Go Ask Alice
Anonymous
Pages 55-111
As
I continue to read Go Ask
Alice by Anonymous, I am very
entertained and a bit surprised. This book is full of drama such as Alice and
her friend, Chris, running away, both of them getting raped, and returning home
only to run away again. From reading through these crazy events, I gathered
some questions, comments, predictions, and even some text connections to either
myself or things around me.
The
first comment I had was about a quote that Chris told Alice. The quote was, “A
man’s blood soon runs cold where there is no one around to warm it up.” I don’t
believe this is always true, and it’s frustrating that people generalize so
often or make assumptions based on just their lives and experiences. I think if
you have a very good bond with someone and have been with them for a long time;
it is very possible to be apart from each other without losing feelings. The
next comment is on the same topic of relationships. Alice talks about how she
would do anything for this guy that she just started to have a thing with, and
she even says that she would give up college to work to provide for this guy
and his dreams. I cannot disagree with this outlook more. I think anytime in
the teenage years is too young to give up anything for anyone else. You only
have one solid shot at school, and I definitely don’t see how someone could
throw that away for someone else. I believe young relationships can work, but
you have to add that person to your life, not give things up to fit them in.
You work hard in your teenage years, why share that hard work’s earnings? Alice’s
bad judgment on people doesn’t just stop at the ‘friends’ who drugged her. She
goes out with a guy named Richie thinking he is going into medicine and that he
is really into her, but he turns out gay and only using her to sell drugs for
him. I think this is good writing on the author’s part because the character
should keep their characteristics throughout the book, and Alice definitely
does. After Alice and Chris run away, Alice says, “I will never ever under any
circumstances use drugs again. They are the root and cause of this whole
rotten, stinking mess I am in, and I wish with all my heart and soul that I had
never heard of them.” This gave me hope for Alice that maybe she would go home
and quit drugs for good because it sounded like she still knows at that point
what is going on in her life and where she went wrong. She does eventually
return home, but starts using drugs again to the point where she gets caught.
This shows a lack of self-discipline in her. The most shocking moment of what I
have read of the book so far is when her and Chris take ‘Smack’ and ‘Speed’
that was set up and given to them while they’re living in a different town by
themselves, and the two people who gave them these drugs took turns raping them
and treating them brutally. That is something that you never want to happen to
you in your life and I’m sure you can never forget that. Alice never really
carries on her thoughts about it and I’m wondering if it really damaged her the
way it would for non-drug users. With the use of drugs come people being able
to take advantage of you. I don’t understand why you would let someone have
that sort of power over you just so you can have a great high, but I am not in
Alice’s place or situation. At first in the book Alice says,”I wish I could
talk to my mother about things like this…” Now, after she returns home from
running away, she says, “It was a nice warm feeling knowing that we were
communicating, and much more than vocally! I really have a great family.” Even
with the huge event with her running away, there’s still a bright side, and
that bright side is that she is closer with her family after running away than
ever before. Since her family is so welcoming and kind, it’s surprising that
she gets into this mess, and it makes it very real that anyone can get
addicted. A quote that I liked from the pages I read was Alice talking about a
guy named George. The quote says, “He’s kind of nothing but I guess that’s the
safest kind.” I think this is interesting and possibly a bit true. When you’re ‘nothing’
you don’t have much going on and you’re not caught up in drama and other
people. You’re probably thought of to be pretty relaxed and not out there to
hurt anyone. There are a few other quotes I picked out of the text because they
interested me. The first one is, “After you’ve had it, there isn’t even life
without drugs.” Alice also reveals that drug users just exist from one
experience to the next. These thoughts mean that maybe while you’re alive, you’re
not living in the here and now. You’re not focusing on reality and the world
around you. All you care about if you’re doing as many drugs as Alice is about
the trips, and in between those you have nothing to live for. Something else
Alice suggests that catches my attention is when she says, “I bet the pill is
harder to get than drugs-which shows you how screwed up this world really is!”
I think this is true. Drugs are easier to obtain because you don’t always need
to go over the counter to pick them up, but that’s also the reason why there
are so many faults and deaths dealing with drugs. You never know who made them
or what is really in them. One last comment I had was about a little girl’s
life in the book. Alice runs away for the second time because she is close to
getting caught and letting down her family. While she is taken to doctor’s
office in another town by a social worker, she meets Doris and hears her story.
Doris explains that her father abused her and threatened her for years. She was
then put into a foster home where her brothers did the same to her. She started
getting into drugs and became attracted to girls. When Alice meets her, Doris
is fourteen and willing to get into bed with anyone and everyone. Even though
this is a book, these things still happen in real life and it’s absolutely
horrible. I don’t think anyone deserves to have a bad life at home because it
carries out throughout your whole life, and usually your parents have a big
influence on how you are as a person.
Besides the comments I
had while reading this part of Go Ask Alice, I also had some text to
self connections. One example of this is when Alice explains that her and Chris
are thinking about quitting their jobs because it’s getting so that they have
no time to do the things they really want to do. I think everyone feels at some
point that all they’re doing is working, and I know I’ve had that thought of
quitting and doing all the other things that I would actually enjoy doing.
Another text to self connection that I found was about Christmas. Alice says
that she wanted to have her own little special and sacred part of the day to
review, repent, and recommit herself. I feel like I go through the same thing
around Christmas time. It’s a holiday to really renew yourself and touch up
everything you’ve been longing to about yourself.
One word I found in
this section of reading that I did not know before is ‘asinine’. This means to
be extremely stupid or foolish.
This book is written as
a journal and you asked what some of the benefits/drawbacks of this style of
writing were. A benefit of this style is that it is very detailed and you get
to go deep into the journal writer’s life. A drawback is that you rarely get to
hear about other peoples’ feelings which can definitely make it a whole
different story. I have read this book before and I am half done reading it for
the second time.
Overall I’m enjoying
this book and having an easy time picking out connections, comments, and
questions.
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