We're pretty sure that the Rolling Stones wrote "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" about Alice. Well, okay, they would have if she'd been a real person. Who somehow knew Mick Jagger… moving on.
In Go Ask Alice, Alice is one of those people who just aren't happy no matter what's going on. When she's with her parents, she's bored and sick of being "square." When she's high as a kite and living off love with the other hippies, she's disgusted by their lack of initiative and how worthless they all are. When she's on drugs, she is busy swearing them off, and when she's clean, she's bored and wishing she were high. This girl seriously can't get no satisfaction. (Ugh, did you cringe reading that? We cringed writing it, that's for sure.)
Questions About Dissatisfaction
- Alice is constantly dissatisfied with her situation. Do you think she is merely being influenced by the generational discontent that was prevalent in the late 1960s/early 70s? Or is it an aspect of her personality?
- How much of Alice's dissatisfaction would you feel is normal for a teenage girl, and how much do you think might be a little overkill because the authors needed to make a point? (Remember: They were trying to show all the reasons why someone might turn to drugs.)
- Some of Alice's attempts to find happiness end up being… not so great. Remember that "diet" she goes on? What are some other examples of times Alice pursues satisfaction to her detriment?
- Alice seems to think that her parents are always unhappy with her—her hair, her clothes, her weight, her friends, and so on. How much of this is real, and how much has to do with her terrible self-esteem?
Chew on This
Alice is perpetually unhappy with her lot in life, and nothing she does will ever be able to satisfy her.
Alice's dissatisfaction is just yet another convenient "symptom" of drug abusers that the authors needed to inject into their propaganda machine.