ever forget Alaska.’” Miles liked Bolivar’s last words the instant Alaska read them to him, but after her death, all of his time and thought began to go toward trying to put together the connection between the labyrinth and Alaska’s final few seconds before she decided to hit the police car directly, as well as his and her mortality as a

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