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Mr. Starnes (The Eagle)
Dr. Hyde is a very old religion teacher at Culver Creek. Miles thinks that he’s a genius, even though he once kicks Miles out of class. Dr. Hyde encourages his students to think about the meaning of life and death, and after Alaska dies, he changes his final exam and asks students to answer Alaska’s question about how to escape the labyrinth of suffering.
Dr. Hyde (The Old Man) Quotes in Looking for Alaska
The Looking for Alaska quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Hyde (The Old Man) or refer to Dr. Hyde (The Old Man). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
4. One Hundred Twenty-Six Days Before Quotes
“I must talk, and you must listen, for we are engaged here in the most important pursuit in history: the search for meaning. What is the nature of being a person? What is the best way to go about being a person? How did we come to be, and what will become of us when we are no longer? In short: What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?”
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Dr. Hyde (The Old Man) Character Timeline in Looking for Alaska
The timeline below shows where the character Dr. Hyde (The Old Man) appears in Looking for Alaska. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
4. One Hundred Twenty-Six Days Before
Later that day Miles attends World Religion class. The teacher, whom the students call the Old Man , announces that the class will be dedicated to the exploration of “the most important...
(full context)
6. One Hundred Ten Days Before
One day Miles gets in trouble with Dr. Hyde , who catches him staring out a window during class. Even though Miles was thinking...
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8. One Hundred Eight Days Before
The next day Dr. Hyde asks Miles to stay behind after class. He knows that Miles likes the class, and...
(full context)
16. Seventy-Six Days Before
Dr. Hyde announces the topic for the final paper of the semester: “What is the most important...
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32. The Day After
The Colonel assumes that the assembly is because Dr. Hyde has died. When they arrive at the gym, they don’t see him, and the Colonel...
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37. Eight Days After
School starts back up and Dr. Hyde decides to write Alaska’s exam question—How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of...
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42. Twenty-One Days After
In religion class, Dr. Hyde talks about a Sufi story in which a woman pours water on the flames of...
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49. Fifty-One Days After
...enlightenment the way that people in the Buddhist stories are, but he thinks it’s unlikely. Dr. Hyde draws the class’ attention to the Buddhist idea that everything will eventually fall apart. He...
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58. One Hundred Twenty-Two Days After
Dr. Hyde holds the last class of the year outside and distributes the final exam to the...
(full context)
