Looking for Alibrandi “Josie’s emancipation happened as a result of her relationships” Josephine Alibrandi is a second generation Italian Australian completing her final year of high school. She is the Vice-School Captain of her exclusive school; St Martha's which she has been admitted through a scholarship. Events at her school play a significant role in her life. Josie learns to overcome the narrow minded social and racial bigotry of people like Ivy Lloyd and Carly Bishop. Josie reacts angrily to derogatory terms like wog and ethnic.
Looking for Alibrandi Essay The popular book “Looking for Alibrandi” written by Italian author Melina Marchetta explores the journey of protagonist “Josephine Alibrandi” on her final year of high school. Throughout her last year she came across many issues that changed her sense of identity towards herself. Some issues such as expectations from her family and her own, romantic interest, Italian-Australia background, lack of acceptance in her family, but through all this hardship she manages to resolve her problems, but at the end, she finally understands why everything happened, shown by the last line in the book “Because I finally understood” (Pg 261) At age seventeen is experiencing her final year of high school. She constantly feels self-conscious about herself, believing that everyone is talking behind her back because she was born without one of her parents. She is different from the most students at St Martha’s and only relates to a few.
MODULE C: ‘Into the World’ TEXTS: Educating Rita- Willy Russell An Education- Nick Hornby ‘The Door’- Miroslav Holub Significant experiences in people’s lives provide opportunities for growth and development. Going ‘into the world’ means moving from familiar experiences to new horizons. When going from familiar experiences to new ones, obstacles are usually overcome before being totally successful. Individuals might be given advice and guided through the transformation to reaching new horizons. Great rewards and opportunities also come about while going through the process of growth and development.
As we undergo experiences throughout life and gain knowledge, we recognise that our own perspectives can often be centred around assumptions that we have and by broadening our understanding, we are able to erode our initial perspectives. In the film, Looking For Alibrandi, and also in a short story entitled Flowers by Alice Walker, the protagonists both have initial perspectives about people, the society that surrounds them and the world in which they live, and find themselves bearing experiences and acquiring understanding to alter their perspectives. An abrupt catalyst for an alteration of a perspective forces us to shed some of the assumptions that lead us to hold our initial perspective. In the film, Looking for Alibrandi, the protagonist,
Loneliness and Friendship Lockie and his family have just moved from Perth to a small coastal township of Angelus. Lockie doesn’t fit in to his new school straight away; he gets bullied but soon falls in love with a girl, but not just any girl the smartest, prettiest, richest girl in all his classes, called Vicki Streeton. Lockie didn’t have any friends; it was hard for him new to town and school it’s hard to fit in. “I also think Tim Winton is trying to say is that we all need friends, family etc for support, when you
Book Review: Marchetta, M 1992, Looking For Alibrandi, Orchard Publishing, Australia. Looking for Alibrandi – written by Melina Marchetta is a wonderful book aimed towards an audience of young adults. It is a book set in a modern time and is a coming of age story about the struggle to fit in in a prejudiced society. This book tells the story of Josie Alibrandi, from her point of view, as an Italian girl with a scholarship at a prestigious Catholic girls school, struggling to come to terms with who she is, whilst growing up in Sydney. Josie's mother, Christina is one of the sole figures of Josie's life, exempting her Nonna Katia.
Belonging is a term that can refer to the main ideas of inclusion into a group, community or individual, and acceptance by other individuals. Immigrant Chronicle is a collection of poems written by Peter Skrzynecki. All of the poems in the collection relate to belonging and not belonging, and are based on the poet’s real life experiences. The related text, Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta, also looks into the concept of belonging; the story follows third-generation Italian-Australian Josephine “Josie” Alibrandi, who is completing her final year of high school. In the process, she is bent on being accepted into a world she longs to be a part of.
Josie’s involvement in Tomato Day, a distinct part of Italian culture parallels the postcard for Skrzynecki. Josie strongly believes that her family’s expectations of her prevent her from immersing herself in Australian society, “This might be where I come from, but do I really belong here? That’s the past, and you can’t let the past run your life.” The use of rhetorical question examplifies the confusion felt by Josie and helps the reader understand the overwhelming difficulty of bridging two cultures. By the end of her journey Josie has an epiphany that is similar to the ‘lone tree’ in the postcard speaking to Peter. Josie realises that her heritage is a part of who she is, “I know now that what’s important is who I feel I am”.
Waiting Between the Trees is about Ying-ying who was a wild girl when she was young. She was raised in a wealthy family and her mother always told her that she would bring shame to their family. After her first husband left her for an opera singer she went to America to start a new life. She met a man named St. Clair and knew that she would marry him but could not love him. She eventually learned that she must let go of her past and love this new man.
Looking for Alibrandi Growing up is a process where an individual experiences changes that allow them to transition from childhood to adulthood. The prose fiction novel, `Looking for Alibrandi’ by Melina Marchetta details the experiences of a seventeen year old girl, Josephine Alibrandi, and her journey of growing up. Marchetta uses the aspects of change, self-realisation and self-reflection to show who Josephine is and uses various techniques to make this clearer. One of the things one learns about growing up is that it inevitably involves change. In the prescribed text, the main character, Josephine Alibrandi, experiences that change her life.