Go ask alice is written as the diary of a fifteenyearold girls daytoday struggle with drug addiction. Mar 23, 2017 d espite the popularity of go ask alice, the mystery of the diarists identity has never been truly solved, and none of her relatives have ever come forward to claim a share of the royalties. Go ask alice study guide undated july, page 2 2 analysis despite the mental horrors alice endures, her mind stays somewhat resilient and her diary becomes her true sanctuary, not only as a place to describe her feelings but now as a proof of her own. Essay about go ask alice by anonymous 837 words bartleby. Literature guidescreated by harvard students for students everywhere, spar. Make your own 1970s project to wear or use as decoration. Summary read a plot overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter summary and analysis. The drugs make her fit in with a certain group at school, but alienate her from her family and others. 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. This is the summary of a fifteen year old girl who suffers through a lot. Alice hoped to be like her mother some day and wondered if her mother ever struggled with the same romantic and identity issues when she was young. Our team members have advanced degrees in public health, health education, medicine, counseling, and a number of other. The author of this diary began journaling on her sixteenth. In the 1970s, this fake diary scaredand temptedteenage.
While not a feelgood story, go ask alice has been praised for its candid portrayal of addiction. Alice, once a shy, innocent girl, is sucked into the heartless world. Its said that the author of the book upon which this movie was based wrote it as a work of. When your books and teachers dont make sense, we do. Novel versus the movie adaption of go ask alice essay cram. I think this book writes in a interesting way while it teaches us a life lesson by expressing in diary form. Go ask alice study guide contains a biography of beatrice sparks. Alice asks her mother for help, sewing a dress together for a christmas party to which shes been invited. Go ask alice, written by an anonymous author, is a diary kept by a fifteenyearold drug user.
At the beginning of the book, the diarist is in her early to mid teens. Only parents can decide if they want their children to read go ask alice. Strictly speaking, the name of the books protagonist isnt alice, although thats how its often given in publicity materials. Or maybe you saw the 1973 madefortv movie based on it costarring star treks william shatner. Go ask alice is a reference to a jefferson airplane song called white rabbit, which alludes to rampant hallucinogenic drug use in lewis carrolls alice in wonderland. Originally sold as the real diary of an actual teenager, go ask alice is the fauxmemoir of a 15yearold girl whose life is dominated by her drug problems. The book and especially the ending shows the harsh reality of drugs and addiction in teenagers.
The chumminess would proceed from here, with each stage. The best selling, 1971 novel, go ask alice far surpasses its film adaptation by beatrice sparks because of the removal of crucial scenes. The main characters of this fiction, young adult story are. Throughout the whole book, it brought the readers attention by giving us enough details. Alice in wonderland chapters summary and analysis.
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. Alice begins her diary because she has no one else to talk to, and she spends her energy searching not for drugs, but for someone who understands her. 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. The story depicts her ongoing downward slide as she becomes willing to do almost anything to get her next drug experience. Jill peters came by and said she was going to have a few kids over tomorrow night and shed call me.
Created during the height of the drug era, the girl could be anyone from this time who found him or herself seduced by the mindaltering affects of marijuana, lsd, bennies, dexies, and heroin. Oneida jantzen was born into a wealthy family, so wealthy that they werent in a category with anybody else in town, even the welltodo ones. Go ask alice essay go ask alice, written by an anonymous author, is a diary kept by a fifteenyearold drug user. 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, and at worst extremely insecure. She has parents and a younger brother and sister, but is upset and alienated following a move to a new city and the increasing distance between herself and her best friend. T he narrator of pride is a man with a harelip, making this one of only a few munro stories that i know of to be narrated by a man. If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. Of course, and this is no fault, the story is still centered on a woman. She happily accepts to attend, unaware of the consequential course of events about to be sent into motion. Jul 28, 2017 hey, this book is available on the below mentioned link. I recommend you read this book, it was the best thing ive ever read because i could connect with it. Attributed to anonymous, the book is in diary form, and was originally presented as being the edited real diary of the unnamed teenage p. Thoughts on go ask alice banned books week duration. Pride and prejudice sparknotes literature guide sparknotes literature guide series book 55 ebook. Go ask alice guys, they made an afterschoolspecial movie that is totally faithful to the book and it has a young william shatner.
Go ask alice go ask alice is the diary of a young 15 year old drug abuser. Since go ask alice is thinly veiled antidrug propaganda, it kind of goes without saying that drugs and alcohol play a pretty huge role in our tale. Go ask alice by anonymous if you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. When the family moves for the collegeenglishprofessor fathers new job, alice apprehensively approaches the unfamiliar and befriends another shy girl, beth, who shares her outsider status. As powerful and as timely today as ever, go ask alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction. Go ask alice is a fiction work written anonymously and first published in 1971. Geared to what todays students need to know, sparknotes provides. What is the primary conflict in the book go ask alice. Go ask alice was a stark counterpoint to the freewheeling ethos of the early 70s that was ahead of its time, eventually fitting in perfectly with the war on drugs and d. We shmoopologists have unilaterally decided that we need.
Go ask alice is still awash in controversy, 43 years. One day, however, the diarist reconciles with a former schoolmate named jill in a department store. Sep 29, 2015 the anonymous diarist in the 1971 book go ask alice is just a normal 15yearold girl dealing with crushes, friendships, a new move and body image. Go ask alice questions and answers discover the community of teachers, mentors and students just like you that can answer any question you might have on go ask alice. Alice or whatever her name is in go ask alice shmoop. The birds ask who dinah is, and alice, eager as always to talk about her cat. Many of the earliest novels in the english language were epistolarysamuel richardsons pamela, for instanceand go ask alice adapts the. Go ask alice was written in the 1970s, a decade with a very unique sense of style. As powerfuland as timelytoday as ever, go ask alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction. 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. Someone plants a joint in alices purse, and she leaves school to go to his office. Poignant and unflinchingly honest, her story is a tragedy that is repeated in towns and cities across the country. The first edition of the novel was published in 1971, and was written by beatrice sparks. With over a million copies in print, this book has become a classic.
Readers often look forward to seeing their favourite novel be brought to life. I only know that last night i had the most incredible experience of my life. Alice is an anonymous character and the most we know about her is that she is white, middleclass teenager who struggles to fit in at school and to live up to her parents expectations. On a normal day in alice s world, she decides to buy a journal to write in it every week to record her. Go ask alice study guide context, a narrative constructed by letters in this case, diary entries. Alice s journey into the substanceabusing hippie culture of the early 1970sshe tries everything from pot to lsd to heroinis a harrowing tale of the cycle of addiction, and the authors pull out all the stops to show us that drugs are bad. Joel is the character who most draws alice out of her shell and teaches her to trust others. Based on a 15yearolds diary, go ask alice is the intimate account of one girls fatal journey into the world of drug addiction. Oct 03, 2016 go ask alice has been around for decades, and is even being used as reading material in high schools.
Go ask alice is a 1971 fiction book about a teenage girl who develops a drug habit at age 15 and runs away from home on a journey of selfdestructive escapism. Go ask alice is a diary of a teenage middleclass girl. Alice meets a freshman at the university library, joel. He consoles her, and gets her permission to study at the university library. Attributed to anonymous, the book is in diary form, and was originally presented as being the edited real diary of the unnamed teenage protagonist. It graphically describes the waking hell into which the main character descends, her heartfelt but futile battles to. Go ask alice, an information service originally available only to columbia university students but later accessible to others through its web site, takes book form in this eyeopening collection of questions and answers. Her experiences have desensitized her to just about everything, so now sex is no longer some magical. A riveting firstperson tale of addiction, in the tradition of go ask alice and jays journal. Not alice beatrice sparks doesnt have a website, but one person has built an entire website about the book anyway, so click on through for all things alice.
In go ask alice, the diary is written by a teenage girl over a twoyear period and chronicles her. The novel is in epistolary format, being comprised entirely of diary entries and as such, was first thought to be an autobiography. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 2 pages and is available in paperback format. An intelligent, sensitive girl with a literary flair, she experiments with drugs and the counterculture to escape from her low selfesteem and consuming loneliness. Free download or read online go ask alice pdf epub book. Go ask alice by beatrice sparks is an epistolary work, meaning that is structured as a series of entries such as letters or in this case, a diary. Aug 24, 2014 first video, so sorry for all the editing mistakes. Alice is in conflict with everyone around her, because she cant accept herself as she really is. Im an advocate for banned stories that teach difficult lessons the easier way, and go ask alice definitely falls into this category. This book presents itself as a diary, written over a period of. 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. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of go ask alice. Go ask alice sparknotes literature guide making the reading experience fun.
A summary of may 22july 3 in anonymouss go ask alice. Go ask alice save to list other books you might like. First paperback edition march 1998 go ask alice taken from white rabbit, written by grace slick. Some people maintain that alice in wonderland can only have been written by an author with considerable hallucinogenic mushroom experience under their belt.
Jill invites her to a party being hosted on july 9th. When alice is falling, she takes pride in her composure. This passage from the book go ask alice was when alice first decided to quit using drugs and to stay clean. Go ask alice by beatrice sparks goodreads share book. The credibility of go ask alice as a non fiction memoir has always been debatable over the years, but when a book comes out with a near mirrorimage plot of. I chose go ask alice and it is certainly the strangest book. Beatrice sparks has 12 books on goodreads with 409248 ratings. 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. 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 sex. Pride and prejudice sparknotes literature guide sparknotes. Learn more about the subject youre studying with these related sparknotes. She is unsure how she has ended up here and can only think of the worms she thinks are eating her.
Pride by alice munro from dear life the narrator of pride is a man with a harelip, making this one of only a few munro stories that i know of to be narrated by a man. This is a pretty different attitude than the one alice has at the beginning of the book, huh. It is almost impossible to do an indepth character analysis of alice without first deciding whether to read go ask alice as a real diary, or as a clever ruse to educate unsuspecting teens about the dangers of drug abuse. The drugs only create the temporary illusion that she is in touch with nature and people. A step lgbtq short film love and pride nhsi 2018 duration. The go ask alice community note includes chapterbychapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography.
At the 16th of september alice starts writing her diary. The biggest conflict in the book is the diarists increasing helplessness with regard to her out of control drug habit. The diary begins right before alices fifteenth birthday. Fortunately, alice is a gifted writer, lacing her unhappy vision of the world with poetic, sensitive language. July 9th i dont know whether i should be ashamed or elated. Created by harvard students for students everywhere, sparknotes is a new breed of study guide. This is my second read of go ask alice, and i loved it just as much the second time around. It started when she was served a soft drink laced with lsd in a da. She explains that she bought the diary yesterday when, in high spirits after being asked out by a boy she liked roger, she believed she finally had beautiful thoughts to share with herself through writing. I think ill go into child guidance when i get out of school. The queries are representative of those emailed by anonymous visitors to the go ask alice web site. 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.
Alice alice is the anonymous protagonist her name is an allusion to a jefferson airplane song whose intermittent diary entries narrate go ask alice. At the beginning of the book, alice is a typical, insecure, middle class teenager that only thinks with boys, diets, and popularity. Thoughts on go ask alice banned books week youtube. Go ask alice a real diary timeline timetoast timelines. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of go ask alice and what it means.
This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of go ask alice by beatrice sparks. Beatrice sparkss most popular book is 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. Oct 10, 2009 alice wants to fit in, but doing that with her peers means shes at odds with her family. Where can you read the book go ask alice online for free. She is in a long hallway, and she is just in time to see the white rabbit hurrying away. Pdf go ask alice book by beatrice sparks free download. Go ask alice author unknown july 7th im at grans and today a strange thing happened. Go ask alice study guide contains a biography of beatrice sparks, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Go ask alice sparknotes literature guide series by. 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. A book report on go ask alice english literature essay uk essays.
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