Looking for Alaska

Two days later, Alaska asks Miles if he knows William Auden’s last words. Miles does not, and Alaska rebukes him for his lack of knowledge before sharing a quote from one of Auden’s poems: “You shall love your crooked neighbor / With your crooked heart.” Miles deems it “pretty good,” but Alaska is much more enthusiastic, saying that it “reveals so much about love and brokenness” (85).

They go on to rummage around the other students’ dorm rooms, discovering alcohol hidden in most of them. Alaska muses that she could have ratted out anyone, and Miles wonders why she chose Marya and Paul. They also discover lots of porn magazines and, finally, a pornographic movie. As they watch it, Alaska criticizes its depiction of women: she says that the woman is objectified and that there is nothing erotic about the scenario. She laments this state of affairs, saying, “This is what you make us do for money” (88). Miles points out that he is not responsible, but, when quizzed by Alaska, cannot deny that he finds the movie sexy. Alaska then laughs and says that it is fine and she does not blame him.

Alaska subsequently goes to sleep and Miles wants to lie down beside her.