Go Ask Alice Identity Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

Personally I'd like to get a whole new everything, except my books of course, they are part of my life. [….] Even now I'm not really sure which parts of myself are real and which parts are things I've gotten from books. (7.2)

We'd like to argue that those aspects of yourself that you've gotten from books are real. Why not? Books color your view on life, expand your horizons, and broaden perspectives, but they don't change who you are fundamentally. Their influence doesn't need to be kept as a separate reality, so it's kind of strange Alice feels the need to differentiate, isn't it?

Quote #2

I've lived in this room all my fifteen years, all my 5,530 days. I've laughed and cried and moaned and muttered in this room. I've loved people and things and hated them. It's been a big part of my life, of me. Will we ever be the same when we're closed in by other walls? Will we think other thoughts and have different emotions? Oh, Mother, Daddy, maybe we're making a mistake, maybe we'll be leaving too much of ourselves behind! (12.1)

This is another example of Alice being a little melodramatic. She's wrapping her sense of identity up with her physical room, which is a bit silly. Sure, things will be different at the new house, but she'll still be her. (And she took the time to calculate how many days she'd lived in that room? Girl needs a better hobby.)

Quote #3

I barely made it in our old town where I knew everybody and they knew me. I've never even allowed myself to think about it before, but I really haven't much to offer in a new situation. Oh dear God, help me adjust, help me be accepted, help me belong, don't let me be a social outcast and a drag on my family. (20.2)

Alice's identity is so tied into what she thinks other people think about her that when she moves, she loses all sense of self. It doesn't help that her self-esteem is lower than the limbo pole at a party for toddlers.