The books deal with topical issues such as drug abuse, satanism, teenage pregnancy or aids, and are presented as cautionary tales. An intelligent, sensitive girl with a literary flair, she experiments with drugs and the counterculture to escape from. The title go ask alice isnt referring to the girl in the diary because she is anonymous, the name alice is a symbol used from a song. Go ask alice is a diary of a teenage middleclass girl. We dont know the troubled teenage girls name but we follow her rapid descent into her life as an addict. Go ask alice, a diary of a teenage girl who fell into drug use and committed suicide, is the most frequently censored book in high school libraries, according to a survey of librarians. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read go ask alice. Beatrice sparks was an american therapist and mormon youth counselor who was known for producing books purporting to be the real diaries of troubled teenagers. Actions are one of the ways we learn who alice truly is, no matter what she writes in the diary. Go ask alice book by anonymous official publisher page. The book and especially the ending shows the harsh reality of drugs and addiction in teenagers. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of go ask alice and what it means. Go ask alice is a fiction work written anonymously and first published in 1971. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading go ask alice.
In go ask alice, the diary is written by a teenage girl over a twoyear period and chronicles her experiences with drugsmainly marijuana, acid, and speed. If the book doesnt make strict chronological sense, it does obey emotional logic. Go ask alice was written in the 1970s, a decade with a very unique sense of style. From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the sparknotes go ask alice study guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays. This is appropriate for all ages, it is good for everyone to know what can happen if you get.
This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of go ask alice. 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 was the pseudonymous name of the teenaged author who wrote the book upon which this aboveaverage tv movie was based. Attributed to anonymous, the book is in diary form, and was originally presented as being the edited real diary of the unnamed teenage protagonist. 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. Go ask alice is still awash in controversy, 43 years. See actions taken by the people who manage and post content. The sobering message of go ask alice had a huge effect on my lifeand then i found out the real story. If you liked or wanted to like go ask alice, try reading.
In case you arent familiar with it, its supposedly an anonymous diary found by the parents of a fifteen year old drug user after she. Sparknotes is here for you weve got everything you need to ace or teach. The go ask alice book of answers is a groundbreaking guide that mines the best material from the eponymous awardwinning web site. Essay about go ask alice by anonymous 837 words bartleby. After publication, go ask alice was exposed as a fraudulent work, not the diary of one girl but cobbled together by an author from the experiences of several people. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. She assumes that her parents doesnt understand her and she could do whatever she wants. First published in 1971, go ask alice is a controversial book involving teenage addiction. An unnamed fifteenyearold diarist, whom the novels title refers to as alice, starts a diary. A shocking true story for fans of reasons why kindle edition by anonymous. This may have also occurred because i read the book before hand. The narrator tries to change her image several times throughout the story. Go ask alice anonymous diaries paperback january 1, 2006.
After reading the book, i find out the book is named after the song go ask alice from the diary entries lack too much detail to make this a believable read. Facebook is showing information to help you better understand the purpose of a page. The book go ask alice is about this fifteen year old girl who is confused with everything around her. This passage from the book go ask alice was when alice first decided to quit using drugs and to stay clean. Go ask alice is supposed to be a diary, so theres quite a bit of anguished soulsearching and selfindulgent whining. Go ask alice by anonymous if you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It started when she was served a soft drink laced with lsd in a da. 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 information from conventional channels. 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. Go ask alice is a 1971 book generally viewed to have been written by the author beatrice sparks, however the novel was published under the pseudonym. The author, through this book, doesnt wants his readers to look for advise in it, but to learn about the real world in which some teenagers have to live through. Chris in go ask alice chris alice meets chris in a little hippie boutique in her new town and its practically love at first sightespecially because chris gives her uppers to cheer her up.
The movie switched a lot of the scenes around and removed some of the characters. 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. Based on a 15yearolds diary, go ask alice is the intimate account of one girls fatal journey into the world of drug addiction. The book that defined my teen anxiety turned out to be a lie. 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 save her, her trust and love for her family.
Jamie smithjackson portrays a shy, slightly overweight high schooler. The narrator is never named, but were going to go ahead and hop on the bandwagon of people who call her alice based off the title. Everything seems normal at first, but that soon changes when she is enticed into the world of drugs. He consoles her, and gets her permission to study at the university library. Summary read a plot overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter summary and analysis. An intelligent, sensitive girl with a literary flair, she experiments with drugs and the counterculture to escape from her low selfesteem and consuming loneliness. Nowadays ya lit is pretty universal harry potter really opened the doors for people to read childrens books no matter what their agebut in 1971 when our book.
For example, she is always promising herself that she will never do drugs again for various reasons, and yet, a few entries later she is back on drugs. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. But they can only do so much with a movie taken from a book. I picked up this book in a bookstore due to the cover and also, i was researching some of the rocknroll lyrics of the 60s. It graphically describes the waking hell into which the main character descends, her heartfelt but futile battles to. The novel is in epistolary format, being comprised entirely of diary entries and as such, was first thought to be an autobiography. A teenager whose life is dominated by her drug problems recounts in her diary her experiences from her indoctrination into the. Student affairs administrators in higher education. The diary begins right before alice s fifteenth birthday. Authentic, tragic tale of teen drug addiction a classic. With a sensitive, observant style, she records her adolescent woes.
Every book on your english syllabus summed up in a quote from. Poignant and unflinchingly honest, her story is a tragedy that is repeated in towns and cities across the country. Her habit eventually becomes a problem, leading her to run away from home numerous times, before landing herself into serious danger. As powerful and as timely today as ever, go ask alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction. 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. 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 american library association. Go ask alice, written by an anonymous author, is a diary kept by a fifteenyearold drug user. Go ask alice is based on an actual diary of a fifteenyear old drug user. Go ask alice was originally billed as a memoir about teenage drug abuse from an anonymous source, but it now thought to be a work of fiction by beatrice sparks. 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.
Go ask alice is a memoir that follows the diary of a teenage girl during the late sixties. Alice is an anonymous character and the most we know about her is that she is white, middleclass teenager who struggles to fit. A list of important facts about anonymouss go ask alice, including setting, climax, protagonists, and antagonists. 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. Theres no getting around the fact that alice has almost nonexistent selfesteem, so her sense of identity is determined by the people she surrounds herself with. Only parents can decide if they want their children to read go ask alice. Its said that the author of the book upon which this. Someone plants a joint in alice s purse, and she leaves school to go to his office. 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.
Alice alice is the anonymous protagonist her name is an allusion to a jefferson airplane song whose intermittent diary entries narrate go ask alice. In case you arent familiar with it, its supposedly an anonymous diary found by the. 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. Its boring to say she over and over again and not boring you is kind of our mission in life.
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