Go Ask Alice

Alice’s wayward journey while experimenting with drugs points to the many other components of the 1970s counterculture movement. While Beatrice Sparks intended Alice’s story to serve as a cautionary tale for the 1970s counterculture to avoid substance abuse, she simultaneously captures how the movement influenced style, politics, ideologies, and the various responses to the movement.

Alice and Chris initially bond over a shared appreciation of new and trendy clothes reflecting the styles of their generation. Shopping at Chris’s boutique, Alice “found a cute pair of moccasins and a vest with fringe and a really great pair of pants” (44), though Alice’s mother later disapproves, leaving Alice feeling as if she’s “doing less and less right […] no matter what [she] do[es] [she] can’t please the Establishment” (44). Alice’s mother’s attitude toward Alice’s hair and clothes represents the generational divide. Her mother mistakenly assumes that bell-bottom jeans, sandals, natural hairstyles, and jewelry will lead her daughter to use drugs. In reality, Alice’s initial experience with drugs occurs when she dresses in line with her mother’s expectations. Alice’s mother approves of her clean-cut friends and boyfriends, not realizing that nearly all of them use drugs.

In addition, Alice witnesses political unrest on and around college campuses, reflecting resistance to the Vietnam War, among other political unrest and calls for peace common during the 1970s counterculture movement. Alice’s father takes her to an anti-war rally, saying, “He is very worried and upset about the students and talked to me as though I were an adult. I really enjoyed it” (120). Although Alice hesitates to enter into political communications with Berkeley students, she quickly adopts her father’s way of thinking. These snippets of political unrest on college campuses reflect historical events like the Kent State shootings. Although he cares for the students, Alice’s father believes “militant students [...] should be dealt with very harshly” (120), bringing forth a more conservative attitude about the rallies.

During her travels, Alice meets many kids in transient living situations who resist established ideologies concerning sexuality, family life, and religion. When Alice travels to Los Angeles and partakes in a week’s-long drug binge, she witnesses how others “keep saying ‘love’ to each other. It’s beautiful to watch. Color intermingled with color. People intermingled with people. Color and people intercoursing together” (95). Alice’s experience reflects the counterculture ideology of people chasing joy. Wanting to free themselves from society’s demands and social norms while living peacefully, people in the counterculture movement craved the freedom to find their own identity and purpose. Critics of counterculture, like Alice’s parents, saw hippie ideology as an excuse to use drugs and avoid work.