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.