Character List
Alice -
Alice is the anonymous protagonist (her name is an allusion to a Jefferson Airplane song) whose intermittent diary entries narrate
Go Ask Alice. An intelligent, sensitive girl with a literary flair, she experiments with drugs and the counterculture to escape from her low self-esteem and consuming loneliness.
Parents -
Alice's unnamed father (a professor) and mother (a homemaker) care deeply about their daughter but are unable to communicate with her openly. They lead a traditional upper-middle-class life.
Joel -
Joel is a working-class freshman at Alice's father's university. His father died when he was young, his mother toils in a factory, and he works as a janitor to pay his tuition. He is gentle in his growing romantic relationship with Alice, spiritual in a non-religious way, and wise about many things, especially loss.
Grandparents -
Alice's grandparents are beloved members of the family. Alice spends a summer with them, and they visit on holidays up until their deaths.
Siblings -
Alice's younger siblings—Tim and Alexandria—are better adjusted than she is, which sometimes makes her jealous. Tim develops into a mature young man.
Chris -
Chris accompanies Alice on her journey to San Francisco, and the two girls go on and off drugs together.
Roger -
Roger is a straight, square boy on whom Alice has an overwhelming crush. He plans to attend military school.
Sheila -
Sheila is a sophisticated older woman, into drugs and kinky sex, who gets Chris a job in her hip San Francisco boutique.
Richie -
Richie is Alice's college boyfriend until she leaves home the first time. She sells drugs to help him someday attend medical school.
Babbie -
Alice meets Babbie, a young former prostitute and drug addict, in the mental hospital.
Beth -
Beth is Alice's Jewish neighbor, a nice girl with whom Alice bonds at first but, after Alice's drug use, Alice finds has changed.
Mr. Mellani -
An affable, fatherly custom jeweler who gives Alice a job. He has a large, robust Italian family.
Dr. Miller -
The psychiatrist at Alice's mental hospital. He is sympathetic to Alice's case.
Doris -
A 14-year-old girl whom Alice meets in Oregon. She has been sexually abused by both her stepfather and foster family siblings.
Lane -
A violent drug user at school who tries to get Alice to get him drugs and later becomes her supplier.
Jan -
An old drug-using friend of Alice's who threatens Alice when she won't return to her old habits and eventually gets Alice put in the mental hospital.
Fawn -
A "straight" girl who befriends Alice at the end of the book and accepts her into her group of non-drug-using friends.
Greta -
An awkward girl Alice initially befriends when she moves into the new town.
Ted -
Richie's college roommate who has a hidden homosexual relationship with him.
