The diarys triumph comes at the end since alice discards it in favor of wanting to share herself with other peoplethe tool that enables alice to better communicate and understand herself has served its purpose. This book is about the life of a girl, and all the troubles that she goes through with drugs. Alice alice is the anonymous protagonist her name is an allusion to a jefferson airplane song whose intermittent diary entries narrate go ask alice. A lot of alices angst stems from her relationship with her mother. Characters alice alice begins as a typical adolescent whose insecurities about sex, her appearance, her parents, and her social standing are fairly common. When she goes home for the new school year, she pretty much abandons her bff beth for new friends chris, richie, and ted, who share her love for getting high. She is not very selfconfident in the beginning of the story, she is not very happy with her weight. Maybe its partly to blame for the disconnect i felt to the characterstory. As powerfuland as timelytoday as ever, go ask alice remains the. Go ask alice book by anonymous official publisher page. I think this book writes in a interesting way while it teaches us a life lesson by expressing in diary form. Both chris and alice decide to go to san francisco thinking that moving to a different place is going to help them with quitting their addiction and habits towards drugs, alcohol, and. Alice meets chris in a little hippie boutique in her new town and its practically love at. Missing from the movie are carlaalices angsting over her crush, roger.
Actions are one of the ways we learn who alice truly is, no matter what she writes in the diary. Attributed to anonymous, the book is in diary form, and was originally presented as being the edited real diary of the unnamed teenage protagonist. Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. The book go ask alice was the reallife diary of a teenage girl. An intelligent, sensitive girl with a literary flair, she experiments with drugs and the counterculture to escape from her low selfesteem and consuming loneliness. Doing character analysis on anyone other than alice is kind of like the movie being john. There is an alice in the book go ask alice, but shes a minor character mentioned in only one paragraph. She goes to visit her grandparents one summer and comes back familiar with drugs. She could be any middleclass girl from the 1960s, and her death, just one of thousands that year, drives this point home. A lot of the time i dont notice age with books when im lost in a story but i dont think the text has dated well. The main characters of this fiction, young adult story are. This character s lowself esteem leads to a life of drug use and loneliness.
Go ask alice is a 1971 fiction book about a teenage girl who develops a drug addiction at age 15 and runs away from home on a journey of selfdestructive. I had read go ask alice a couple years ago and decided to try out another book from the other anonymous author collection. It may be reproduced in its entirety or excerpted for these. The novel is in epistolary format, being comprised entirely of diary entries and as such, was first thought to be an autobiography. The first drug that alice is introduced to in the book. An intelligent, sensitive girl with a literary flair, she experiments with drugs and the counterculture to escape from her. Were grouping alice s little brother and sister into one character because really, that seems to.
I hope that as i read further, alices druginduced diary entries mark an improvement upon her character. Alice wants to fit in, but doing that with her peers means shes at odds with her family. Ill admit that my opinion of go ask alice was negatively influenced by the marketing before i. Every book on your english syllabus summed up in a quote from the office. Alices dad is the dean of political science at the university that shall remain nameless. Overall go ask alice is a really fantastic bookdiary. Who are the main characters of go ask alice answers. Analysis of go ask alice english literature essay uk essays.
It is famous for its drugs are bad message, being banned for references to sex, rape and drugs, and almost certainly being a fake. This passage from the book go ask alice was when alice first decided to quit using drugs and to stay clean. For thirtyfive years, the acclaimed, bestselling firstperson account of a teenage girls harrowing decent into the nightmarish world of drugs has left an indelible mark on generations of teen readers. This character is loved and admired at some points in the story, and reviled in others. Take the analysis of major characters quick quiz take a study break. She had a perfectly normal life until she moved to a new town and one. Go ask alice teaches you what can happen when you get into drugs and its hard to stay away from them once you have started and know how easy it is to get ahold of them. Throughout the whole book, it brought the readers attention by giving us enough details. But she just cant resist the way the drugs make her feelbeautiful and popular and connected to the world around her. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book. Attributed to anonymous, the book is in diary form, and was originally presented as being the edited. Dark, desperate, desolate go ask alice exhibits power of student. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property.
Rather than being a real life diary of a young drug. A book report on go ask alice english literature essay. It is almost impossible to do an indepth character analysis of alice without first deciding. Free download or read online go ask alice pdf epub book. If you want to start a main goaskalice page, just click the edit button above. First paperback edition march 1998 go ask alice taken from white rabbit, written by grace slick. Maybe its partly to blame for the disconnect i felt to the character story. Alice is in conflict with everyone around her, because she cant accept herself as she really is. Essay about go ask alice by anonymous 837 words bartleby. The main character and also the author of the book alice, died. The diary also functions as the engine for go ask alices. The go ask alice book of answers is a groundbreaking guide that mines the best material from the eponymous awardwinning web site. Go ask alice by anonymous about the book she doesnt want to get hooked on drugs.
From sex and relationships to alcohol and drugs to fitness and nutrition, this comprehensive handbook is the first of its kind to provide muchneeded information for young adults who cannot get reliable or anonymous. Go ask alice is a 1971 book generally viewed to have been written by the author beatrice sparks, however the novel was published originally under the pseudonym anonymous. Ted and richie are chris and alices boyfriends, respectively, who are trying. This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of go ask alice by beatrice sparks. It is the story of a troubled young woman who seeks solace in drugs. An intelligent, sensitive girl with a literary flair, she experiments with drugs and the counterculture to escape from. Go ask alice a real diary timeline timetoast timelines. Every time after she uses, she feels guilty and low and vows to stay away. Go ask alice has been around for decades, and is even being used as reading material in high schools.
Yet it was originally promoted as nonfiction, its still sold as by anonymous and the copy i have has this is alices true story on the cover plus the blurb on the back, the foreword and the psychologists comment at the back everything is still packaged to make out this is nonfiction. Alice is the anonymous protagonist her name is an allusion to a jefferson airplane song whose intermittent diary entries narrate go ask alice. Teenagers of every race, religion, and clique relate deeply to the words of the anonymous teenager within the book go ask alice, by an anonymous girl whose life enters a place where, as most teenagers, she has no idea who to turn to, or where to go. Dominion high schools go ask alice chronicles the story of a girl we all. Its an added unexpected ending you knew was coming,but you were not expecting to happen the way it did. Go ask alice is a diary of a teenage middleclass girl. Richie is alices college boyfriend until she leaves home the first time.
Alices kind boss who invites her to his house to meet his large family. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 2 pages and is available in paperback format. I know the book is over 40 years old but go ask alice really feels it. Roger is a straight, square boy on whom alice has an overwhelming crush.
Go ask alice is the firstperson tale of an accidental downward spiral into drugs, alcohol, unwanted sex, and impoverished living. Pdf go ask alice book by beatrice sparks free download. Alice begins as a typical adolescent whose insecurities about sex, her appearance, her. Then write an essay comparing and contrasting the book to go ask alice. It graphically describes the waking hell into which the main character descends, her heartfelt but futile battles to return home and stay clean, her pleas to god to. They continue to party with sheila until one night, when trying heroin, alice.
Go ask alice this book was about a diary of a 15yearold anonymous girl that someone found and turned into a book. Our team members have advanced degrees in public health, health education, medicine, counseling, and a number of other. Alice is an anonymous character and the most we know about her is that she is white, middleclass teenager who struggles to fit. Go ask alice quiz that tests what you know about important details and events in the book. As powerfuland as timelytoday as ever, go ask alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction. Joel is a student that study on the university where the dad of alice works. He is the first person who gets alice to start trusting people and gets her. Her name is not known, her name is not mentioned in the book, so the gave her the name alice. The diary begins right before alices fifteenth birthday.
A straight girl who befriends alice at the end of the book and accepts her into her group. The main character and author of this first hand description of a. To ask other readers questions about go ask alice, please sign up. It is the story of a troubled young woman who seeks solace in drugs and the counterculture. The main character is slipped lsd and hooked on drugs. It is the story of a troubled young woman who seeks solace in drugs and the. Richie and teds homosexuality and alice and chris being raped by sheila and. Alice decided to ask jill to get her some marijuana to try for the first time. Like go ask alice, this is the main character s journal, which started off as a foodfeeling journal. Go ask alice is still awash in controversy, 43 years. She is just like any other teenager, insecure and thought to be misunderstood. This is my second read of go ask alice, and i loved it just as much the second time around im an advocate for banned stories that teach difficult lessons the. Go ask alice ebook by anonymous 9780689832499 rakuten.
But those of you old enough to remember the latter portion of the 70s might remember that beatrice sparks, the editor of go ask alice, also edited a bunch of other alarmist books aimed at teens, all supposedly taken from teenagers diaries. The first edition of the novel was published in 1971, and was written by beatrice sparks. Letting ana go by anonymous meet your next favorite book. Beth baum roger joel reems richie and ted doris minor characters.
Go ask alice by beatrice sparks is an epistolary work, meaning. The go ask alice community note includes chapterbychapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. Chriss friend richie, a college boy, turns alice on to marijuana. She is a pretty typical teenage girl in the late 1960sshes mostly concerned with school, boys, her hair, and fitting in okay, thats pretty typical for any decade when her fathers new job causes her family to move across the country, alice is thrust into a new school at a time when she is at best sensitive. Be careful, though, the only things that go in the main namespace are tropes and should be created through the ykttw system. Go ask alice is a 1971 fiction book about a teenage girl who develops a drug addiction at age 15 and runs away from home on a journey of selfdestructive escapism. Although the diarist is never mentioned by name, the title suggests that she is called alice. This is appropriate for all ages, it is good for everyone to know what can happen if you get. Go ask alice is a novel by youth counsellor beatrice sparks, first published in 1971. The main character and author of this first hand description of a teenagers plunge into the american 1960s.
Read another book that deals with teenagers and drugs, such as crank by ellen hopkins and smack by melvin burgess. Go ask alice was published anonymously in 1971, but in the last two decades, it still lives in the top 25 most frequently banned books, according to the. Alice is enthralled with roger but feels guilty about her drug use and loss of virginity. The author of this book really had no say on whether their name was added or not, because go ask alice is teenagers diary that was put into print, after she had passed away. What is the primary conflict in the book go ask alice. Only parents can decide if they want their children to read go ask alice.