How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Diary, you'll have to wait until tomorrow or I'll have to go through the long lecture again about my attitude and my immaturity. (1.3)
Having to listen to lectures about immaturity is such a classic teenage problem. Maybe, though, that's because teenagers are inherently immature… it's part of the whole growing-up thing, you know?
Quote #2
I keep thinking about our teacher in gym teaching us modern dance and always saying that it will make our bodies strong and healthy for childbearing, then she harps and harps that everything must be graceful, graceful, graceful. I can hardly picture sex or having a baby as being graceful. (11.2)
First thought: Yikes, who the heck was that gym teacher? That sounds like a really disturbing class. But more importantly, this entry helps to show how Alice is pretty innocent when it comes to sex.
Quote #3
Her grandmother told her that when a Jewish boy and girl are getting married, if someone says the girl isn't a virgin and they can prove it, the boy doesn't even have to marry her. We wondered exactly how they proved such a thing but neither one of us really know. (35.1)
"Proving" someone's virginity (or lack thereof) is problematic in many ways—you're either relying on shoddy biology or on the word of someone who wants to ruin a girl's reputation. It's pretty much a patriarchal mess, in other words.
Quote #4
Anyway the whole night was really stupid. Sam wouldn't even let me watch the movie in peace. Besides it turned out to be such a dirty film that Beth and I stayed in the ladies' room for a long time after it was over. We were both too self-conscious to come out, but since we couldn't spend the night in there, we finally made our grand entrance… (38.1)
Sometimes it's easy to forget how young Alice is, but then we read an entry like this. Instead of being titillated by a dirty movie, she's embarrassed and disgusted. This is especially interesting in comparison with the Alice from the end of the diary, who writes "Another day, another blow job" (165.1).
Quote #5
Now that I think back I should have known what was happening! Any dum-dum should have known, but I thought the whole party was so strange and exciting that I guess I just wasn't listening or maybe I didn't want to listen—I'd have been scared to death if I'd known. So I'm glad they did it to me, because now I can feel free and honest and virtuous about not having made the decision myself. (45.14)
This "innocent" introduction is crucial to writing anti-drug propaganda. Not only does it make Alice sympathetic, it also suggests that her downfall could happen to anyone. Dun dun dun… don't drink the punch at the party.
Quote #6
Ted and Richie are in college, and they have to work a lot harder than we do in high school so they don't have the time to sell. And besides it's a lot easier for guys to get busted than for girls. At first it was pretty hard to keep my cool around the Establishment, but since I'm now Richie's chick all the way I have to do what I can to help him. (76.3)
This smacks of a master manipulator, doesn't it? It's like Alice is just regurgitating what Richie tells her, obeying him like a good little girlfriend. Richie has found himself a sucker, and if Alice were a bit less innocent, she might've had some warning about her situation.
Quote #7
Actually I think I'd go on home if I weren't so afraid of Richie. I'm sure he'd try to involve me if he could. He's such a weak, conniving, vindictive character. I see so many things about him now that are repulsive that I don't know how I ever got so miserably brainwashed. Guess I was just a stupid, dumb kid asking to be taken, and I was! Man, was I ever! But next time I won't be so stupid, except there won't be any next time! I will never ever, ever, under any circumstances use drugs again. (90.1)
Here comes her loss of innocence. She's starting to see the seedy side of drugs and not just the glamorous aspect of them, and yet she's still pretty naïve because of her insistence that she'll never do them again. Yeah, right… and if frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their butts when they hop.
Quote #8
Well, at least I'm not burned out and I'm not preg. Or maybe I am. I couldn't take the goddamn pill even if I had it. No doper can take the pill because they don't know what the hell day it is. So maybe I am pregnant. So what. There's a pre-med drop out wandering around somewhere who will take care of it. Or maybe some goddamn prick would stomp on me during a freak out and I'd lose it anyway. Or maybe the son-of-a-b**** bomb will go off tomorrow. Who knows? (166.3)
Oh man, Alice's standards have fallen pretty low. It's amazing to compare this statement with the beginning of the diary, where Alice makes herself literally sick worrying over the possibility of being pregnant.
Quote #9
His father died when he was seven and since then he's thought a lot about death and about life. His feelings and ideas are so mature I can hardly believe he isn't a hundred thousand years old! (227.2)
Here we get one more glimpse of how innocent Alice is after everything that's happened. Her wide-eyed wonder at how mature Joel is serves as a reminder that she's still just a kid, and a naïve one at that.