Go Ask Alice
By: Anonymous
Summary
Anonymous or Alice is a fifteen year old girl who moves because of her father’s job. Alice is introduced to drugs at a party over the summer and soon after, Alice finds herself getting addicted. A couple months later school starts back up and Alice starts hanging out with the stoners. Alice meets a girl named Chris who has similar issues with family and drug usage. They decided it would be best to drop out of highschool and run away to San Francisco. The girls struggle to make enough money. They start their own shop and run it for a while, but then decide to go back home. Alice comes home and is welcomed by her parents. She stays clean for about a month but is eventually brought back into drugs. She is caught by the police smoking pot and her parents get really strict. Alice runs away again but this time to Denver. She doesn't bring any money, food, or clothing items and lives on the streets. Alice doesn't care about anything else but being free and using what she pleases.
Plot Diagram
Exposition: Anonymous is a 15 year old girl who moves to a new town and documents her experiences with drug usage.
Rising Action: Anonymous returns home from her grandparents' home and get prescription drugs to help with her sleeping problems. Anonymous meets Chris who she gets a job with. The pair go out with a pair of college boys and they help the boys deal drugs. Chris and Anonymous run away to San Francisco, where they open up a store but later return home.
Conflict
Man vs. Self: Alice wants to get clean, but at the same time doesn’t know how to go about getting help. Alice is in a constant struggle with herself about getting better or continuing using drugs.
Quotes from Go Ask Alice
"For two days now I've tried to convince myself that using LSD makes me a 'dope addict' and all the other low-class, unclean, despicable things I've heard about kids that use LSD..." (Anonymous, 35).
Go Ask Alice 1973