"Go Ask Alice" pages 50-100

This portion of the novel begins with the narrator running away to San Francisco with her best friend Chris. When the two first get to San Francisco they try there best to avoid drugs because of how their previous boyfriends used them as tools in order to sell drugs. The two both get jobs,  the narrator works at a shop for Mr. Mellani and Chris works at a jewelry shop for Shelia. Then after a month or so the two go to a party of Shelia's and get turned on the drugs again, but they both go willingly and simply become closer friends with Shelia mainly because the two lovely the almost nightly parties and because Shelia is currently their only drug connection. Now, they are returning to drugs even though they left their families becuase of how their previous boyfriends used them as tools to sell the stuff,  revealing how the narrator is returning to the substance even with the past, showing the over all anti-drug theme of the book, because their return shows how addictive and hard it is to stay away from drugs, and that even people with good intentions can fall back into there old bad habbits.Then one night when the two of them are raped by Shelia and her current "boyfriend". The two are crushed and mortified to the point where the leave their current place and situation. They have been used and betrayed by a friend again and so they simply leave like they left their home town, which contributes to show the writers thoughts and feelings towards people who do drugs. This being the second time something like this happens to the narrator, showing how the writer believes that most suppliers of drugs are completely untrustworthy and dishonest.

 During much of the narrator's time in San Francisco, the narrator works in a jewelry shop for Mr. Mellani, who begins to act as the father figure she desperatly needs. He invites her to dinner, gives her advice, and even lets her meet his family. The narrator left a same " Thanks and I love you" note just like the one she left her actual family, showing just how much she cared about Mr. Mellani and his family, and how much of a family they actually were to her. Then when two find a new place to live and open a jewelry shop, The narrator uses knowledge she learned from Mr. Mellani which shows how much he taught her. Their shop is some-what successsful, but then the narrator gets homesick around Christmas and returns home. Without Mr. Mellani acting as here family the narrator begins to feel lonely and misplaced because of the lack of parental love and guidance, and she associates Christmas with a time for happiness and family, like many people do, and comes to the realization that she needs to return home to them, showing how childish the narrator still is. She is still young and needs a family to support her, and she still doesn't realize how much she actually NEEDS them, because without them she crashes hard.

The narrator spends the next several days enjoying her family and truely appriciating them(finally). Since she was gone for so long she realized her need for the love and warmth that her family provides for her. The narrator then begins dating a guy named George because he's the "safest kind". She is still in constant fear of being used again, especially since some of her former friends are following her attempting to turn her back on to drugs. She remained clean until, of course, she was turned back on to drugs, again (I think thats the 3rd time now), and her and Chris then start getting drugs from Lane. Then they get busted, and the narrators parents begin to worry about the narrator and watch her like hawks, like any parents narturally would. The narrator gets incredably annoyed by this and one night she gets high and finds herself in Denver. She forgets about all of the great times she first spent with her family. When she first returned to San Francisco she was so excited and releaved to finally return home, but now she left again because of her apparent need for freedom, and drugs. Completely ignoring her desire and actual need for the love and support of a family, you could still say she is the typical "I'm always angry at my parents when they don't agree with me" teenager.

Throughout her time in Denver, the reader sees a completely different side to the narrator. She only has the clothes on her back and her and her new friend, Dorris, now live each day from one fix to another. The both get abused and the narrators diary entries become noticably more angry and bitter in tone and curse words are used in almost every entry, and now she is so desperate for a fix that she even turns to prostitution. She has suck to the lowest point in her story so far, and has almost completly changed in charater, revealing how changable she is at a person. The quiet, insecure that the reader saw has almost completly changed because of her insecurities. She was turned on to drugs because she was finally invited to a party and wanted to belong, but now they have indirectlly led her down this path, showing the tragic path that many addicts take. Now, since she was never sure of who she was or what she wanted at the beginning of the novel, she found this new "goal" and life path of simply living for the next fix, even though it is universally agreed to be a terrible choice and way of life.