Go Ask Alice

Literary Review

I: Bibliographical Information:

Anonymous. Go Ask Alice. New York, New York. Beatrice Sparks. 2005.

II: Analysis:

Character: The protagonist of the story is called Alice but no one really knows if that is her real name. Alice begins as a typical adolescent whose insecurities about sex, her appearance, her parents, and her social standing are fairly common. She could be any middle-class girl from the 1960s, and her death, just one of thousands that year, drives this point home. However, her observations and emotions are filtered through her beloved diary. She wants someone who will understand her, someone she can open up to, and finding it in no one, she dives into the world of drugs. There, she is able to connect to other people but only through the haze of drugs; more often she is betrayed and victimized by her “friends.” With support from her family and Joel, her big crush, she is able to open up to others. Alice changes from an insecure little girl to a full on drug addict.

III. Evaluation:

While reading the story I couldn’t stop imagining myself in her shoes. It was a really an eye-opening experience for me, to see someone so innocent fall into the horrible world of drugs. I also thought about how different her life would have been if she never would have had her first drug experience at her friends house. Things would have probably worked out better for her, who knows. I’m sure what ever she did it would have been better than what she did when she was drugged out of her mind. It really taught me that small things can lead to bigger thing, sometimes that can be a good thing but, in her case it was bad.