Looking For Alibrandi Theme Analysis

One particular aspect that stood out to me in this book was themes used and how they were developed throughout the book. The two main themes within this novel was the idea of belonging and feeling out of place, these themes are very much evident in the real world thus reflecting our own doubts and thoughts in our everyday life. In Looking for Alibrandi, Josie feels that she isn’t accepted in Australian society especially after gaining a scholarship into an expensive upper class school her feelings reach a heightened stage where she feels even more isolated because of her cultural and social status differentiations within her classmates. Since her previous school in Balmain had more people that were Italian she was not used to having her classmates …show more content…
Josie is an illegitimate child and her mother (Christina) often clashes with Nonna after being ostracized by the Italian community after Josie’s birth as Nonna has a more traditional and conservative mindset which restricts many of the ‘normal’ things Josie wants to do to fit in. Josie despises Nonna at the beginning of the book and finds her vexing “I was force-fed when I arrived. Force-fed like every afternoon of my life” page 34, she blames the problems of her isolation on her illegitimacy and Italian family and heritage stating that she was cursed to never belong from the start. Her mix of Australian and Italian background invokes her belief that she will never truly belong as she was not fully Italian or fully Australian. Towards the end of the novel Josie discovers a secret that Nonna had kept for over 17 years, Nonna’s relationship with Marcus Sandford who was a policeman and army officer who was in love with Nonna in the 1940’s when it was considered inappropriate for Italians to mix with Australians Nonna reveals that the relationship went further than just love, they had an illegitimate child which was Christina (Josie’s

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