Looking for Alaska

Alaska first mentions the concept of the labyrinth, which features in a book that she has been reading: The General in His Labyrinth. This is an account of the last days of the military leader Simon Bolivar, whose last words are, “How do I get out of this labyrinth!” Alaska is fascinated with this question, though, to begin with, she is unsure what the labyrinth symbolizes. Initially, she thinks that it symbolizes either life or death, but she comes to the conclusion that the labyrinth is suffering. The question, then, is how to find a way out. Based on Alaska’s notes (which Miles and the Colonel find after her death), her answer would seem to be “straight and fast.” Whether she killed herself as a means of achieving this exit, no one knows for sure. In any case, her death would see to exemplify this method of departure.

Miles is puzzled by the idea of the labyrinth for the most part, but, by the end of the novel, he has concluded that the way out of the labyrinth is forgiveness. A life of guilt, blame, and resentment is a life of suffering, and only forgiveness can set a person free.