How Does Looking For Alibrandi Change Throughout The Novel

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta is about a 17 year old young girl called Josephine “Josie” Alibrandi who is in her final year of school at a wealthy Catholic school. Josie is Italian and Illegitimate, throughout the novel she finds faces some challenges such as finding out most of her family secrets and her father coming back into her life. Looking for Alibrandi deals with many themes such as family and relationships, secret and lies and emancipation. These themes are expressed through the use of literary techniques such as first person narration, dialogue and characterisation.

Sixteen-year-old Lina Emerson, the main character, had recently moved to Italy to live with her unmentioned father. This new experience consists of gelato, the beautiful Italy scenery, and a significant life lesson. It was her mother’s dying wish for her to move to Tuscany, Italy to finally get to know her father. Reluctantly, she agreed to go for a short period of time over the

As a child, he was not loved by his mother. She prefered her cat to her own son. Junior saw this at an early age and “spent some happy moments watching it suffer” (86). Junior locked Pecola in a room, becoming the perpetrator with the same turn of attitude as Cholly. When he saw that the cat liked Pecola, he threw the cat, killing it, because the thing his mother loved more than himself loved her. Pecola’s wish could be paralleled to the cat. It had blue eyes, and was loved dearly by someone, which could explain the attention she gave to the cat. Junior even said, “Gimme my cat! (90). Up to this point, he wanted nothing to do with the cat and even tortured it, but with it being the only connection to his mother, he called it his own. Pecola’s dream, or having the same attention as the cat, was killed when the cat was killed. Junior was not loved by his mother, only taken care of to live. She did not “allow her baby, Junior, to cry…[she] did not talk to him, coo to him, or indulge him in kissing bouts” (86). This unlove for her family caused Junior to be victimized, and then alter his ways, and become the perpetrator. Pecola is the victim in the rage of Junior, only because his mother did not love him. She wanted someone to be kind to her, and love her, but that was only met with

Josephine’s relationships with Michael, Katia and Jacob develop throughout the film. How and why do these relationships change?

The reader cannot help but feel the burden the daughter will be sharing with the mother. And while the plight of the mother is real, the reader cannot ignore how the isolation and loneliness of this type of community, or lack there of, has effected Tome's judgment in mothering.

The novel looking for alibrandi by Melena Marchetta is about Josephine Alibrandi, a catholic girl, in her final year of high school. As the year progresses Josie alters her perspective on many issues including family, the importance of social standing and wealth, own identity and culture. All these changes in perspective from different events in her final year has brought change to Josie.

Toni Morrison’s Sula revolves around the relationship of her two main characters, Sula and Nel. The childhood friends grow apart with age. Although it is indicated that their friendship is the most important relationship they participate in, they eventually betray each other and lead dishonest lives. Throughout the novel, we see their constantly deteriorating relationship as a result of absence of a family life. Sula is a novel about the influence family may have on the make up of someone’s personality. In particular, the novel examines the effect parents can have on their children and the conscious effort the main characters make to be unlike their mothers.

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

No matter how ugly, mean, pitiful one can be, the family is always meant to support, raise, guide, nurture and be a means of inspiration in anyone’s life. In the novel, this isn’t the case for Pecola, which is why she gets mentally unstable as she couldn’t bear the torture of ugliness of not having blue eyes. Blue eyes are the one and only reason she could blame as per to her ability and thought process. In fact, she doesn’t get the real ugliness of how her father rapes her, the ugliness of how the mother choose the white girl over her, the ugliness of the fights between her parents is coming from their unpleasant past. After all, she doesn’t have that mentor in her life to explain what was happening. Everybody in her family is occupied with their own mindset. She is very young to understand and analyze on her own. The narrator Claudia even gets to compare between her and Pecola and starts accepting life and feel blessed for having a supportive family, which she doesn’t feel until Pecola enters in her life. So, this shows how young kids psychology is totally built upon the type of family environment she/he gets. There is a saying that young kids are like a raw clay ready to be shaped into the different form of objects by the potter. Undoubtedly, it stands so true. Indeed, kids shape themselves according to the type of environment they grow up with. By all means, Pecola’s family is the

The characterizations of Connie’s family members have great effects on Connie. And onnie’s mother’s characterization is the main motivator for Connie’s rebellion. She always compares Connie with June, who is the “ideal daughter” in her eyes, and blames Connie for some little things, such as improper dressing and not having a tidy room. Oates suggests that the reason for Connie’s mother prohibiting Connie to dress up like an adult is that “ Her mother had been pretty once too” (Oates 1), but now “her looks were gone and that was why she always after Connie” (Oates 1). Therefore, she is jealous about Connie’s beauty and feels uncomfortable when seeing Connie wear beautiful outfits. Meanwhile, she likes June so much because June is obedient and plain, which makes her feel that she is dominant in the relationship. In the short story, Connie’s father is not given much description by the author, but his characterization has an effect on Connie as well. The irresponsible father spends little time with family and seldom has conversations to his daughters. When hearing his wife’s complain about Connie, he just bends his head with saying nothing, which makes Connie feels ignored and lonely. Urbanski states that “The father, who spent most of his time at work, is weak” (Urbanski 200) to reveals the father is not an active figure in his daughter’s life. Therefore, lacking of the company and communication of family members, Connie becomes upset. In addition, Connie’s sister June, who has the opposite characterization, is also one of the reasons for Connie’s rebellion. In Connie’s eyes, June is a

Jeannette’s family is not your average American family. Her father was a raging alcoholic who lost too many jobs to count and her mother was an adrenaline addicted painter, who never wanted to work

The mother/daughter relationship between Mrs. MacTeer and her two daughters, Claudia and Frieda, is loving and strong. They are taught their own self-worth through their mother’s strength and example, although this love isn’t fully appreciated by the girls until they are older. During Claudia’s illness, she is treated with a mixture of concern and anger. Although Claudia is scolded and her mother complains of cleaning her vomit, at the same time her mother is nursing her, giving her medicine, and checking on her throughout the night. Claudia discovers later that her mother’s anger is not directed at her, but at the world, as she must raise her black family in a world ruled by white culture. She protects her children and equips them for survival in a hostile environment.

She also has to deal with not having a father and how that has affected her school life. “I think I had it worst. My mother was born here so as far as Italians we weren’t one of them. Yet because my grandparents were born in Italy we weren’t completely Australian.” P 7 This

Michael started laughing because he knows that it's him. He did not tell Christina that Frances is his wife. Michael and Christina talk as if they are best friends. While Michael and Christina on Fifth Avenue talking, Frances is at home packing up his clothes. Frances started talking to herself about all the things she does for Michael.

The girl distrusts her mother and believes her to be out of touch, while helping her father in "his real work" (468). Surprisingly, the girl's desire to avoid the manifestation of her femininity in womanly tasks, such as cooking and cleaning, influences her into feeling that her mother is "plotting now to get [her] to stay in the house [. . ]. and keep [her] from working for [her] father" (469). The girl chooses to dismiss her mother, thereby dismissing her own future role as a housewife.