Quote 1
"But this is the seventh time I've been caught smoking. I just don't want—whatever. I don't want to upset my dad." (98before.3)
Alaska gives a little insight into her relationship with her dad (at this point, we don't know her mom died). Part of the mystery of Alaska in the first part of the novel is puzzling out why she avoids home and her dad as much as possible.
Quote 2
"Maybe you just need to tell us all why you told on Marya. Were you scared of going home or something?"
She pulled away from me and gave me a Look of Doom that would have made the Eagle proud, and I felt like she hated me or hated my question or both, and then she looked away, out the window, toward the soccer field, and said, "There's no home." (44before.23-24)
Contrast Alaska's feeling of home with what Miles felt on Thanksgiving. Remember: home isn't just a place, it's a lot of other stuff too. So when Alaska says there's no home, she's not just talking about the place—she's talking about people, emotions, and traditions too. What happens to people who are homeless?
Quote 3
She said, "It's not life or death, the labyrinth."
"Um, okay. So what is it?"
"Suffering," she said. "Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That's the problem. Bolivar was talking about the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?"
"What's wrong?" I asked. And I felt the absence of her hand on me.
"Nothing's wrong. But there's always suffering, Pudge…Suffering is universal. It's the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about." (52before.9-13)
Even though suffering is universal, it's still pretty painful and terrifying—and the ways in which the characters respond to their pain and suffering are uniquely individual. How does Alaska respond to her suffering, and why might she respond in this way?