Essay

Essay on Go Ask Alice

Naomi Giancola 802

            Go Ask Alice by the journal writer edited by Dr. Beatrice Sparks is about a girl who is hooked on drugs. The book is written like a journal. The journal writers name is Alice. Over the course of the book Alice changes only a little bit. She keeps changing her mind about drugs, should she take them? Or should she not. There is the obvious answer to that question, but Alice doesn’t think so. Soon Alice gets sucked in to a world of drugs where there is limited friendship and you get judged every day. In conclusion Alice is a very charming person on the inside, she just has some trouble getting it out on the outside.

            One obvious trait about Alice is that she wants to have a good future. Alice tries so hard to get things right, just for some, it’s harder for her then for others. Alice is really a very good girl she just got sucked into the wrong world just as her future was starting to lay its self out. “Wow! I’m really living! I have a job. Chris asked her boss last night and he said yes. Isn’t it the greatest?! I’ll be working with Chris on Thursday nights and on Friday nights and all day Saturday and I’ll be able to buy anything my non-conforming heart desires.” Alice had just gotten a job and is trying to straighten out her future so that she doesn’t fall apart. This part of the journal happens before she runs away for the first time. “For the first time I feel absolutely certain that even if I were looked in a room full of acid, speed, and every other upper in the world I would only be discussed, for I see what it does to kids who used to be my friends.” At the moment she is at home after running away and people at school are trying to get her to start drugs again, but she is becoming more and more confident that she wont start up again. She is really trying to get her future worked out.

            Another obvious trait about Alice is that, she is very appreciative. Whenever someone does something for her, she always feels very grateful. Since not that many people do good things for her, when someone does she feels very appreciative towards them when they do. “Anyone who has desperately needed to come home knows what a tremendous feeling it is to be lying in his own bed! My pillow! My mattress! My old silver hand mirror.” Alice has just come home from running away and she is feeling very thankful of all of her things and the people around her. If anyone were to go home after being away for a while he or she would also feel very thankful, but Alice is being extremely thankful because of what she has endured. “ Chris and I are lucky that both our shops are closed on Sundays and Mondays so we have two free days together.” Alice is feeling very thankful that life, as a runaway isn’t as hard as she thought it would be. It may seem like just a small thing to be thankful for but if someone lived with another person and they never got to spend time with them then it would probably be pretty awkward. Alice is very appreciative of the things people do for her.  

            One subtle trait about Alice is, she is actually very emotionally week. She always puts up a strong front for other people but on the inside she is falling apart. Alice always tries to stay together but she always ends up giving in or falling into pieces. “I could tell mom had been crying when she came to see me today, so I tried to be very strong and put on a happy face. It’s a good thing I did because they are sending me to an insane asylum, a loony bin, a crazy house, freak wharf, where I can wander around with the other idiots and lunatics. I am so scared I cannot even take a full breath.” Alice had just lost her sanity because she started having extreme hallucinations and she had to go to a hospital. Inside she is really scared of what might happen to her but on the outside she puts on a strong and happy face for her parents. “The entire drive home she kept saying what nice girls Gloria and Babes are and how good it would be for me to have many friends instead of just concentrating on Chris. Oh if only she knew, if only she knew!” On the inside Alice knows that all the girls want to do is get her hooked on drugs again but on the out side she is putting up a strong front that no one can break past to get in to her head.  Alice is keeping to many emotions balled up inside and putting up maybe to strong of a front.

            To conclude, Alice is a very confusing character that may not seem like she changes, but actually she changes more then you think. She has many obvious traits and some, not so obvious. She is ambitious, grateful, but she is also very week at heart. You may not notice that because it’s so small, but if you look for it, you will find she has many breaking points throughout her journal. Over all, Alice was an amazing person; just some people choose the wrong path to take.     

Ask the passengers essay

Essay on Ask the Passengers

Naomi Giancola 802

            Ask the Passengers, by A.S. King, is about a teenage girl named, Astrid, who lives in a small minded town where is you are different, you are cut out, isolated, and ignored. She moved from the city in the suburbs when she was little but she never quite fit in. She has two best friends that she knows are gay but they aren’t out to the school yet. Along with trying to figure out who she is, she has to deal with all the craziness of her home and the fact that if she is gay the reaction she will get from her parents. Astrid shows the struggle of trying to figure out who you are and having to deal with all of the other stuff going in your life.

            Astrid is trying to figure out what her sexuality is and the people around her are making it so much more confusing for her, for example, “If I were to explain to you how she really makes me feel, I’m not sure I could. Do I lover her? I don’t know. Maybe.” Astrid works at this place that prepared food for fancy occasions and she works with this girl named Dee. Dee is gay and she knows it and the two of them are definitely more than friends but Astrid is just so confused about her self she’s not even sure if she loves the person she really loves. “They say: Mom would never forgive you if your gay.” Astrid has to deal with the fact that her parents would never really accept her if she was gay and that is getting in the way of her figuring out what she is. “I look into my eyes again in the mirror. I can see her there- the me who’s waiting to come out. The me who doesn’t have to send her love away.” Astrid’s friend, Kristina, is pressuring her out of the closet because she thinks she knows that Astrid is gay. Astrid isn’t ready though and it’s making it so much harder to figure out who she is when she is being pressured to choose.

Another way she is having trouble figuring out who she is is that the place she lives in has a very set image on how people should act, for example, “They stop and say hello, and then once you pass, they talk back off like you were nothing. They assess your out-fit, your hairstyle, and they garble what you say so it comes out ugly.” The people in her town, Unity Valley, are very judgmental and Astrid doesn’t want to be judge or be judged, she just wants to be who she is. “This whole town is frozen in time. Stuck in one place. Motionless.” Astrid thinks this because every year, her family gets a not from the KKK along with some nice packaged mints and try to get them to join, and its 2011. Not only do they have the KKK but they also have people who believe that the Holocaust was a fake and never really happened or was planned. Astrid can’t really even be her self because of all the hate she would get from the people who know her.

            Astrid is confused about who she is just like so many teens right now. A.S. King shows how hard it is to be yourself when people want to think for you and not give you the chance to be yourself. Astrid shows that when you are stuck in one spot you have to give you a push and try to get out and move on and be you. Many teens now are confused about who they are and this book can help and show that it’s okay to be who you want to be and not who you are told to be.