A Journey of Discovery in Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

“My mother was born here so as far as the Italians were concerned we weren’t completely one of them. Yet because my grandparents were born in Italy we weren’t completely Australian.” (p. 7) “It makes me feel I will never be a part of their society and I hate that because I’m just as smart as they are.” (p. 8) “The room isn’t like the living rooms of my parents… but I like it. Because my mother and I are stamped all over it.” (p. 10) “Telecom would go broke if it weren’t for the Italians.” (p. 11) “We tune into each other very well. Maybe because it’s always just been the two of us.” (p. 14) “Sometimes I think he is a myth. As far as the world is

Mai’s fear of losing the memories of her family leads her to realize the significance of her life and ultimately the possibility of losing her understanding.

Melina Marchetta conveys the theme of family and relationships through dialogue. Josie and her mother, Christina relationship can be described as good mother and daughter relationship.

The story is about Josie Moraine, living in the French Quarter of New Orleans and wants a new life away from New Orleans. Josie dreams of going to college in the East, where nobody knows her. Josie's mom is a prostitute and has never been a good mother to Josie. Josie is very ashamed of her mother and embarrassed because she is a prostitute.

inconsistency in her beliefs. Majorly, nearing the end of her life, she begins to regret all her deeds of which

Josie's father, Michael Andretti has an important contribution to Josie's changing perspectives. At first meeting he was not a great priority to Josie as she did not really think about him. When Josie's mother tells her about Michael Andrettie's arrival, she reacts to the issue calmly as she says "It's not a big deal, we can handle it". Her mother is worried and nervous and Josie is not really concerned at the time. Josie later says sarcastically that "…This year is just starting off perfectly…You know I never thought for a second that I'll actually meet my father, they all seem pretty useless to me". This is said at the school gate where the focus is on the fathers who drop their daughters at school. Josie is confused and is angry as she says "At St. Martha's, its all about money, prestige, and what your father does for living". This creates contrast between what is important at her school and what Josie has in her life. She is at first angry at her father and she's annoyed to see him get close to the family. She ironically says "Who does he think he is? Part of the family?" Josie confronts her father about her existence; she wants him to take notice of her. She says "be rude, or be angry but don't pretend I'm not here", her tone of speech is very discourteous and through this she expresses her feelings very clearly. The

As the story progresses, the theme changes from being comical to being violent. Also, the reader's perception of the grandmother becomes more intense . As O'Connor said, "[t]here is a change of tension from the first part of the story to the second where the Misfit enters, but this is no lessening of reality" ("On" 176). The presence of the Misfit causes the story to become more of a mystery; therefore, the actions of the grandmother also become a mystery because the reader doesn't know what to expect from her. It is a surprise to the reader to find the grandmother become so sincere. The grandmother tries many traditional methods to keep the Misfit from killing

Josie introduced to the reader through the use of first person narration. At the start of Looking for Alibrandi, Josie was in her class room reading “Hot Pants Magazine” then Sister Gregory then caught her out, Josie quickly got herself out of a bad situation by creating

After spending time with her elderly relative, the girl sees that the worst thing you could do to another person “is to make them feel as if they are worth nothing” (Ortiz 3). This ordeal causes her to learn that what she says and how she behaves could be hurtful and upsetting to others. Because of this event, Connie would most likely become more thoughtful of them. In addition, the teen starts “to consider a number [she] hadn’t thought much about” (Ortiz 3) and begins to understand Abuela better. The girl feels terrible and sorry since she had made her grandmother feel like she was worthless. Zero becomes a more significant number to her life, and she realizes that she should not act towards others like she had. In conclusion, Constancia’s experiences with her grandparent made her more mature and considerate, changing her self-centered

Lastly, her family betrayed her by not listening to her side of the story after her sister told lies about her, and they betrayed her when they acted as if they did not care if she moved out of the house. In all of these actions, the family itself and certain members of the family are portrayed as uncaring, unsupportive, disrespectful, conniving, deceitful, and hateful to Sister. Through every action of the family, Sister is treated harshly, and she tries to not let this bother her. Yet, anger and bitterness build up inside of her until she cannot take it anymore. Consequently, it built up so much inside of her that it severely affected Sister so profoundly that she moved away from her home to get away from her family.

In the novel “looking for Alibrandi, written by Melina Marchetta,” there are many different situations and feelings that Josephine Alibrandi goes through, in order to figure out who she really is as a person. Josie also has to deal with the normal up and down roller coaster ride of being a teenage girl. At the end of her journey she has very different views on certain topics to the original thoughts that she had at the beginning. Josephine has to cope with different aspects of peer pressure, religion, sexuality, illegitimacy but also family relationships and secrets and death. She finds out a lot more about herself and her family and friends than she

Doing so, she uses her grandchildren as a ploy to get her way, setting aside the wishes of her family. Speaking to O’Connor’s mother’s self centered behavior and lack of care for others, even in the face of adversity.

Ingrid Barthelemy Professor Floridia English 102-3188 Literature & Composition 22 October 2014 The Benefits and Backlash of a Black Education in Walker’s “Everyday Use” In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” she uses her characters and descriptive words to demonstrate the differences between the uneducated Southern African-Americans with oppressive mindsets of slavery versus progressive African-Americans who get educated and “make something” of themselves (82). Through her use of simple language, adjectives, and lack luster descriptive words for the uneducated characters she gives us a clear picture of plain boring and boring existence. With Walker’s use of more complex words, richer adjectives, beautiful descriptions of clothing, very

Through character development, the story also portrays the theme of escaping the past. Sethe’s actions are influenced heavily by her dead child, Beloved. When the “human” form of Beloved arrives while sleeping

After the trip that her and her father took, Fermina is experiencing disillusionment with the idea of marrying Florentino. Thinking the relationship that her and Florentino had makes her question how long it could have lasted this long and the excitement of being involved in forbidden love had worn off. The disengagement was abrupt and unexplained in the moment, but is representative of her mature before and after the trip with Lorenzo