Go Ask Alice

Amid a transitional and tumultuous period, Alice exhibits desperation and communicates a longing to speak with someone who can relate to her conflicts and sympathize with her struggles. She fulfills this essential need by writing in her diary, building new friendships, and interviewing other teens who have similar struggles.

Alice addresses her diary as if speaking to a companion, occasionally mentioning that it’s the only one who understands her problems. Alice appreciates her diary for being “[her] dearest friend,” thinking, “I shall thank you always for sharing my tears and heartaches and my struggles and strifes, and my joys and happinesses” (184). Writing about her conflicts helps Alice cope with her emotional ups and downs. Although Alice personifies her diary, she demonstrates increasing awareness that she’s writing to herself, offering herself advice. Although meaningful friendships build and disappear, Alice remains her own best friend and closest confidant over the two years she writes in her diary.

Nevertheless, her short-lived friendships with Beth, Chris, and Doris illustrate the influential nature of a strong connection. Although Alice commits to sobriety after returning from San Francisco, Chris convinces Alice to smoke marijuana with her again: “She sounded like she didn’t know what to do.