Book Review: "Go Ask Alice"
Is it a real diary or not? This is the question I kept asking myself throughout the whole book. “Go Ask Alice,” was first published in 1971, authored under anonymous, and was depicted as the actual diary of a young girl who gets caught up in the world of drugs and eventually loses her life to them. The book was a huge success when first published and continues to captivate readers today. However, the authenticity of the diary has come into question since its first publication. According to 1979 interview of Beatrice Sparks by Alleen Pace Nilsen, Beatrice Sparks explained that the diary “Go Ask Alice” was compiled from diaries given to her by a young girl she befriended but she also added other incidents and ideas from similar cases (Horn Book Magazine). Therefore the question still remains is “Go Ask Alice” a real diary of a young girl or is most of it a work of fiction from Sparks own imagination. No one will every truly know, but I will mention when “Go Ask Alice” was first published it was considered a work of non-fiction and as of today it can be found in the fiction reading section.
Without its authenticity does “Go Ask Alice” still have merit in the context of drug addiction? Well, as most drug stories go, they start out glamorous and end in a tragedy and “Go Ask Alice” fits the mold. The diary explores the emotional strain a drug user can have on a family and it portrays the emotional ups and downs of a real addict. The diary has phrases and paragraphs only a person on drugs or a mentally insane person might actually write, for example pg 111 she writes “I don’t know what or when or who it is! I only know that I am now a Priestess of Satan trying to maintain after a freak-out to test how free everybody was and to take our vows.” The diary depicts the writer (of the diary) as the victim of drugs, rather than the problem. It also portrays drug addiction to be a disease without actually saying that it is a disease which gives the reader the interpretation that addiction can happen to anyone, rich or poor, good or bad--no one is safe from the power of drugs. The diary also depicts the raw emotions of the girl from day to day, the reader can decipher that the girl is struggling with the demons of addiction, she hates herself for wanting and doing drugs, but her body and mind crave the feeling of drugs and at the same time she is self-loathing which creates a cocktail of destruction. Therefore the diary or Sparks interpretation of a drug addict is a very accurate and still has merit whether an actual diary or not.
Looking at the book in relation to girls studies I found many of the ideas about marriage and virginity to be relevant to the types of issues girls face today. For instance, the supposed author of the diary talks about marriage as if it were her life’s purpose. Every boy she likes or has sex with she imagines being married to him or engaged or working to help his career. She thinks of these things before she even thinks about her own career. When the neighbor Mrs. Larsen breaks her leg, the author of the diary writes how she is going to help Mrs. Larsen take care of her young child and help clean the house and cook her food because it will be good practice for the future (p163) implying that she will be a housewife, even though she is only fifteen years old. Beyond the continued thoughts of being someone’s wife the author of the diary also explores the problem of her having lost her virginity and how respectable boys would react to the truth of her actions. She never reveals her sexual history to any boy she actually likes because she does not want them to be disgusted by her actions. Also, the virginity issue becomes a huge part of her self-loathing; she doesn’t feel worthy enough to be someone’s wife because of the things she has done sexually.
I know Sparks intention was not to create a book about feminist issues, but in my interpretation she did. I say this because not only did the girl who supposedly wrote the diary have drug issues, but she also had issues of self-worth that were sparked by being a girl. Her worth was based upon her value sexually along with the value of her future husband or children. I could argue that if the supposed author from the diary had self-worth that wasn’t reliant upon someone else she never would have gone done her drug spiral. However, Sparks’s true intentions were to educate teens on the dangers of drugs, for instance the Epilogue states “The subject of this book died three weeks after her decision not to keep another diary….. Was it an accidental overdose? A premeditated overdose? No one knows, and in some ways the question isn’t important. What must be of concern is that she died, and that she was only one of thousands of drug deaths that year.”
Now I am not sure this book will change any minds about girls’ studies or how they think about girls, but I do think it gives insight into drugs and the dangers they bring to those who choose to take them. I also think this would be a good book for young girls to read and make their own interpretations.
Horn Book Magazine; Sept/Oct 98, Vol. 74 Issue 5, p587-592, 6p.
Without its authenticity does “Go Ask Alice” still have merit in the context of drug addiction? Well, as most drug stories go, they start out glamorous and end in a tragedy and “Go Ask Alice” fits the mold. The diary explores the emotional strain a drug user can have on a family and it portrays the emotional ups and downs of a real addict. The diary has phrases and paragraphs only a person on drugs or a mentally insane person might actually write, for example pg 111 she writes “I don’t know what or when or who it is! I only know that I am now a Priestess of Satan trying to maintain after a freak-out to test how free everybody was and to take our vows.” The diary depicts the writer (of the diary) as the victim of drugs, rather than the problem. It also portrays drug addiction to be a disease without actually saying that it is a disease which gives the reader the interpretation that addiction can happen to anyone, rich or poor, good or bad--no one is safe from the power of drugs. The diary also depicts the raw emotions of the girl from day to day, the reader can decipher that the girl is struggling with the demons of addiction, she hates herself for wanting and doing drugs, but her body and mind crave the feeling of drugs and at the same time she is self-loathing which creates a cocktail of destruction. Therefore the diary or Sparks interpretation of a drug addict is a very accurate and still has merit whether an actual diary or not.
Looking at the book in relation to girls studies I found many of the ideas about marriage and virginity to be relevant to the types of issues girls face today. For instance, the supposed author of the diary talks about marriage as if it were her life’s purpose. Every boy she likes or has sex with she imagines being married to him or engaged or working to help his career. She thinks of these things before she even thinks about her own career. When the neighbor Mrs. Larsen breaks her leg, the author of the diary writes how she is going to help Mrs. Larsen take care of her young child and help clean the house and cook her food because it will be good practice for the future (p163) implying that she will be a housewife, even though she is only fifteen years old. Beyond the continued thoughts of being someone’s wife the author of the diary also explores the problem of her having lost her virginity and how respectable boys would react to the truth of her actions. She never reveals her sexual history to any boy she actually likes because she does not want them to be disgusted by her actions. Also, the virginity issue becomes a huge part of her self-loathing; she doesn’t feel worthy enough to be someone’s wife because of the things she has done sexually.
I know Sparks intention was not to create a book about feminist issues, but in my interpretation she did. I say this because not only did the girl who supposedly wrote the diary have drug issues, but she also had issues of self-worth that were sparked by being a girl. Her worth was based upon her value sexually along with the value of her future husband or children. I could argue that if the supposed author from the diary had self-worth that wasn’t reliant upon someone else she never would have gone done her drug spiral. However, Sparks’s true intentions were to educate teens on the dangers of drugs, for instance the Epilogue states “The subject of this book died three weeks after her decision not to keep another diary….. Was it an accidental overdose? A premeditated overdose? No one knows, and in some ways the question isn’t important. What must be of concern is that she died, and that she was only one of thousands of drug deaths that year.”
Now I am not sure this book will change any minds about girls’ studies or how they think about girls, but I do think it gives insight into drugs and the dangers they bring to those who choose to take them. I also think this would be a good book for young girls to read and make their own interpretations.
Horn Book Magazine; Sept/Oct 98, Vol. 74 Issue 5, p587-592, 6p.
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