Looking For Alibrandi
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# Literary Elements
- Genre
- Bildungsroman - A novel dealing with one person’s formative years or spiritual education
- Setting and Context - 1990s Sydney
- Narrator and Point of View
- 1st Person POV
- Allows us to see Josie’s perspective
- We can see the changes in her perspective on life, as she learns throughout various events in the novel
- Tone and Mood
- The tone varies throughout the novel
- The ending has a happy and hopeful tone as Josie is excited to move forward with her life
- The mood of the novel is mostly light-hearted and comedic, cut with moments of seriousness and gravity
# Quotes
‘I think things got worse when I started at St. Martha’s because I began to understand what the absence of a father meant. Also there were no Europeans like me. No Europeans who didn’t have money to back them up. The ones like me didn’t belong in the eastern and northern suburbs.’
‘Even though the girls at St. Martha’s don’t mention it, I bet you they’re talking about me behind my back … It makes me feel I will never be a part of their society’
No matter how much I hate Poison Ivy, I want to belong to her world. The world of sleek haircuts and upper-class privileges. People who know famous people and lead educated lives. A world where I can be accepted.’
“But what’s the big deal? Everyone has babies without being married these days. Everyone lives together and gets remarried,” he said, turning on his side. I shook my head. “I can’t explain it to you. I can’t even explain it to myself. We live in the same country, but we’re different. What’s taboo for Italians isn’t taboo for Australians. People just talk, and if it doesn’t hurt you, it hurts your mother or your grandmother or someone you care about.”
‘Tomato Day. Oh God, if anyone ever found out about it I’d die. … I can’t understand why we can’t go to Franklin’s and buy Leggo’s or Paul Newman’s special sauce. Nonna had heart failure at this suggestion and looked at Mama. “Where is the culture?” she asked in dismay. “She’s going to grow up, marry an Australian and her children will eat fish and chips.”
‘I’ve figured out that it doesn’t matter whether I’m Josephine Andretti who was never an Alibrandi, who should have been a Sandford and who may never be a Coote. It matters who I feel like I am—and I feel like Michael and Christina’s daughter and Katia’s granddaughter; Sera, Anna, and Lee’s friend, and Robert’s cousin.’