Looking For Alibrandi Essay

At the start of Looking for Alibrandi, by Melina Marchetta we are introduced to a seventeen year old girl by the name of Josephine Josie Alibrandi, who is in her last year of senior high school. By the end of the book it is made obvious that Josephine has g nonpareil through many dramatic and alpha changes, including achieving her emancipation, disc all overing her family secret, accepting her culture, and meeting, and having a kindred with her catch, Michael Andretti. All of these changes, and others, help to shape the character of Josephine Alibrandi. Throughout the year, Josephine talks of absentminded to achieve her emancipation. Ill run one day. Run for my life. To be free and think for myself. Not as an Australian and non as an Italian and not as an in-between. Ill run to be emancipated. (pg40). Josie too wants to be free to make her own decisions, and she doesnt want to armorial bearing about what others are saying, handle she does now. JosieMarco Andretti (left 26) and his father Michael AAndretti Autosport (then Andretti Green Racing) owAt the same time, she realises that she plundert escape everything. If my society go forth let me. (pg40). Josie thinks that part of her emancipation is to be free of her Italian background, which is not possible, because it will always be a part of her. She believes that it may stop her from achieving her emancipation. Soon Josie realised that the only thing that was stopping her emancipation was herself. Relief because I was finally number one to feel free. From whom? Myself, I think. (pg221). Josie realises that she is holding herself back from what she really wants, still she isnt sure whether she wants to fight for it or not. When conjuring trick Barton died, she came to a decision. I remembered when we spoke about achieving our emancipation. The aversion is that he had to die to achieve his.The beauty is that Im living to achieve mine. (pg240). Josie believes in struggle for her emancipation. By the end of the year, Josie realises that she has already achieved her emancipation. I just sat there thinking back over the year and I realised that I was emancipated enormous ago. It wasnt at one grumpy point either, it was at several. (pg258). At the Walk-a-thon, for example, Josie realised that leaving the walk-a-thon to go with her friends was wrong. I was wrong, I thought to myself. I honestly believed it. Not because Sister Louise told me so or because she made me believe I was. I knew fatheaded down that I waswrong and I think that my emancipation began at that moment. (pg185). Events such as these take aim to her emancipation, letting Josie feel free. At the beginning of the year Josie doesnt have a good relationship with her Nonna, Katia. As the year goes on, they sign closer, and it is through this closeness that Josie learns of Katias secret, that her produces biological father is not her Nonno Francesco, only is in fact, Marcus Sandford, an Australian man that Kat ia was friends with.Josie first learns of Marcus after having a fight with her mother Christina. She later finds out that he was an Australian policeman who helped Katia during the war. Katias sister Patrizia was very thankful towards him for his help, still Josie could tell that Katia thought of him as more than another pair of hands. At Christinas birthday society Josie realises that it was impossible for Francesco to be Christinas father, because he was away for the holidays. Josie then has an argument with Katia about this, and runs out of the house. Im not quite sure why I hate Marcus Sandford and Nonna for what they did. I had thought their invoice was romantic. I had thought that nothing had happened. It was comparable he was a myth I could always stargaze about. My mother, though, is the reality. Her reality was living with a man who detested her for something her mother did. (pg218).After realising that she was no longer aggravated at Katia, Josie goes to talk to her, and appreciates that staying with Francesco, instead of going with Marcus, was only for Christinas benefit, not her own. Those years without Christina or you when you were a baby were my punishment. (pg226). Josie take ins the pain Katia went through, and sleep togethers that Katia loves her, and Christina, more than anything else. Josie has always disclosen her Italian culture and heritage as a burden, exclusively as the year progresses, she gains a greater understanding of it, and ultimately accepts that its part in her life. From the beginning of the year, and perhaps before then, Josie thinks of her culture as something that will hold her back from being what she wants to be, and doing what she wants to do. She also sees it as the thing that keeps her from being like the others at her school.I think if it comes down to the bottom line, no liaison how smart I am, or how oft I achieve, I am always going to be a little ethnic from Glebe as far as these people are concerned. (pg167). She later realises that she can never get away from it. simply because like religion, culture is nailed into you, so deep you cant escape it. No subject fieldhow far you run. (pg175). Josie knows that her culture is a part of her being, it plays a part as to her appearance, and how she looks at life. As she spends more time learning and understanding her family, in particular Katia, she sees her culture not as a burden, but as a gift, something that sets her apart from everyone else. She gains an understanding that her culture is just one of Australias many. Well, Im not sure whether everyone in this country will ever understand multiculturalism and that saddens me, because its as much a part of Australian life as football and pump pies. (pg258).She knows that some people will never accept her, and shes okay with that. I didnt care what they thought and I even began to doubt that anyone, give or take a few gossips like Sera, gave a damn either. I thought of Michael and my mother, who didnt seem to worry about peoples opinions. And by the looks of things, Nonna didnt have the right to. Jacob didnt give a damn who I was either, John accepted me the way I was and Lee and Anna had never made me feel different. So that covered all the authoritative people and Id be a pretentious hypocrite if others were more classic to me than those who loved me. (pg220). Josie knows that culture will change peoples minds about her, but as long as it doesnt matter to the people she loves, then it doesnt matter to her either. Josie experiences an unusual thing in her year, meeting her father Michael Andretti for the first time, and having a relationship with him.She has known about him all of her life, and at first, when he moves to Sydney, she doesnt want anything to do with him. When she finally meets him at Katias she becomes emotionally overwhelmed, and cant deliver him. After a fight with Carly Bishop, resulting in a broken nose, Josie decided to call him. As much as Josie would like to keep on ignoring him, she needs his help. My father is a barrister. Ill call him, I said calmly. (pg84). When he comes and helps her, she accepts him as her father. Soon after that, Michael decided that he would like to know Josie, and they begin a relationship. As time goes on, Josie and Michael get closer, and they go away together to Adelaide. During this time, the two get closer. Im still shocked by how fast things are going between us. sestet months ago I hadnt met my father and I didnt want to.These days I see him three times a week and the days I dont see him he rings me. Somehow weve developed a great relationship. (pg156). Near the end of the year Josie finds out that Michael is staying in Sydney, and Josie is ecstatic,and spends more and more time with him, even going as far as calling him soda water But I love Michael Andretti more and more every day. I love him double to what I did maybe a month ago, yet I see his faults now too. (pg259). Althoug h Josie started the year not sagacious her father, Michael Andretti easily moved into the role, providing Josie with a complete, loving family. Throughout the year Josie went through many changes and developments, caused by important events in her life.Some things happened that she expected, like her emancipation, and some things that happened that she didnt really expect, like accepting her culture. Josie got something she didnt want, her family secret, but got something better, her relationship with her dad. Josie finally realised exactly who she was, and understands where she fits into the lives around her. Ive figured out that it doesnt matter whether Im 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 Christinas daughter and Katias granddaughter Sera, Anna and Lees friend and Roberts cousin. You know, a wonderful thing happened to me when I reflected back on my year. One day came. Because finally I understood. (pg260).