Go Ask Alice Innocence Quotes

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.