TOW #20- Go Ask Alice

In the anonymously written diary, Go Ask Alice, the author describes her experience of being immersed into the world of drugs. The diary begins with her moving to another town because of her father's new job. She is just a normal teenage girl facing boy problems and weight issues, still very innocent with very little issues. At a party she attends, she is introduced to LSD for the first time when she is handed a laced drink, this changed her life forever and pushes her into a direction of constantly being under the influence.  The author's purpose of expressing the built up emotions and thoughts that a drug addicted teenager would have at that point of her life was well backed up through the use of clear symbolism. One of the key devices to focus on in this book is the use of symbolism. Not only does it help illustrate what she is experiencing, but it also offers an insight into her mind and how it affects her as a character. Throughout the book the author has a reoccurring fear of maggots and worms as they come out in her dream and she keeps thinking about them eating the dead bodies. Her first revelation of this fear was when she, "I [she] had a nightmare last night about Gramps' body all filled with maggots and worms, and I [she] thought about what would happen if I [she] should die." Although it is a gross image, as she goes further into the description of maggots and worms eating her there is a clear symbol that is seen. At first, her fear of the maggots focuses around the loneliness of her individual mind. Part of her fear is that she is unaware of what happens to a body underground that is hidden from sight. The author's loneliness connects to this anxiety, that she fears no one knows what is happening in her mind. Later on when she is in a hospital, she remembers the "dead things and people" that were "pushing" her into a casket, becoming something that seeks to harm Alice. The audience is able to interpret the maggots and worms as instances of destructive impulses in society that she has incorporates into low self-esteem as if society is "pushing" her inside the coffin just how it has pushed her into drugs, away from her family, and even further away from reality. The author does a good job of achieving her purpose because she is able to utilize the rhetorical devices into an expressive way that helps the audience see into her mind and her emotions. By repeatedly mentioning her fear throughout the book, we are able to see a clearly defined symbol that allows us to look into the deeper side of how drugs have affected the diarist.