Project Number One - Go Ask Alice

Go Ask Alice: Comparing the book to the movie

I was sitting at home, trying to figure out the best way to do this project when I searched for my book, Go Ask Alice, on Google. I hadn’t realized when starting the book that it was also a movie, but was pleasantly surprised to find that YouTube had the complete movie available to watch. 

The movie was filmed in 1973, just two years after the book was originally published. Being set in this time frame, especially so soon after the book was written, brought it to life. The slang and the diction that could only be found in the ‘70s, made it feel more natural, than if it was filmed today.

The 1973 Movie

Overall, I thought the movie was a very good representation of the book. While it included some parts that the book did not have, I thought they were necessary. For instance, the movie added scenes that really portrayed how much of a struggle it was for someone with a hard core addiction to acid, amongst other drugs, to quit them. I thought the book was lacking this. When reading the book, it seemed that Alice was able to switch on and off her addiction, almost effortlessly. She would have a relapse, leave, then come back and have everything be fine. Never once talking about the emotional difficulty she went through to be off the drugs. I found this unrealistic. The movie also included scenes where Alice talks to a priest. He’s the one who persuaded her to call her parents and go back home. I really liked this scene because it portrayed Alice at her weakest point, and struggling with her inner self on how to survive. The priest, who is played by Andy Griffith, talks to her about calling her parents so she can go home. When she protests, he says, “It’s there or die.” This scene was needed in order to show Alice that if she doesn’t give up acid, she’s going to die. When hearing it as bluntly as Andy put it, it made the difficulty with addiction much more real.

2006 Version of Go Ask Alice
(Another was originally published in 1971)

Like any movie, it was lacking some key points that the book had. The movie was very vague about what happened when Alice took the drugs. While some of the details in the book are vulgar, they’re real and are necessary to the plot. They show just how much drugs change a person and I thought the movie was missing that emphasis. 

The New York Times says, “[Go Ask Alice is] a document of horrifying reality.” Knowing that the book is based on an actual diary, reading the words made you feel like you understood her world and seeing the movie, made you feel like you know her. Despite the fact that both were created over 35 years ago, the things in the book and movie still apply to today. In the end, because of this connection, I found the movie as timeless as the book.

Weekly Review #2

Last 45 pages of book -

I noticed that the author, who’s anonymous, has a very strong voice throughout the piece. In fact, I even noticed that as Alice moves on through life, the voice changes with her, adapting to her situation. For example, when she’s living with her parents in the beginning of the book, even though things aren’t the best at times, she writes in a happy go lucky way. After heading to the party where she takes drugs for the first time, I noticed that her preppy attitude leaves her, and instead enters a girl with a pessimistic outlook. She complains about the family she once was so happy to have. She runs away, more than once, to start life on her own. Yet every time she returns, so does her naïve personality. I noticed that every time she’s away and using drugs, she changes not only her character, by doing things she’d never do sober, but by changing her voice in word choice, attitude, and diction. Since the book is in diary format, it was easy to hear her talking; she was pouring her heart out onto the pages. In fact, Alice kept the notebook locked away in a container for fear that someone would read her secrets. That just goes to show that when she wrote about her life, she didn’t hold back, especially how she was feeling or thinking. That’s why I think her voice/ tone is so strong in this book. It’s really coming from her heart. Not to mention, this book is based off a real diary. When you think about the fact that these words didn’t just come from an author’s head, but from real life experiences, it makes the story more real. Actual thoughts and feelings come across the pages, altogether developing the voice in the book.

Reflection 3

To me, a book is an escape. It’s a chance to leave your world behind and jump into a new one. The characters become your friends. You begin to feel a part of their story. I think that’s why whenever you finish a really good book; you’re left with that empty feeling inside. When you read those final words, you’re reminded that you have to go back to your own reality and you were never really a part of theirs. Books, in a way, are like people. In the same ways you hear rumors through the hallway, you hear about the good books and the bad. It’s what urges you to go over and introduce yourself. Get to know the person. That person becomes a part of your life, and you become a part of theirs. Just like a book. And just like people, books come in different shapes and styles too. You might get along with a certain type of person and you might hate another. That’s why I don’t think it matters whether a book is on your phone or in hard copy. It all depends on what feels comfortable to you. In the end, the story is the same. What it looks like on the outside, shouldn’t matter as long as you like the story inside.

Reflection 12/04

We should continue to teach literary fiction but not so exclusively. I think this because while it’s good to have some experience with the “classics”, it doesn’t have to be everything that we read in school. For someone who doesn’t like to read, their dislike is only heightened because of the books the school chooses. Books in school should inspire us to read, yet in a way they are almost discouraging. It becomes a chore, especially with the amount of work tied into reading it. I think that more genre fiction should be added to the list. I also think that there should be more student choice in the books we read or maybe even a vote to decide. If we have a say in what we read, it’ll only make the experience better. I’m not saying that we should switch out Of Mice and Men for Twilight, I’m just saying that we could switch it out for a book that was popular in the more recent times so that the students can either relate to what they’re reading or actually enjoy what the school requires. I know, for me at least, it’s rare for me to say, “I can’t wait to get home and read my English book!” Yet with the changing of a couple classics and swapping them out for something more relatable, might change my whole outlook completely. Who knows? Maybe I’ll look forward to my next English book.

Weekly Review 11/28/12

As the book starts out, Alice is just your average girl trying to cope with a lonely high school life. When she tries acid at a party her whole life begins to change for the worse. So why does she give up everything that she has: a loving family, a best friend, and her school life, all for drugs? I think there’s more than one thing to blame here. I think that one reason could be the loneliness. Alice talks about how the drugs make her feel and how the drugs brought her the friends she never really had. Maybe with the drug life, it brought her an instant group of friends, one who didn’t care about her faults, especially when she was on drugs. Which brings me to the next reason. She always felt like her family was constantly judging her. The drugs made her feel perfect. For someone who’s always felt like they’ve never measured up, that sense of peace and strength that comes from the drugs could be the one thing that makes them feel special. Even if she could only feel like that for a short matter of time, it was worth it. There was finally something in her life to make her feel like she was special. When her family life and school life wasn’t bringing her that kind of relief, it’s no wonder she turned to drugs as an outlet to finally feel free. I’m not saying that feeling lonely or judged is an excuse to do drugs; I just can understand why she would choose the high of drugs over a life of pain. Once she states, “Once you’ve tried drugs, there isn’t a life without them.” So maybe the real problem here is the addictiveness of the drugs, because in the end there’s no escaping them.

Reflection 11/29/12

I think that all works have the chance to prize winning. The popularity or unpopularity of a work doesn’t make a book less artistic, it just means that it was finally recognized by winning a prize for its success. That doesn’t mean that all best sellers are works of art. They can simply be a fun read, one that everyone seems to enjoy. And maybe that’s the reason best sellers don’t win these literary prizes. They’re not meant to be the next Pulitzer Prize winner. Some are just meant to be a quick read or something to take your mind off of your day-to-day life. Take the Twilight series for example. They’re not extremely well written or award winners, but people really seem to love them.  So does a book have to be well written to be popular? No. But is it going to win any awards that way? Probably not. But that doesn’t automatically mean that all popular books aren’t well written. There are some out there, like  The Bible, that are extremely well written and very popular. I don’t think that popularity has anything to do with how well the book is written, it’s just all based on opinion of the reader.

Post #1 Why I Read:

Why do I read? I read because I like to. I read because it’s fun. I read because when you need somewhere to escape to, a book can take you there. And it doesn’t have to be realistic. It can be 600 years into the future or maybe 100 years in the past. Reading gives you the chance to be someone else. Be somewhere else. Reading can be anything it wants to be. I can sit down and read about a girl who’s just like me. Or maybe read about a girl fighting to save the world. It always gets me excited to see how creative others can be.  See how they twist the same words in different ways to tell a completely new story.  There’s something about the familiarity of books. While books all look the same, with pages bound together, they’re different. Each contains a story, true or not, and is waiting to be told. And when you finally break into those pages you’ll find the truth. Reading is inspiring. Depressing. Crazy. No matter what you’re in the mood for, a book can have it. I think that’s why I like reading so much. It’s always a new adventure.