Go Ask Alice--Blog 3

The novel continues to change as we read further and further on our way to her downfall. This section of reading has been full of ups and downs, both characteristics of the novel, and bad decisions for the narrator. We left off the reading with the narrator being so upset about how her parents were watching her after her latest drug bust. Since then, there has been great advancements in the plot. This sections begins with the narrator hitchhiking her way to Denver when she was under the influence. She meets a couple kids and travels with them to various locations. These are hardly the type of kids someone wants to bring home to parents, especially not in the narrator's situation. One thing I found very interesting about this reading was how she found a church where she was staying that she enjoyed being around. It was this church that inevitably called home for her and sent her back to her family. During her escapades as a hitchhiker and wherever that might lead the narrator, she is using drugs all along the way. She becomes sick from being out in the cold and not taking care of herself. While at the doctor, she meets a fellow druggie named Doris. They become close immediately and begin using together. That is one thing of Alice's character that has been consistent throughout the novel. She becomes very close to people very fast. I think this is sometimes a good thing, but in her situation I don't think it is very healthy. Most of the times, when she has become close to someone in this novel, they have also been users and they have used that similarity to party. Another thing I have noticed about the narrator is she truly loves her family and her home. During her travels "abroad," she thinks about family a lot and how much she misses them. On the outside, she acts like she hates them but truly, inside she loves them. I still think the narrator is just as confusing as ever but I think that is part of her character. I think she is supposed to be confusing and not steady and it's not just us not understanding her. At the end of this section of reading, she looks back at all of her past diary entries and cannot believe everything she has said and done. Luckily, she ends this section on a somewhat good note, drug wise. She is still not using but her grandpa died, which I know, based on her personality, will send her into another downward spiral. Her character hasn't developed very much, but in a way, I think that is her personality. I think she doesn't fully understand herself as she's writing these journal entries, so there is no way for us to understand her either. I think even by the end of the novel we will still not understand the narrator fully. Hopefully, we will get more of a grasp of her personality but her mysteriousness and how confusing she is it what makes us understand her most.

Go Ask Alice--Blog 2

A lot has happened in the novel since the last blog. First off, Chris and the narrator's relationship has really grown. It has grown to the point that they are both so fed up with their family life that they plan to sneak away to move to San Francisco. One interesting thing I found about this was that the narrator said that she really does love her family and that is part of the reason that she is leaving: she doesn't want them to know what she has done and who she has become. When they arrive in San Francisco, they get a nasty, cheap apartment. They have trouble finding work, but after many attempts they both manage to get a job. First, the narrator works as a cheap lingerie store but then gets a job at a jewelery store in a ritzy hotel. Chris gets a job with a highly sophisticated, cosmopolitan woman named Sheila. Life is going great for the two of them in their new life, but then things take a change for the worse. At one of Sheila's parties, Chris and the narrator experience drugs yet another time. They continue this life style and attend more of Sheila's parties, which only get crazier. Finally, one of the parties reaches the extreme. There are just four of them there: Chris, the narrator, Sheila, and her new boyfriend. They bring out heroine and it is the first time for both the narrator and Chris. Things get out of control, and in the end it turns out that Chris and the narrator were raped by Sheila and the boyfriend. Because of the recent events, Chris and the narrator move out of San Francisco. They start their own shop in their new town by renovating an apartment. Their shop is successful immediately. But once again, drugs comes back. But this time, it's in the form of all of the buyers and kids talking about them. So, Chris and the narrator finally decide it's time to go back home. They are greeted at home with the best welcome home parties. They are both glad to be home and are finally enjoying their lives. The narrator starts school again where social relationships hurt the narrator. All of the previous people she used to sell to ask her if she still sells and so she is forced every time to deny it. Drugs seem to keep following her, but I guess that's what they always do. Once you start them, you start a new life style for yourself that is very, very hard to escape from, even the narrator agrees. The rest of the reading deals with the narrator going back into doing drugs and her and Chris getting caught. Her parents are extremely upset. Who wouldn't be when when she came home she was so happy and active in the family. Both girls' families were so helpful in their secret process of distancing themselves from drugs, and then they both slam it into their faces by getting caught, which proves their use. It is hard for me to continue reading knowing that drugs ultimately end her life, but she makes so many promises to herself and to others to stop all together. The Christmas season was especially hard to read. She makes a resolution to herself that her new life is going to begin now, and within months, she is back to using drugs. She ignores every vow she makes to herself and it seems like she has lost complete faith in herself and her actions, which is very sad to me. I will continue reading in hopes of a lighter note, but knowing that there are no more light notes for the narrator, only ones that appear to be light but in the end are dark as night.

Go Ask Alice--Blog 1

So far, I really enjoy reading this book. I think it is a book with a lot of life lessons and a book all teens should read. My initial impressions of Alice are very mixed. I think she is extremely self-conscious and very unsure of herself. I think both of these aspects of her personality influence all of the choices she has made thus far. She is so worried about what people want that the only people she can really be completely truthful with is her diary. I'm kind of confused on how she continues to use drugs throughout her life. Right now, she is against drugs and although she enjoys what she feels like when she is under their influence, she vows she will never use them again each time she tries something new. I know that she eventually dies due to a drug related affect, but right now I don't know how she will ever get to that point. Her personality shows through in her social choices also. For instance, Beth was a great friend for her and they were inseparable but then things changed when she went back to her hometown to stay with her grandparents. When she traveled back to her hometown, the narrator got involved in things that were not ordinary for her character. She was happy when Jill, an infamous troublemaker from her old high school, invites her to go to a "yearbook signing party" at her house. The narrator is starving for attention that she'll do anything. So she waits by the phone for the details of this party. When she arrives at the party, it turns out she has another thing coming to her. She has her first experience with drugs, when she is surprised by LSD in her coke. She also meets a boy named Bill at this party. She then pronounces the next day that she liked what she felt like when she was under the influence but that she will never do it again. But I sense an edge of falsity in this statement of hers because I know that her personality isn't stable. Another incidence where her personality shows through with her weight loss. After Roger hurts her so bad, she decides she is fat and sloppy so she begins to eat less and less until she's under 100 pounds. Her weight then dramatically increases, which makes her happy. All of this leads up to how she is so easily influenced and cares so much about what people think. Neither of these characteristics are good for teenage girls because it will only get them into trouble, so she is already set up for a bit of failure. And then there is Roger, who is a completely different story. I feel like she is overly dramatic about everything. Although, I don't know the real story about what happened that pushed her over the edge in the beginning of the book, I don't think it was as horrible as she makes it out to be. When Roger comes back into her life during the summer, he seems nice as can be and acts like he likes her, so I can't understand what would have changed since the beginning of the novel. I also feel like she is one of those type of girls that if a guy even looks at her she falls head over heels for him. After what she has gone through since she has been back in town, I feel like she really needs someone to talk to, but I don't know if Roger is such a great source. The narrator seems to be clingy and if Roger ever let her down again, I think it could lead to her downfall. I'm excited to read further and learn more about the narrator and her struggles and see how she develops and she begins to lose her true self.

Final Choice Book Ranking

My first choice out of this list of books is Go Ask Alice. My next choice is The Boy in Striped Pajamas. I would rather not read To Kill A Mockingbird, because I have already read this book and I didn't like it very much. I guess my third choice would be Black Hawk Down but I would must rather not have to read this book. I am willing to read any of the books, but my first choice is Go Ask Alice.