In Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi Josephine realises that things tend not to turn out how you would like them to; as a result, she aims to discover her emancipation throughout the novel. Josie discovers and hesitates the stereotype binding terms subject to her culture such as“Wog”, Josie through her emancipation accepts and dominates her culture. Josephine first tries hiding and avoiding her culture only to be influenced by family expectations. Therefore Josie accepted her culture on her terms. Josephine seems to be lost in a world of relationships; the analyser sees this through the attempt at “marrying” John Barton. As Well as the meeting and rejecting of her father. “That day had finally come”- Page 261, these factors align with …show more content…
The reader feels and somewhat relates towards the expectations influenced by her family, this not only puts pressure on Josie but also makes her question her eligibility towards others. “Like all tomato days we had spaghetti that night. Made by our own hands. A tradition that we’ll never let go. A tradition that I will probably never let go either, simply because like religion, culture is nailed into you so deep you can't escape it. No matter how far you run.” (p. 174) However, even though these factors add up Josephine still does stick up for her culture. “ ’Forget it, Josephine. We’ll both be happier. I can associate with my own kind and you won’t have to put up with some cultureless Aussie with no heart and soul.’ ” [Jacob to Josie] (p. 208). These quotes help the reader understand and portray Marchetta's image of Josephine's acceptance towards Italian culture, the quotes align with the values of Joesaphine as a youth. Only when Joesaphine accepts and lowers the family expectations that she is subject to she will finally be …show more content…
Josie seemingly ignores the fact surrounding that she cannot make her individual decisions regarding relationships, Josephine attempts to make lifelong commitments. “ ‘Tell me, what comes first? What other people think of your family, or love?’ ” [Christina to Josie] (p. 196) “ ‘Josie, life is not a Mills and Boon book. People fall out of love. People disappoint other people and they find it very hard to forgive.’ ” [Christina to Josie] (p. 198) These quotes show the encouragement not to get into love by relating to the disappointment, Josie is also encouraged to put her family before love. These love streams come and go, but the irresponsible Josephine decides to go on her terms on deciding the path that she would wish to follow without any
“Looking for Alibrandi” is a novel written by Melina Marchetta. The novel is written in the first person, through Josephine Alibrandi’s perspective. Josephine Alibrandi is the main protagonist in the story, she is seventeen and is experiencing her final year at St. Martha’s. Throughout the novel, Josephine is trying to discover her true self and identity as she is stuck between her Italian and Australian culture. She believes that her Australian culture is her sole identity, but at the end, she realises that it is not only one culture but both of them that form her identity.
I think Antonia would really believe in this. I think Antonia is more about trying to be happy and really forcing the issue and Jim just does what he does and just hopes for the best. Thats why I don’t really think that Antonia would fully agree with Jim’s statement. I think Antonia would agree that sometimes happiness is easy but i think Jim is also implying is that you can’t just force it or fake the happiness. Antonia always tried maybe too hard to be happy and one example is when she married Larry Donovan. I don’t think that Antonia thought about it long and hard even though Larry was known to be a pro Ladies man and people were telling her. It basically seems like she chose Larry in a fast attempt to be happy and basically it just ended badly and made her unhappy for a long period of time. Jim on the other hand took decisions with more caution and didn't try to rush or prolong happiness and just lived life slowly one step at a time. Also it almost feels like Jim really learned to appreciate happiness when it came and just basked in its warmth well like in his college moments in Lincoln with Gaston Cleric. In those moments Jim was just naturally happy in that state of learning and growth. Jim in the end did find happiness and so did Antonia which was a wonderful thing to read in the
Jean Thompson’s short story, All Shall Love Me and Despair shows that proves that the feeling of love makes people compromise even if it can be harmful to themselves. When one finds them self constantly questioning every action they do when around a specific person, they may want to reconsider their relationship with that person. I believe this because one should be able to be comfortable, and them self, especially around those that they love. Annie and Scout are a couple who loves each other, but Annie second guesses most of her actions around Scout.
Through the protagonist, Josie the audiences learn that being an illegitimate and meeting one’s parent is hard to tackle but that feeling will eventually change once the individual has known their parent. “How dare you think that I want to be in your life! I don’t want you anywhere near us, especially my mother.” is the dialogue that Josie has told Michael when they had their first conversation.
Firstly, being in an Italian in an Australian society has affected Josie in many different ways because the way people view her affects her in the start of the novel because she doesn’t know who she is because she hasn’t developed her cultural identity. Later in the novel, she accepts that she is a ‘wog’ and this affects
One must take careful consideration before acting because the aftermath can lead to a chain of events whose consequences can be disastrous. Nino Ricci’s Lives of the Saints is an excellent example of how the consequences of a persons actions can affect everyone around them, including themselves. First, Cristina makes several choices throughout the novel that not only reflect her thoughtlessness, but her inability to see that it affects people beyond herself. The repercussions of Cristina’s actions demonstrates that she does not take notice that her actions are affecting others. Cristina’s value system is distorted as she is not looking at what is best for her child but rather what is feeling good to her right now. Cristina Innocente is a selfish,
The writer incorporates a lot of repeated names for the characters which made it difficult to distinguish the certain characters a different given times and their connection to Josie in the script. For example, in the beginning, the writer shows Josie in a soon to be ended relationship with
The points that will be discussed to do with the novel I have read called ‘Looking for Alibrandi’ written by Lina Marchetta, will involve me talking about how Josephine Alibrandi being the child of a single mother, Australian, female and being Italian which effects Josephine in all those points. I will be writing about how she copes being a bastard child in an Italian culture and how Josephine’s relationship with her dad is. I will talk about how Josephine being Italian and Australian effects her and why it effects her and I will talk about how Josephine copes being female in an Italian culture and how it effects her personally.
In the final scene in Looking for Alibrandi the theme of the search for identity is portrayed through the resolution of Josie's issue of not feeling like she
The first paragraph evokes the normal and typical structure of the Italian-American immigrant family in this era. In the Vitale family, everyone has their own role. The father, Giovanni Vitale, has the duty of working long hours to provide for his family. The mother, Lisa, has the role of a homemaker, making dinner for the family, and takin...
In the novel Sula, there were other important characters besides Sula. The character in this book I would like to focus on most is Eva Peace. Eva is a woman who has a disability but remains strong, and this will be the focus of this paper since it wasn’t focused on so much in the book.
She believes that no one understands her and that she has had it worse in her family. Her personality could be described as melodramatic, witty, and self-centred. Josephine comes from an Italian background and is raised in a single parent home by her mother Christina Alibrandi. Although Josie’s grandmother Katia Alibrandi lives close by, she is reluctant to visit everyday after school as her grandmother’s nagging, meddling and Italian traditions stifle her.
Josies aspirations reach much farther than that of her families ambitions for her life. It is at this point in time where a classic example of culture clash begins. Josie feels the need to rebel against the stero-typical female in an Italian culture. This determination stems from her education and desire to step away from her Italian life and responsibilities, breaking away not only from her family and their narrow mindedness but also the entire Italian culture. This is a major leap for Josie who aspires to be the first Alibrandi female to take control of her life. This motivation of freedom is strong in Josie and her rebellious ways demonstrate this.
Nina is one of the main characters in this movie and Josie is her best friend. A scene where their friendship is characterized is one where Josie and Nina are riding in a cab. Josie gets upset with Nina (briefly) when she finds out that Nina has had sex with Darius (the other main character) on the first night they went out. The haste in which they have had sex does not bother her as much as the fact that Nina does not tell her. This example is a direct correlation to one of the themes of women?s friendship that intimacy is cultivated through dialogue. This suggest that women build closeness in their friendships dialogue and by Nina not telling, it breaks the code of intimacy in a way. The establishment of a new relationship something like this that is an important part of Nina?s life, and excluding Josie from that is what is troubling her. Even though I do not believe that to be true in this example, that can be argued as a reason Nina doesn?t share.
The novel Sula by Toni Morrison exemplifies the new feminist literature described by Helene Cixous in "The Laugh of the Medusa" because of the final portrayal of the two main characters Nel and Sula. However, it is clear throughout the novel that both Cixous's and Gilbert and Gubar's descriptions of women characters are evident within this novel. The traditional submissive woman figure paradoxically is set against the new woman throughout the novel. It is unclear whether the reader should love or despise Sula for her independence until the very last scene. Although both the perspectives of Cixous and Gilbert/Gubar are evident within the text, ultimately it is the friendship of the two women that prevails and is deemed most important. This prevailing celebration of womanhood in all of its dualistic and mysterious aspects is exactly what Cixous pushes women writers to attempt.