Looking
for
Alibrandi
by Melina Marchetta
BLURB...
“”I’ll run one day. Run for my life. To be free and
think for myself. Not as an Australian and not as an
Italian and not as an in-between. I’ll run to be
emancipated. If society will let me”
Josephine Alibrandi is seventeen, and in her final year of school.
Dealing with her mum and the ways of her Nonna are daunting
enough as she prepares for her exams. But Josie is about to discover
real life gets in the way of her carefully-made plans. She suddenly
has to heal with having her father around for the first time in her
life, falling in love and uncovering her family’s secret background.
Despite all the turmoil, this is the year Josie discovers that
emancipation doesn’t mean escaping from your past. Sometimes
you need to face up to who you are in order to set yourself free…
Ideas to start thinking about the Issues
1. What are three things you would never say to your kids when and if you
become a parent? Give reasons.
2. What are the best and worst things about being male? What are the best
and worst things about being female?
3. What types of cultural pressure have you experienced before? Are there
traditions your parents have that they have tried to pass on to you?
4. What do you think are 5 difficult things about having romantic
relationships at your age?
5. How do you feel about the expectations your parents have of you
academically? Do you think they are reasonable expectations? Do you have
the same expectations of yourself? Explain.
TRUE OR
FALSE...
a) Josie’s parents were
happily married
b) Katia was always a
faithful wife
c) Josie goes to St Martha’s
d) Michael Andretti is
shocked to discover he is
a father
e) Katia was born in
Australia
f) Christina was born in
Italy
VOCABULARY
Match the vocab words with their definitions below (any that are
not defined below are to be defined by you using a dictionary. You
are to write all words and meanings in your books):
regulation, affection, requisite, deliberately, vanity, articulate,
discomfort, meddling, chauvinistic, emancipated
- Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or
kind
- To free from bondage, oppression, or restraint; liberate.
- A principle, rule, or law designed to control or govern conduct. A
rule or order prescribed for management or government
- To intrude into other people's affairs or business; interfere
- Required; essential, necessary
MAIN CHARACTERS
•
•
•
•
•
•
JOSIE ALIBRANDI
CHRISTINA ALIBRANDI
KATIA ALIBRANDI
MICHAEL ANDRETTI
JACOB COOTE
JOHN BARTON
JOSIE ALIBRANDI
• Seventeen years old
• Scholarship student at a prestigious
Catholic girls’ school and vice-captain
• Intelligent
and her ambition is to be a barrister
• She thinks that she needs to escape her Italian
heritage
• Raised solely by her mother, Christina
• Opinionated and passionate
• Has a competitive, potentially romantic relationship
with John Barton
• Jacob Coote is her first boyfriend
Christina ALIBRANDI
• Josie Alibrandi’s Mama and Katia’s
daughter
• At 16 had a secret relationship with Michael
Andretti which resulted in Josie
• Raised Josie as a single mother and sacrificed her
own ambitions
• Ignored and mistreated by her father, Francesco
Alibrandi
• Has worked hard and purchased their house in
Glebe
• Is a strict, caring mother who insists on high
standards of behaviour for her only child
KATIA ALIBRANDI
• Josie Alibrandi’s Nonna and
Christina Alibrandi’s Mama
• Married to Francesco Alibrandi
and was treated cruelly by him
• Had a secret relationship with Marcus Sandford
• Opinionated
• Concerned
and passionate
with others’ opinions of her and her
family
• Katia and Josie fight over many issues
MICHAEL ANDRETTI
• Josie Alibrandi’s father
• At 16 had a secret relationship
with Christina that resulted in
the birth of Josie
• Is a successful barrister and works in a prestigious
firm. Has recently returned from Adelaide
• Assumed that Christina had not proceeded with the
pregnancy and was unaware of Josie’s existence
• Does not want to be a father when he is first told
about Josie
• Gradually becomes a part of Josie’s life and
accepted by her as a father
JACOB COOTE
• Josie Alibrandi’s first real
boyfriend
• Attends Cook high and has
‘street cred’
• Has a working-class background
• Mother
• Rides
died when he was young
a motorcycle
• Is sometimes racist and hostile
JOHN BARTON
• Son of a government minister
• Wealthy upper-class background
• Is
extremely unhappy and feels
pressured to be ‘what he is not’
• Good looking and popular
• Josie’s
friend and competitor
• Commits suicide
KEY IDEAS AND THEMES
A theme is a fundamental and universal issue
explored in a text.
BRAINSTORM themes in Looking for Alibrandi.
• PERSONAL IDENTITY
• CULTURE AND
TRADITION
• PRESSURE OF
EXPECTATIONS
• DESTINY
•PRIVILEGE AND
STATUS
•LOVE
•FAMILY AND
RELATIONSHIPS