How we cite our quotes: (Daysbefore.Paragraph) and (daysafter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Is this why you want to leave, Miles?" Mom asked. I mulled it over for a while, careful not to look at her.
"Uh, no," I said.
"Well, why then?" she asked. This was not the first time she had posed the question. Mom was not particularly keen on letting me go to boarding school and had made no secret of it. (136before.13-15)
Not many parents would understand why Miles wants to leave home, but he has a pretty good explanation when he drags out Rabelais's quote about the Great Perhaps. He's looking for something more. And we have to ask if it's always necessary to leave home—a place of comfort and security for many people—to find it and to mature.
Quote #2
"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 #3
"I just don't get why she'd be so afraid of getting expelled. I'd hate to get expelled, but you have to take your lumps. I don't get it."
"Well, she obviously doesn't like home."
"True. She only goes home over Christmas and the summer, when Jake is there. But whatever. I don't like home, either." (67before.19-21)
Miles learns that Takumi also doesn't really like home either, but the way Alaska fears and avoids home almost paralyzes her. We wonder what could be so bad about home that she avoids it so much, only going when she has a boyfriend there as a buffer.