Character Clues
Character Analysis
Speech and Dialogue
Except at the beginning of the novel (where most authors hand out at least a little description of the characters), direct characterization in Looking for Alaska is sparse. Most of the time, readers have to infer what characters are like based on dialogue, due to Miles being a first person limited narrator. One of the earliest instances is when Miles meets the Colonel for the first time.
"Ha! That's good. And don't call me Chip. Call me the Colonel."
I stifled a laugh. "The Colonel?"
"Yeah. The Colonel. And we'll call you...hmm. Pudge."
"Huh?"
"Pudge," the Colonel said. "Because you're skinny. It's called irony, Pudge. Heard of it? Now, let's go get some cigarettes and start this year off right."
He walked out of the room, again just assuming I'd follow, and this time I did. (128before.73-78)
Based on this interaction, the Colonel has renamed himself and renamed Miles. Also, because he assumes Miles will follow him, we realize that the nickname the Colonel exists for a reason. In this way, Green implies that the Colonel has pretty strong charisma and leadership without having to say it outright. We also get a little of Miles/Pudge's social ineptness in the "Huh" he utters.
Equally important are the things that characters don't say. Alaska definitely avoids putting thoughts into words (check out 52before.14). And Takumi keeps his secrets for almost the whole novel.
But the speech and dialogue aren't just used to reveal characters's personalities and plot. They're also meant to highlight the relationships that characters develop and maintain. Think about the best day/worst day game they play the night of the barn and when Miles and the Colonel drive through Alaska's death:
The silence broke: "Sometimes I liked it," I said. "Sometimes I liked it that she was dead."
"You mean it felt good?"
"No. I don't know. It felt…pure."
"Yeah," he said, dropping his usual eloquence. "Yeah. I know. Me, too. It's natural. I mean, it must be natural."
It always shocked me when I realized that I wasn't the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things. (118after.9-13)
Miles reveals something incredibly personal to the Colonel, and even with all that they've been through, this admission brings them to an even closer understanding of Alaska and themselves.
Actions
Looking for Alaska might make the world's worst action film—too much talking and thinking—but what the characters do is still important. Just look at Alaska:
So I could not have been more surprised when she showed up sobbing at Room 43 just as I was putting the finishing touches on my final paper for English. She sat down on the couch, her every exhalation a mix of whimper and scream.
"I'm sorry," she said, heaving. (44before.13-14)
Alaska had just finished laughing and joking with Miles, and then she turns completely around and breaks down in front of him. It's one of the things that annoys Miles about her the most and also one of the biggest clues that she's a deeply unhappy person.
It's rare to find straight action narration in the novel since much of the action of the story is communicated through dialogue. But hey—it's a dialogue-centric book.
Thoughts and Opinions
This is the big one. We mostly get to know Miles through his thoughts and opinions, and it's his thoughts and opinions that help us develop other characters as well:
I rolled back toward the wall and pulled the comforter over my head. I didn't know whether to trust Alaska, and I'd certainly had enough of her unpredictability—cold one day, sweet the next; irresistibly flirty one moment, resistibly obnoxious the next. I preferred the Colonel: At least when he was cranky, he had a reason.
He forgets this post-Alaska's death of course, but we remember that he got annoyed with her when she was alive because we've consistently been privy to his thoughts. They pop up after conversations, after lectures in World Religions, and at some pretty random times, and throughout the book they help us to see the ways in which Miles (and those around him, though to a lesser extent) are changing, particularly when it comes to Miles moving toward forgiving himself and Alaska following her death.
Writing
The written word has a ton of power in the novel. Alaska writes her way out of the labyrinth of suffering in two words: "Straight & Fast" (7after22). And when Takumi finally reveals his thoughts and secrets, he doesn't say them, he writes them:
From the Desk of…Takumi Hikohito
Pudge/Colonel:
I am sorry that I have not talked to you before. […] For a long time, I was mad at you. The way you cut me out of everything hurt me, and so I kept what I knew to myself. (136after.2-4)
Miles does the same when he writes his final for the Old Man's class. Maybe it's because saying stuff aloud takes more courage than writing it down, or maybe it's that through writing characters are able to come to realizations they wouldn't have during verbal conversations—perhaps writing is a private way to muddle through thoughts and opinions. Whatever the reason(s), we don't get characters's written ideas all that often, so when we do, we pay attention to them.