MLA Doc

Sparks, Beatrice. Go ask Alice. New York: Simon Pulse, 2006. Print.

Compare and Contrast

The last book I read was called If These Walls Could Talk written by Jon Faulk. These two books were written on a life story through the main characters eyes. Jon Faulk tells the stories of Michigan Football's history. He was an equipment manager for more than 40 years, he is the only person to be there through the legend coaches of  Bo Schembechler and Brady Hoke. He tells his favorite stories first hand.  He walks you through the history Michigan football beyond the game itself. Go Ask Alice is written first hand of her experiences with drugs. They are different in the style of which it is written. If These Walls Could Talk was written as a biography and him looking back on his life and his experiences with Michigan Football. In Go Ask Alice, it is written as diary entries which is fresh first hand experiences, instead of remembrance of the events. She sat down and wrote about the events as they happened, as Jon had to look back on his life and write as he remembered it to be. 

Major Incidents

Three major events that happened in the book are her first time using drugs, getting sent to a mental hospital, and her physical death. Her first time using drugs, was at a party, unexpected,  and it she was hooked from that moment forward. She was at a party and the host came out with sodas for each person. Ten of the fourteen cups were laced with acid.  She got one of those laced cups. She explains that the feeling as "the most incredible experience of her life".  She then explains that she felt guilty, but she's glad he didn't go any longer without experiencing that feeling again. This is important because it began her fall into the darkness of drugs. When she was sent to the mental hospital it impacted the story because she was not mentally ill and not using drugs at the time.  A misunderstanding landed her there. She was babysitting for her mother's friend.  While babysitting the seven year old she ate some chocolate covered raisins.  These had been spiked by the teenager of the woman she was babysitting who was once "Alice's" friend.  She spiked them because she thought that since "Alice" was not using drugs anymore that she thought she was better than her. That caused her to trip out unsuspectingly.  It was not like the first time, but a bad trip. She said it felt like worms were crawling up and down the inside of her skin. Two days later she said that she could still feel the worms crawling on her skin, and this officially pushed her over the edge.  She promised no matter what happened, she would stop. Lastly, her death was the most important part of this book. Without her death, we don't have a story too be talking about right now. Her death is believed to be another set up because she had gotten out of the hospital and was sober.  She said that she did not want to put herself in a position to be placed back there because it was the worst experience of her life.   Yet; a couple of months later she turned up on the side of the road.

Shortcomings

I feel the shortcomings of this book is the dialect of which it is written. The dialect leads to me to have minor doubt in the truth of the story. If you were to read an average teenage girl's diary you would find opinions on school, boys, other girls, etc... During this book her diary entries are freakishly on topic the whole time. The book, rarely goes off on a discussion outside of drugs. How can it be possible that a teenage girl doesn't have a crush or hates homework. It maybe that other topics were eliminated during the publication process.  However, I feel that had there been dialect relevant to her thoughts on things other than drugs it would be more true to life.

Praiseworthy

There is a couple of things that I find praiseworthy about this book.  One of which is the strength of the family that aloud for her story to be told to the world.  Second the books ability to demonstrate that in life we have decisions to make and when making decisions you have to think about others and the possibilities of danger. The strength that it takes to allow for millions of people to read about their daughter's death is above anything of a common family would ever have to experience and is truly praise worthy. The book also shows you about the weight of each decision you make. That brought attention to me because it opened my eyes to how I should think and judge my decisions before I choose to do something.

Main Idea

Theme of this book is the effects drugs can have on a person. The book indicates this theme  very early with the opening passage , that was a message from the publisher, thanking the family for allowing them to use her diary, so that no family would ever have to go through, the lost of someone due to drugs. Then is further expressed with the story of her life during the time she was using. Such as, she talks about how her thought process was, which was when can I get high, on what, and how soon. Then when she got her "fix" for a lack of a better term, she just wanted to know when she could get this feeling again.

Mood

The mood that is expressed throughout this book is sadness and despair. At times there was extreme happiness and joy. The presumption that "Alice" dies in the end prevents  you from achieving a positive feeling. However, knowing the ending defiantly provides a distinctive mood, which was sad. "Hell' I'm shaking on the inside more than I am on the outside. What a bastard life it is with out drugs." As she fell into the dark hole that drugs can put you in, you could feel the regret in every decision that she made. When she chose to use acid for the second time, she expresses, how it mad her feel like a low life, who was going to be living on the street when she gets older. She stated; "For the last two days I've been trying to convince myself that using LSD makes me a "dope addict" and all other kinds of low-life, unclean people".