Alan v43n1 the books that will never be read virginia tech. Every time after she uses, she feels guilty and low and vows to stay away. Go ask alice in 1971 a book was published under the name of go ask alice, with no author or editor. Go ask alice was published anonymously in 1971, but in the last two decades, it still lives in the top 25 most frequently banned books, according to the. It graphically describes the waking hell into which the main character descends, her heartfelt but futile battles to return home and stay clean, her pleas to god to. Well be looking at why the book was challenged, howif things have changed since the book was originally published and what we actually think of the book. Attributed to anonymous, the book is in diary form, and was originally presented as being the edited real diary of the unnamed teenage p. The chumminess would proceed from here, with each stage.
Novel versus the movie adaption of go ask alice essay cram. Go ask alice is still awash in controversy, 43 years after. Oct 03, 2016 go ask alice has been around for decades, and is even being used as reading material in high schools. This book has been banned in places across the states of new york and florida. Conflict the main conflict of this book was drug use and abuse. In the same vein, go ask alice is young adult literature because thats the audience it was specifically geared toward. Books like the harry potter series, go ask alice, or the hunger games series are all on the banned book list. The books writers, who also include the author and physician beatrice sparks, have a tin ear for adolescent dialogue and a bad habit of driving home political points by poking fun at their characters. Her fortunes take a sharp turn for the worse when her family moves to a new town and she finds.
Go ask alice should be banned from middle school and elementary libraries and only permitted at the high school level because of the use of vulgar language, the use of illegal substances, and the explicit descriptions of the activities being done throughout the book. Efforts to remove certain titles from school and public libraries, from. Sep 23, 2014 in honor of banned books week, jo asked a few of us booktubers to pick a banned book and make a video on it. Alice acted like she was sick, so she didnt had to go to school.
At the beginning of the book, alice is a typical, insecure, middleclass teenager preoccupied with boys, diets, and popularity. A censorial spirit is at work in the united states, and for the past year or so it has focused more and more on books. Go ask alice by anonymous for my summer reading, i chose to read go ask alice. From sex and relationships to alcohol and drugs to fitness and nutrition, this comprehensive handbook is the first of its kind to provide muchneeded information for young adults who cannot get reliable or anonymous. Go ask alice, the anonymous diary of a young girl who died of a drug. Go ask alice is still awash in controversy, 43 years. Jan 04, 2008 go ask alice was the product of beatrice sparks, an author who has come out with a number of teens who saw their lives ruined by their bad choices offerings, each one presented as a true. The babyboomers of the 1960s had easier access to drugs and birth control and an unpopular war in.
I read it when i was in the seventh grade and was absolutely terrified by the searingly honest portrayal of what i assumed it felt like to do drugs. An intelligent, sensitive girl with a literary flair, she experiments with drugs and the counterculture to escape from. Banned books the official alice blog by phyllis reynolds. So many people mistake the words they are reading as a tool to promote what the book is talking about. For many years, american schools have been pressured to restrict or deny students access to books or periodicals. As as child in high school i was 15, im 49 now, i read the book go ask alice, i was a loner i wanted cool friends. For thirtyfive years, the acclaimed, bestselling firstperson account of a teenage girls harrowing decent into the nightmarish world of drugs has left an indelible mark on generations of teen readers. I am always on the look out for classics and banned books often one and the same when i seen a copy of this book.
In honor of banned books week, jo asked a few of us booktubers to pick a banned book and make a video on it. It is a diary about a high school girl who gets hooked on to drugs. Jul 17, 2016 go ask alice is still awash in controversy, 43 years after publication top 100 banned challenged books. The go ask alice book of answers is a groundbreaking guide that mines the best material from the eponymous awardwinning web site. But she just cant resist the way the drugs make her feelbeautiful and popular and connected to the world around her.
This is my second read of go ask alice, and i loved it just as much the second time around. Go ask alice by beatrice sparks 1180 words 123 help me. Do you think the book go ask alice should be banned. By thi time i was finished with the book i knew what i wanted i saw the exciting life i wanted. Around mid1980s, a supposed editor of the book was uncovered. Go ask alice banned book project go ask alice when the.
About banned books banned and challenged books wiu. Maybe its partly to blame for the disconnect i felt to the characterstory. Alice wants to fit in, but doing that with her peers means shes at odds with her family. She is a pretty typical teenage girl in the late 1960sshes mostly concerned with school, boys, her hair, and fitting in okay, thats pretty typical for any decade. It graphically describes the waking hell into which the main character descends, her heartfelt but futile battles to. The drugs make her fit in with a certain group at school, but alienate her from her family and others. Alice alice is the anonymous protagonist her name is an allusion to a jefferson airplane song whose intermittent diary entries narrate go ask alice. The main conflict of this book was drug use and abuse. Sep 01, 2008 as as child in high school i was 15, im 49 now, i read the book go ask alice, i was a loner i wanted cool friends. But those of you old enough to remember the latter portion of the 70s might remember that beatrice sparks, the editor of go ask alice, also edited a bunch of other alarmist books aimed at teens, all supposedly taken from teenagers diaries. These books are often removed from schools or public library shelves. Yet it was originally promoted as nonfiction, its still sold as by anonymous and the copy i have has this is alices true story on the cover plus the blurb on the back, the foreword and the psychologists comment at the back everything is still packaged to make out this is nonfiction. Jul 03, 2014 go ask alice was published anonymously in 1971, but in the last two decades, it still lives in the top 25 most frequently banned books, according to the american library association.
Today we feature the year 1993 and go ask alice, by anonymous. Go ask alice shows the internal conflict the diarist faces when. Go ask alice, written by an anonymous author, is a diary kept by a fifteenyearold drug user. Attributed to anonymous, the book is in diary form, and was originally presented as being the edited. Go ask alice by anonymous beatrice sparks banned library.
Beatrice sparks, a teen psychologist and mormon youth counselor was uncovered to have actually written the majority if not the whole entire novel. It is not a definitive statement on the middleclass, teenage drug world. Go ask alice is a reference to a jefferson airplane song called white rabbit, which alludes to rampant hallucinogenic drug use in lewis carrolls alice in wonderland. The main character struggled with drug use and her family always was there to try to help even through her running away and coming back. What is the primary conflict in the book go ask alice. An intelligent, sensitive girl with a literary flair, she experiments with drugs and the counterculture to escape from her low selfesteem and consuming loneliness. Go ask alice by beatrice sparks as anonymous banned books. Go ask alice is based on the actual diary of a fifteenyearold drug user. Page quote 31 i wonder if sex without acid could be so exciting, so wonderful, so indescribable. A dark and edgy firstperson cautionary tale about how one girls seemingly minor choices quickly spiraled into a life as a sex worker in the tradition of go ask alice and lucy in. Go ask alice is a 1971 fiction book about a teenage girl who develops a drug addiction at age 15 and runs away from home on a journey of selfdestructive escapism. Go ask alice is the firstperson tale of an accidental downward spiral into drugs, alcohol, unwanted sex, and impoverished living. Nowadays ya lit is pretty universal harry potter really opened the doors for people to read childrens books no matter what their agebut in 1971 when our book was written that wasnt really the case. Some people maintain that alice in wonderland can only have been written by an author with considerable hallucinogenic mushroom experience under their belt.
There are more than 5 million copies sold,so why ban it. It is, however, a highly personal and specific chronicle. After reading go ask alice and preparing a research project on it, i feel that the biggest reason books are banned is because of depiction vs. Apr 25, 2014 go ask alice is a 1971 novel by beatrice sparks that bills itself the reallife diary of an anonymous teenage girl. Joel gave her alice a lot of strength and offered her to go to the funeral. If go ask alice will continue to be banned, how will people like alice be able to relate. Books similar to go ask alice meet your next favorite book. Go ask alice has been around for decades, and is even being used as reading material in high schools. As a highschooler,go ask alice shouldnt be banned because im mature enough to take in the intense content. Im an advocate for banned stories that teach difficult lessons the easier way, and go ask alice definitely falls into this category. I picked up this book at our recent friends of the library sale. Im not really sure which parts of myself are real and which parts are things ive gotten from books. It has appeared on the top 10 challenged books list twice, in 2001 in 8th and in. An award winning novel by the name of go ask alice did that.
See all 25 questions about go ask alice lists with this book. Go ask alice is the most palatable, because, while it is poorly written and incredible, at least it is not derivative. Go ask alice by beatrice sparks as anonymous banned. I know the book is over 40 years old but go ask alice really feels it. Go ask alice has been one of the most frequently challenged books. Go ask alice by beatrice sparks setting the setting in this book i liked the most.
Conflict self self the conflict i chose, is when alice thinks that she is pregnant. I chose go ask alice and it is certainly the strangest book ive read this year. As such, we hope it will provide insights into the increasingly complicated world in which we live. Good libraries have a system in place where the protesting adult must read the book he wants banned, write up a report of why, suggest an alternate book, and then his report, plus the librarys defense of the book, go before a committee, and the committee decides whether or not to keep it. A book report on go ask alice english literature essay. It has sold over four million copies, was adapted as a tv movie with william shatner, and is still in print over 40 years later. As such, we hope it will provide insights into the. The book s writers, who also include the author and physician beatrice sparks, have a tin ear for adolescent dialogue and a bad habit of driving home political points by poking fun at their characters.
Only parents can decide if they want their children to read go ask alice. Through out the history of film, many productions have been made based on best selling novels. A case against banning go ask alice by hazel dela paz on prezi. Title stance on the book 3 articles it was banned challenged in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2008, and 2009 it was banned usually in schools and libraries title. She was trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her great home and a loving and caring family to the streets of an unforgiving city. Alice is in conflict with everyone around her, because she cant accept herself as she really is. Go ask alice by anonymous about the book she doesnt want to get hooked on drugs. Pressure to use drugs at school intensifies, as the kids harass alice and her family. Go ask alice by anonymous banned book but was it real. The list go ask alice has been one of the most frequently challenged books, according to the american library associations frequently challenged books of the 21st century list, since its publication in 1971, for content relating to drugs, sexual explicitness, offensive language, and inappropriate themes for the target age group frequently challenged 1. A lot of the time i dont notice age with books when im lost in a story but i dont think the text has dated well. Alice meets a freshman at the university library, joel.
The author, through this book, doesnt wants his readers to look for advise in it, but to learn about the real world in which some teenagers have to live through. The diary format of go ask alice highlights the drug and sex focused culture of the late 1960s. The diary begins right before alices fifteenth birthday. Go ask alice is still awash in controversy, 43 years after publication top 100 bannedchallenged books. The story opens with alice dealing with somewhat relevant issues as some of us do today. Although anonymous during the mid 1980, beatrice sparks, a teen physiologist, was uncovered to have helped write a good portion of the book. All picture source titles are hyperlinked to the pages that they appear on this site.
As powerfuland as timelytoday as ever, go ask alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction. Go ask alice is small, 224 under size pages and written in diary format so is a quick read. At the 16th of june, alices grandmother died in her sleep. Oct 10, 2009 alice wants to fit in, but doing that with her peers means shes at odds with her family. This is my second read of go ask alice, and i loved it just as much the second time around im an advocate for banned stories that teach difficult lessons the. In the book, go ask alice by anonymous, readers are introduced into the life of alice as she goes through her rollercoaster life, faced with abuse, drugs, and alcohol and how much those substances affected her life. As powerfuland as timelytoday as ever, go ask alice remains the.
Dec 20, 1981 a censorial spirit is at work in the united states, and for the past year or so it has focused more and more on books. I wanted her life it seemed cool it was a way to lose weight. Oct 27, 2014 i know the book is over 40 years old but go ask alice really feels it. Creating film adaptations for movies has become very common because directors can be sure that their target audiences are intrigued by the topic of their future film. Dec 08, 2011 after reading go ask alice and preparing a research project on it, i feel that the biggest reason books are banned is because of depiction vs. Lines from go ask alice that, in hindsight, should have. After this progression, alice eventually overdoses on chocolatecovered peanuts. She is a pretty typical teenage girl in the late 1960sshes mostly concerned with school, boys, her hair, and fitting in okay, thats pretty typical for any decade when her fathers new job causes her family to move across the country, alice is thrust into a new school at a time when she is at best sensitive. Go ask alice was designed to be the true events of a young teenagers life.