Even though Alice sees her family as part of her problem in Go Ask Alice, the deaths of her Gran and Gramps really trigger a response in her. Before they die, her diary entries are punctuated with casual remarks about wishing she were dead, or wanting to escape it all—but once they die, and she becomes obsessed with rotting corpses and worms and maggots and all the macabre aspects of decay. This preoccupation becomes especially significant when her inability to cope with that imagery becomes all too real during her catastrophic poisoning with LSD.
Questions About Mortality
- What is the major turning point for Alice regarding death? Why? How does her attitude toward death change?
- Does Alice's fear of death make the ending of the diary suspicious? Why or why not?
- Alice proves that she has religious tendencies, so why doesn't she use religion to find comfort when confronted with the deaths of loved ones?
Chew on This
All of Alice's I wish I were dead statements are merely adolescent posturing and the idealization of an ultimate escape/easy way out.
Alice is actually suicidal as a result of the depression she suffers at the beginning of the diary.