“The only journey is the one within.” (Rainer Maria Rilke) Why do teenagers love novels on the adolescent mind or the coming of age story or an individual finding their way you may ask? The only thing in common in all these different themes is relatability to every one of those teenagers. Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta the recipient of The Children’s Book of the Year and the Bilby Award; the relatable story of Josie a seventeen-year-old as she goes on her path of self-discovery in her final year of school. As Marchetta asks the questions of Who am I? Where am I? Where am, I going? How do I get there? Her inquisition are the questions that all teenagers ask in their journey to find their way like Josie as she looks for Alibrandi or herself.
Marchetta uses her Italian heritage to capture the effects of ethnicity, pressure, family issues and growing up on Josie throughout her journey. The realistic, relatable and relevant use of racism and ethnic separation as Josie is caught between two cultures. As she fights her culture and her oppressive, deceptive and traditional grandmother. Her search for freedom and acceptance carries through the end as she matures. As she changes her perception of her grandmother from having “no respect for…
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As Josie handle the pressures of high school compared to the contrast of John Barton (her former love interest) who takes his life as pressure consumes him. But it is the resilience and strength Josie shows in the darkest situation of his death defines the coming of age metaphor. “‘There’s nothing to look forward to if you don’t have any dreams,’ he [Jacob] said. ‘Because dreams are goals and John might have run out of goals. So he died. But we’re alive… [there’s] something to look forward to” (pg. 239) She merely treats it as an obstacle and continues on her quest to self-discovery as she learns from his heartfelt
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 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.
The madrigal is a distinctive type of secular song that originated in Italy. It was an aristocratic form of poetry and music that flourished at small Italian courts. In the piece, Cruda Amarilli, Monteverdi uses many musical devices that are typical of a madrigal. The lyrics in this song are repeated, the music accompanies the text in interesting ways, and there is a wide range of vocal notes. After listening to the piece just once you can immediately feel the unrequited love Monteverdi is displaying through his words and music. The music and instrumentation in this piece aid the voices to establish form and mood through word painting. He uses word painting and cadences to develop a theme of unrequited love.
Melina Marchetta's "looking for Alibrandi" is a story which resembles change internally and externally. In her final school year, Josephine Alibrandi is confused and angry. She is continuously confronted by issues that question who she is as her true sense of identity is clouded. In the beginning, Josie's attitude to the world is negative as she feels burdened by her Italian ancestry, her social status and the fact that she is illegitimate. She sees these factors as great obstacles in her life that make her an
The theme of the novel is to not follow the crowd, because it may lead you into the wrong direction. Truly followed the populars and dropped her friends who “saved her in the 6th grade.” This teaches middle school girls to have more
In the short stories, “Saving Sourdi,” by May-Lee Chai and “The Moths,” by Helena Maria Viramontes, the main character of each short story goes through their own coming of age experience where they are forced to mature in order to overcome an obstacle. Chai explains her main character, Nea’s, struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the departure of her older sister, Sourdi, from her life after she gets married and moves away. Viramontes, on the other hand, depicts her narrator’s struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the death of her Abuelita on her own. Despite their very different approaches, both Chai and Viramontes successfully convey their main character 's struggles in their journey from youth to adulthood.
Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Machetta is about a seventeen year old girl named Josephine “Josie” Alibrandi who was raised without a father. Josie believed that her mother was the only person she needed in her life, until she came face to face with her father Michael Andretti and fell in love with Jacob Coote. Melina Marchetta uses the literary techniques of first person narration, dialogue and characterisation to explore the idea of Josie struggling to find her identity.
Adolescence, the part of life we are most willing to forget. The awkward years of being stuck between, not yet an adult but certainly not a child. These years, however awful they maybe, are essential to the character that later develops. During adolescence we make decisions that shape the course of our life, from the personal interactions between friends and family to the academic decisions that impact future career, choices you make as a young adult impact you forever. Partially due to the importance of these short few years, it is not surprising how often children can make poor choices that derail their entire life. Increasing at startling frequency, these stories foretell of a dismal future. Due to this cautionary tales of adolescence have been rising in pop-culture. One of these is “Where are you going? Where have you been? By Carol Joyce Oates. This story tells of Connie, a young adult trying to make the leap to adulthood. Connie in her attempt to breach the gap ends up in drawing attention of Arnold Friend sealing the fate of her poorly executed coming of age. Connies ill fated coming of age in “Where have you been? Where are you going?” by Carol Joyce Oates acts as a cautionary tale about modern perils of adolescence.
Psychologists usually agree that the teenage years are among the most difficult periods in one’s life. Most teens are trying to figure who they are, what they believe, and how they fit into the world around them. Beginning in the late 1970’s, a whole genre of fiction, referred to as coming-of- age literature, emerged and serves, at least for many teens, as believable presentations of young people learning to navigate the difficulties of their lives, often fraught with feelings of rejection, seemingly unresolvable personal turmoil, social problems, school and family issues, etc. Indeed one value of reading is to see and better understand some aspects of ourselves through studying others. The reading of SPEAK, a somewhat controversial
In many cultures, coming of age is often celebrated because children become young adults who grasp self-awareness and accountability. At the same time, childhood is threatened by responsibility, which is dreaded because there is an unpredictable world of adulthood waiting with no guarantees. James Hurst demonstrates the journey of growing up through life experiences everyone goes through in the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”. Throughout his use of mood, setting, and symbolism, Hurst shows that maturing requires reflecting on past experiences and losing innocence, which then can transform one’s outlook on life.
In western Australian author Tim Winton’s book, The Turning, the large collection of short stories are aimed towards teenagers and other people who have been teenagers. This is so, because each story uses a similar theme to do with finishing high school, how people decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives and the character’s journeys along the way.
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
Junior’s discovery of identity and place within his world is a predominant theme in the novel and one with which teens can relate; however, several other young adult characteristics and developmental issues are addressed as well. Junior and his peers are experiencing a time of rapid physical, hormonal and cognitive development as are the most likely readers of the book. Like many adolescent girls, Penelope is concerned with her body appearance and popularity. She is a bulimic attempting to keep up her “pretty and smart and popular” (108) image. Junior is concerned with appearances in a more internal way - hiding his
Psychologists usually agree that the teenage years are among the most difficult periods in one’s life. Most teens are trying to figure out who they are, what they believe, and how they fit into the world around them. Beginning in the late 1970’s, a whole genre of fiction, referred to as coming-of-age literature, emerged and serves, at least for many teens, as believable presentations of young people learning to navigate the difficulties of their lives, often fraught with feelings of rejection, seemingly unresolvable personal turmoil, social problems, school and family issues, etc. Indeed one value of reading is to see and better understand some aspect of ourselves through studying others. The reading of SPEAK, a somewhat controversial book
Roy Conli once said “When you're telling a story, the best stories, every character has an arc. Every one. And that arc is usually about finding yourself, or about at least finding something about yourself that you didn't know.” This is a prevalent theme in many examples of Young Adult Literature (YAL or YA). Three books that demonstrate the critical transformation between childhood and adulthood by exploring difficult social issues, finding personal identity, and letting go are a Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton, and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.