Go Ask Alice Addiction

Growing up and entering the teenage years exposes young people to new things that they have never had to deal with before, such as drugs. Many children do not know how to handle a situation when faced with drugs, which opens the possibility of bad decision making. Just one bad decision can lead to a lifetime of addiction and struggling. The use of dangerous drugs is a growing issue amongst teens in real life while also depicted in modern works of literature such as Crank and Go Ask Alice. With no prior exposure to them, teenagers have no clue how to deal with a situation involving drugs. They get involved with drugs for many different reasons. For one, peer pressure can take over their extremely impressionable minds and the pressure to fit
Alice starts a diary of her life, which quickly turns into a story of the beginning of her addiction all the way until she overdoses. After starting at a new school, the pressure to fit in overcomes Alice. When invited to a party and offered LSD, Alice tries it in order to be like the others. She recalls her trip by writing, “I was dancing before the whole group, performing, showing off, and enjoying every second of it,”(Sparks). Realizing she was starting to fit in, Alice continues to do drugs of all kinds. She justifies her drug use even when it comes to the point where she needs them just to function in her everyday life. Alice says, “I have to take dexies to stay high at school and at work and on dates and to do my homework, then I have to take tranquilizers to bear up at home,”(Sparks). She gets addicted so quickly that she can not even go to school without getting a
This is the best way to compose a story about teenage drug addiction because it shows the reality of it. Just like Crank, there is no sugar coating this story. The New York Times writer Leslie Jamison acknowledges that, “peer pressure looms large,” within this book. Teenagers can relate to the peer pressure aspect of the book and hopefully not let it affect them as it negatively affected Alice. Jamison also acknowledges that she too could relate to the book as she says, “I saw myself in this “real” girl.” Written in a diary style, teenagers are drawn to the book because it gives them a way to see that teenage drug addiction could happen to them too if they get involved with