Go Ask Alice. Turtleback Books: 224. Print.
Why I Chose Go Ask Alice
Although we were supposed to chose this book based on another student's review from the previous semester, I chose to read Go Ask Alice due to Mrs. West's thorough description of the book. She described it as a book where a teenager faces drug abuse and addicted in the sixties. This book appealed to me because it is told from the eyes of a drug abuser. Whenever I hear about drugs, it is from teachers or my mom telling me how bad drugs are for you. However, they are not abusers, therefore it seemed interesting to see the other side of the story. Also, I chose this book because teenagers are still using drugs in today's world. By reading Go Ask Alice, I may get a better account of their lives as well.
Author's Purpose of Go Ask Alice
Due to the fact that Go Ask Alice was a diary, the purposes of the Author is debatable. When actually writing the diary, the author's purpose was probably just to keep an account of her life to look back at how things have changed. For example, she starts the diary when she finds out she is moving. This is a big change in her life, and she feels the need to start writing about her life.
However, from a published book standpoint, the author's purpose was to tell the story of a drug abuser. The diary starts out before the girl begins using drugs. She seems average. However, it leads into her using drugs and going through many problems due to this abuse. It ends with her death. The way the story is organized proves that the author's purpose is to tell the story of how this girl began using drugs and how it effected her life.
Type of Person I Think the Author Is
\ The author of Go Ask Alice was an average teenage girl. In the beginning of the book, she dealt with the insecurities every teenage girl goes through, hers being her weight. She also faces the appeal of fitting in.For example, she states, "I wish I were popular and beautiful and wealthy and talented." Her wanting to fit in was the main reason she began her drug abuse, as it started at a party she went to with a popular girl. One way the author is different from most teenage girls, however, is that she is gutsy. She is gutsy because in the book she decided to flee to California with a friend. Not many teenage girls would run away like that. It takes braveness and guts.
The Prevailing Mood of the Book
Go Ask Alice had an overall dark mood to it. However, the book starts off with Alice happily experimenting with drugs. It ends depressed as she regrets all the experimentation as she is stuck with the memories of "bad trips" and damage to her health. In the beginning of the book, Alice explains after using drugs for the first time, "My mind possessed the wisdoms of the ages, and there were no words adequate to describe them." By saying this, she means the feeling the drugs gave her was indescribable, which is unusual for her because she is very talented in wording the way she feels. This allows the audience to understand the happiness drugs first bring her. Later in the book, after Alice has her bad trip with maggots that puts her in the hospital, she states, "Thousands of other dead things and people were pushing me inside and forcing the lid down on me." When Alice refers to being pushed inside, she means being pushed inside a casket, and the lid is being closed on her. The dead things were the maggots she experienced during her trip and the people are the ones associated with her drug abuse. This quote is very dark and scary. It represents the horror Alice faces from her previous drug-induced hallucinations. Alice also states in her diary, "It's a good thing most people bleed on the inside or this would be a gory, blood-smeared earth." People bleeding on the inside means they are hurting, emotionally. This quote is a creative way of saying everybody hurts on the inside. This adds to the dark mood of the book, which helps support the author's purpose to show how drugs are bad.
Most Important Element of the Book
The most important element of this book was the time frame it was written in. Since this diary was written in the 1960's, this type of drug abuse was extremely common. Acid was used by many teenagers. This widely known fact allows for the audience to make sense of Alice's journey through her drug experimentation. While teenagers are still doing drugs today, acid is less common as it was then. Alice first came across acid at a party where nobody told her she may be doing acid. That may have been common in the 60's, but it is very uncommon today. Alice also traveled across country in the book. However, that is another thing that would most likely not happen today due to how dangerous hitchhiking has become. It is now illegal, but back then it was normal. If the time period of this book was even a decade later, the events that occurred would be easier to doubt. However, because the 60's is known for the hippies who did drugs, the time period allows the events to make more sense.
Three Major Incidents in the Book
One major incident in the book is the first time Alice tries drugs. Over the summer she stays at her grandmother's house. She runs into an old friend there who is popular. This girl invites her to a party later that night and Alice is excited to go. At the party, Alice unknowingly plays in a game where random people's drinks have LSD in them. Alice's drink is one of the drugged ones. She ends up liking the trip a lot, however she claims she will never do drugs again. However, she soon breaks this vow. This incident was important in the book because it starts the Alice's journey of drug abuse.
Another major incident in the book is when Alice runs away with her friend Chris. They decide to run away because they were selling drugs for the two boys they were in love with, Richie and Ted. However, when Chris and Alice walk in on them having sex, they decide to run away and inform the police that Ted and Richie had something to do with drugs. They run away to San Francisco and move into a dirty apartment. This is a major incident because when Alice moves away, she is forced to become more independent. She doesn't like San Francisco very much and she gets caught up in the drug scene once again. She eventually wants to go home and leave the past behind her. When she moves to San Francisco, the audience sees how her life is spiraling downhill.
The next major incident is when Alice trips out on acid while babysitting. She has made some enemies throughout her life. When she decides to quit doing drugs, somebody puts acid on the chocolate covered peanuts she was eating while babysitting. She trips out and ends up in the hospital. The baby was not harmed, however Alice ends up with hand injuries, a concussion, and scratches and bruises. She ends up in an insane asylum. This incident is important because it is when Alice truly hits rock-bottom. The bad trip and visit to the asylum left mental scars on her that will never heal. Although she is not the one who drugged the peanuts, she became involved with the drug scene in the first place, which eventually led to her downfall. This experience of Alice truly warns the teenage audience to stay away from drugs because they will ruin your life.
Go Ask Alice vs. Outliers
Go Ask Alice and Outliers are very different. Go Ask Alice, for example, was written in first person, while Outliers was written in third person. The major difference is that Go Ask Alice is a story. It has a beginning, middle, and end. However, Outliers is more of an analysis. It analyzes success and what leads to it. Its major purpose is to answer, "why do people succeed?" Go Ask Alice's purpose is to scare kids away from drugs and tell the story of a girl. The two books are nonfiction, however they could not be more different. Go Ask Alice is written like a diary. Outliers is written like an analysis, with a basis of facts and statistics. It tells individual success stories to analyze success overall.
Although there are many differences between Go Ask Alice and Outliers, there are some similarities. For example, Go Ask Alice and Outliers are both nonfiction novels. They both also have the main purpose of informing. Go Ask Alice informs people from the first person point of view of how drugs change people's lives. Outliers informs people what the main factors that lead to success are. In some way, the two novels have a similar message. Go Ask Alice talks about how drugs lead to failure. Outliers talks about the things that leads to success. In some ways, they both talk about what someone needs to succeed. Go Ask Alice uses reverse psychology, however. It shows a girl who fails miserably because of drug abuse. This puts a stamp in your brain that in order to succeed, you should avoid drugs. Outliers just comes out and says what people need to succeed.
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Main Idea of the Book
The main idea of the book is the hardships a teen goes through. This book can connect to any teenager in the world, not just the drug abusing ones. It talks about the troubles of fitting in, the repetitiveness of school, the disagreements with parents, and making friends. It mainly talks about the problems that comes with drugs, but most teenagers have problem came across a situation related to an illegal substance before anyway. In today's life students are taught to say no to drugs, so it may not be as big of a problem as it was in Alice's time. However, this book's main idea is that drugs will bring additional problems to any teen's life.
Praise for Go Ask Alice
Go Ask Alice was really fast paced. Everybody from the age of thirteen and up could relate to some of the problems Alice went through. Whether she was facing insecurities or facing feeling left out, everybody has felt that way before. Therefore, this book covers something that everyone, not just drug addicts, can relate to. This book had a lot of imagery. When Alice had a bad trip about maggots and her grandpa, the audience can actually imagine the horror that she was hallucinating. Alice became the audience's friend throughout the book and it was hard not to feel upset when the book ended with her death. There was the hope that she would fix her life, yet she never had the chance to. If I were to rate this book I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Shortcomings of Go Ask Alice
While Go Ask Alice was a good book, it still had its shortcomings. For example, it started out very slow. It began with a girl going to school and living an average life. It was hard to get into, but audiences keep reading because of the reputation the book has. Another thing I would have liked to see in the books was details about how drugs made her feel. Because we never really understood how they made her feel, we never understood why she kept going back to them. Additionally, sometimes the diaries lacked detail and it got confusing on what she was talking about, especially after the bad trip. However, it was still a good book and I would recommend it to anyone.
