Go Ask Alice Sept. 12—Nov. 22 Summary & Analysis

Summary

(Sept. 12–13) Alice's parents continue to tell her she's acting like a hippie. She discusses the establishment with Chris, who comes from a prominent upper-class family. Chris gets Alice a job at her store, and they work together a few times a week. Alice thinks that Chris is her best friend yet. (Sept. 21) School has begun, and Alice is happy because she and Chris are popular, and she feels attractive and thin. She pops a "Benny" (a speed-pill) whenever she gets tired or hungry. (Sept. 23) Alice's father believes Alice is tarnishing the family image. She and Chris plan to leave and work in San Francisco.

(Sept. 26) Chris's friend, Richie, a boy from college, turns Alice on to marijuana. Alice experiences a new depth of physical sensation. Richie gives her some joints to smoke on her own. (Oct. 5–8) Alice and Chris are in love with Richie and Ted (Richie's college friend), respectively. To make more money for drugs, she and Chris have started selling marijuana. Alice soon convinces Richie it would be safer to sell acid instead. Alice wants to spend all her free time with Richie, but he has his sights set on medical school and works hard in college. Nevertheless, she will do anything to help him and is especially curious to try sex with him while sober.

(Oct. 17–18) Alice sells LSD to a kid at the elementary school. She is so repulsed by her action, and by the thought of that kid selling it to other little kids, that she vows not to sell there again. She and Chris discover that Richie and Ted have been having sex with each other. She shamefully regrets having worked for him. (Oct. 19) She and Chris decide to flee to San Francisco. To make up for having peddled drugs, Alice vows to turn Richie in to the police and stay clean with Chris. They leave in the middle of the night for Salt Lake City en route to San Francisco. Alice fears Richie will find her, as only she could have provided the detailed information to the police. She writes a farewell letter to her family and feels ashamed for letting them down.

(Oct. 26-Nov. 5) They move into a dirty one-room apartment in San Francisco. After a few depressing days, Alice finds a job in a lingerie store, and Chris secures a job in a boutique with a glamorous older woman, Sheila. Alice is still homesick, however, and would return home if not for fear of Richie and would write her family if the postmark wouldn't give away her location.

(Nov. 10–16) Alice quits her job and gets a new one with Mr. Mellani, an affable, fatherly custom jeweler. He invites Alice and Chris to dinner with him and his large family. She believes she could easily get a lot of dates from the businessmen who pass through the lobby by the shop if she weren't "particular." She has a great time with Mr. Mellani's boisterous Italian family, but the loving atmosphere makes her feel lonely. (Nov. 19–22) Sheila invites the girls to a party at her house. Alice is excited but intimidated at the prospect of mingling with the sophisticated guests. She wonders if they'll think she's naïve if she drinks soda instead of champagne.

Analysis

Alice rebels from her middle-class upbringing through deed and language. After a fight with her parents, she says she can't do anything to please the establishment, but her word choice denounces conformist society as a whole. Other reflections of her changing values through her language come about through her casual use of "man," or that she hasn't yet met a guy she "dig[s]." Alice wisely points out that while her father can accent his ideas with his own academic language, the language of the counterculture is taboo.

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