Go Ask Alice reading response

Go Ask Alice reading response by: Sabina Chackerian 802

A person with low self esteem is often unable to resist bad choices and bad influences. The author of Go Ask Alice portrays this throughout the book through the diary entries of a young girl named Alice. Alice makes many bad decisions after being the victim of a party game in which she was served a drink with drugs in it. In her diary  she talks about her everyday worries about what her crush, Roger, thinks of her, how she hates she her weight gain, how she is uncomfortable at school, and how she has difficulty relating to her parents. On top of these issues she is addicted to drugs and hates herself for it. These personal issues are what leads her to  making bad decisions that spiral into something much worse. She is unable to get better until she overdoses and ends up in a mental hospital.

One example of being unable to resist bad choices because of her low self esteem is the way she doesn't listen to herself. In the text it states “for two days now I’ve tried to convince myself that using LSD makes me a “dope addict” and all the low class, unclean, despicable things I’ve heard about kids that use LSD and all other drugs; but I simply can’t wait to try pot, only once, I promise!” Here you can see that even though she knows what's right she doesn’t have the strength to listen to herself. Another example of this is how she is unhappy with her weight but continues to eat unhealthy food. it states in the text on September 30, “I’m going to start on a diet this very day. I will be positively a new person by the time we get to our new home!” Here she is setting goals to try to keep herself on track. Later in the diary, on January 6, it says “I cut my last class and went by the drugstore and had a chocolate malt, a double order of french fried potatoes and a giant Hershey bar.” You can see this is because she doesn’t respect her goals, because of her low self esteem

Another thing that spurs from her low self esteem and inability to resist bad choices and influences is her not respecting her body. She does this in many forms. One way she does not respect her body is constantly using drugs. Alice finds drugs through her friends and hangs out with people who use and have them. Even once Alice moves she continues to use drugs. Her addiction to drugs leads to another form of not respecting herself which is having sex in ways in which she is not emotionally attached. She loses her virginity while on acid at a party. Even though after this she is very concerned that she is pregnant she continues to have sex. Later she hitchhikes to Southern California where Alice takes more drugs, even prostituting herself for them. This shows that her low self esteem can make her even want to hurt her body or not care for it properly

Alice’s self hatred stemmed from many things and made her unable to make good decisions for herself. one reason I think Alice gets herself addicted to drugs and prostitutes herself for them is because these things make her feel something more than her everyday life does. Alice goes through many issues that teens face but on a larger scale then normal because of her low self esteem. Through the eyes of Alice we get to experience how one bad decision can lead to the next. In the epilogue, it says that Alice died three weeks later of an overdose and that she was one of thousands of drug deaths that year. Teens can often feel alone because they are often under pressure or feel like no one understands them. Teens can learn from this book that it is better to take control of your life and reach out to people if you need help instead of keeping it inside, like Alice did. Not getting proper help can cost you your health or even your life.