Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Looking for Alibrandi, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family
Identity, Freedom, and Coming of Age
The Immigrant Experience
Gossip and Appearances
Social Status and Wealth
Love and Relationships
Summary
Analysis
Josie studies the multiple-choice question in front of her in a panic—she doesn’t want to get it wrong. Before she can decide whether answer B or answer C is correct, Sister Gregory asks what Josie is reading. (Josie vowed to be “a saint” this year, but she’s always known she’d fail—just not on the first day.) Sister Gregory asks Josie to read it out loud. From Hot Pants magazine, Josie reads her test question: if a friend’s boyfriend “tries to make a pass” at a party, what do you do? Sister Gregory asks what this has to do with her religion class.
Josie shows in the novel’s introduction that she’s trying very hard to fit in with a certain kind of ideal. She wants to be a “saint,” but she also wants to be the sort of person who knows what to do when her friend’s boyfriend hits on her. Her tone suggests that these two identities are at odds with each other: being a “saint,” she implies, means paying attention in class, which Josie clearly isn’t doing.
Themes
Josie sputters for a moment and then says this has a lot to do with how today’s influences “affect our Christian lives.” The magazine is “rubbish” that insults’ teens intelligence—and Josie wants to talk about how the magazine exploits its teen readers. Sister Gregory takes the magazine just before the bell rings. On the way out of class, Josie’s friend Sera reminds Josie that she owes her a new magazine now, and another friend, Lee, wonders which answer she’d choose. Josie tells herself again to try to be a saint.
Josie’s response is humorous, but it shows that she’s adept at making a show of navigating these two different worlds (the one in which she’s a saint and the other in which she’s popular and attractive to boys). The fact that Sister Gregory seems to see right through this and confiscates the magazine anyway again shows that Josie might be fighting a losing battle.
Themes
Josie introduces herself: her full name is Josephine Alibrandi and she recently turned 17. She attends St. Martha’s, lives in a Sydney suburb called Glebe, and as this is her final year in school, she’s gearing up for the HSC (High School Certificate) tests. The HSC determines whether students will be successful or not. But for Josie, the HSC isn’t her biggest problem. She has lots of problems, but Mama naively tells her not to worry. She and Mama live in the lower-class part of Glebe, in a two-story house that Mama owns. Josie and Mama have a good relationship; one minute they’re fine and the next they’re screaming at each other.
It's telling that the HSC isn’t Josie’s biggest problem, though she doesn’t say outright what her problems actually are. This suggests that out of all the things that might make Josie’s life difficult, excelling in school isn’t high on the list—perhaps because academia comes easily to her, or because her other problems are just much more pressing. Then, when Josie describes her relationship with Mama as good despite the fact that they seem to fight often, it suggests that it’s normal for Josie to be in relationships with a lot of emotion and conflict.
Themes
Mama works as a secretary and translator for doctors’ offices, which means that Josie has to go to her Nonna’s house after school. Mama is strict and Nonna is too, but Mama and Nonna fight constantly—and if Josie joins in, the fights get heated. Josie doesn’t get to go out a lot, which is a huge problem. Even worse, though, is the fact that she attends school with mostly rich students, many of whom are Anglo-Saxon Australians. They don’t have any problems. There are also rich Europeans, who save the money they make as laborers or grocers to send their kids to fancy schools.
Again, Josie suggests that it’s normal for her to constantly be in conflict with loved ones like Mama and Nonna. Revealing that her biggest problem is her wealthy classmates shows that Josie is very concerned with a person’s economic status. This also implies that Josie isn’t wealthy. Because of the first-person narration, definitive statements—like that Josie’s wealthy classmates don’t have problems—reflect Josie’s personal perception and thus are not necessarily fact. Josie is an unreliable narrator.
Themes
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Josie, though, is on a scholarship. She’s always felt disadvantaged, maybe because she didn’t go to the same primary school as her new classmates. Her old friends were Italian and Greek and knew about having strict parents. Everything is worse because Mama was born here, while Nonna was born in Italy, so Josie isn’t really Australian or Italian. Mama is also unmarried; she slept with a boy when she was 16 and he promptly moved to Adelaide and became a barrister (lawyer). Everything got worse at St. Martha’s, because Josie finally understood what it meant to be illegitimate—and there are no other girls like Josie. Josie is certain that people still talk about her not having a father.
Josie defines herself as an underdog and an outsider. While her classmates can afford St. Martha’s tuition, she’s there on a scholarship—and she seems to imply that this makes her less deserving than her classmates, even if she earned her right to be at St. Martha’s. And in Josie’s personal life, she also feels lesser because she was born out of wedlock. Again, when Josie says she’s sure people talk about her being illegitimate, it’s hard to know if this is true or not—Josie might just be self-conscious about it.
Themes
After school, Josie gets her magazine from Sister Louise, the principal of St. Martha’s, and then takes the bus home instead of to Nonna’s. The HSC is going to be a great excuse to not have to see Nonna this year. It’s scorching hot, so Josie changes into comfortable clothes to do homework. Mama comes home later, looking worried. They exchange good-natured insults and when Mama asks, Josie wails that she’s studying and couldn’t make dinner. Josie accuses Mama of having visited Nonna; she’s always in a bad mood after she visits Nonna. Mama heard about what happened last week—someone saw Josie and her friends driving around in skimpy clothes, something that Josie isn’t supposed to do. Mama growls for Josie to set the table.
It doesn’t seem like either Josie or Mama have a good relationship with Nonna. Neither of them seem to enjoy spending time with her, and Josie makes it seem like Mama is never in a good mood after spending time with her mother. The revelation that Josie was driving around in skimpy clothes last week shows again how Josie is failing at being a “saint.” She may say she wants to be good and focus on school (especially if school is an excuse not to have to see Nonna), but it seems that Josie only throws herself into being totally good when it’s convenient.
Themes
Mama and Josie eat dinner quietly until Josie asks what else Nonna had to say today. Mama says Nonna had guests, but asks Josie about her day instead of elaborating. Then, she asks Josie if she’d like to go on vacation for Easter. This must mean something is wrong—Josie asks to go on vacation every year, but they never do. Josie shouts that she doesn’t want to go. Later that night, Josie leaps out of bed, bursts into Mama’s room, and yells that Mama must have cancer. Mama assures Josie that she doesn’t have cancer and pats the bed. Josie sits next to Mama and asks why she’s been acting weird all evening.
Josie’s reaction when Mama suggests a vacation suggests that Josie and Mama have a set routine. Josie might find that routine boring at times, but it also seems comforting to her that she always knows what to expect. So as much as Josie might like to dream about her life changing in various ways, it also seems like Josie might have a hard time adapting to any changes.
Themes
Mama reveals that Nonna’s guest earlier was Michael Andretti—Josie’s father. This is “mind-boggling” for Josie, because her father seems like a myth most of the time. Mama explains that he’s going to be in Sydney for a year, and Nonna will make herself “his surrogate mother.” Josie insists it’ll be fine, but Mama says Josie won’t be able to handle seeing him. Then, Mama says when she and Michael spoke privately, they both said they had no regrets—but he also doesn’t know about Josie. When he said he’d like to have kids someday, Mama wanted to spit at him. Josie suggests they avoid him by never going back to Nonna’s, but Mama insists Josie has to continue seeing Nonna. She says that she’s never been close to Nonna for reasons she doesn’t understand, but Nonna wants to be close to Josie.
Given how poor Mama and Nonna’s relationship seems, it’s perhaps not surprising that Mama never revealed to Nonna who Josie’s father was. This shows that secrets are just a part of how the Alibrandi family functions. On the other hand, though, it shows how much Mama trusts Josie that she’s willing to level with Josie and tell her the truth about what’s going on. Mama also shows that she doesn’t think the way that the family interacts is the best way to do things. She’d like Josie to take the chance to get to know Nonna, since she never got to.
Themes
