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
School lets out early on Wednesday afternoon, so Josie and her friends go to a café to talk about what they want to do after they graduate. Sera is going to be a fashion designer. Josie says that if she wasn’t going into law, she’d be a translator for the Italian consulate (it seems exciting). Anna insists she’ll be a teacher, and then, leaning forward so everyone else leans in, she says that Anton Valavic likes her. Sera howls with laughter, but Lee urges Anna to tell them more. Sera insists that Anna is too much of a little girl to interest Anton, but Anna admits that Anton is always waiting for her outside of McDonald’s to make sure she gets in her car safely.
Josie’s dream of translating for the Italian consulate reveals that she’s bilingual (something she confirms later in the novel). The simple fact that being bilingual could get her a job if she wanted it suggests that Josie doesn’t need to be ashamed of being Italian—being Italian could get her a job and help her pay the bills one day. Sera makes it clear that she habitually makes assumptions about people. In her mind, it’s ridiculous that anyone would like shy, quiet Anna—when Anna suggests that Sera is very off-base for thinking that.
Themes
Seeing Jacob and Anton come into the café, Sera suggests they ask Anton how he feels. Josie hisses to Sera to stay quiet as Anton, Jacob, and four others squeeze into the next booth. One girl traps Anna’s braid between her back and the booth on accident. When the others at Jacob and Anton’s table realize this, one boy pulls out the silk scarf that Anna has tied in her braid—and it falls in ketchup. Josie and her friends pack up and leave the café to browse the stalls and shops. Eventually, Sera and Anna head home.
While Josie, Anna, and probably Lee want to look unremarkable to Jacob and Anton’s group, Sera shows here that she thrives on creating embarrassing situations that will attract a lot of gossip. And even though Sera doesn’t do anything to make this situation worse, this interaction with Jacob and Anton nevertheless doesn’t go as planned.
Themes
Josie and Lee find a bench and watch the water. Lee laments that she doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. She wanted to do advertising, but she says her dad used to do advertising when he was sober. (He’s verbally abusive when he drinks, which happens frequently these days.) Lee says she feels awful for her parents, since they won’t get a divorce or work on their marriage.
Josie doesn’t share much about her friends throughout the novel, but here she reveals that Lee is going through a difficult time at home—and may even have more struggles than Josie does. Letting readers in on this shows that Josie is starting to care more about the people around her, and focus less on herself.
Themes
Lee also insists that it’s not true that people have control over their destinies—rich people, she says, introduce their kids to other rich people and then those kids get married, like John and Poison Ivy will one day. Poor people marry poor people, Italians marry Italians, and they’ll never do any better than their parents. When Josie argues, Lee insists that Josie is going to be a barrister because of Michael. Josie announces that this is depressing. They head for the main road, and Josie suggests more career options for Lee. Lee shoots them all down.
In Lee’s understanding, climbing the ladder to reach a higher economic class is impossible. For Josie, this is difficult to hear—she wants to be a barrister, but she wants this job in part because she sees it as her ticket to an upper-class lifestyle. The fact that Lee thinks this way makes it clear that different people can look at the same situation and see something totally different, a fact Josie will become more comfortable with as she comes of age.
Themes
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Lee says she’d like to be a fortune-teller and then theatrically tells Josie her fortune: she’ll travel the world and find happiness with Jacob and their 10 children. Josie rolls her eyes, but Lee says Jacob was staring at her in the café. Lee heads home and Josie sits at the bus stop, talking to Robert’s best friend. When the friend gets on his bus, Jacob sits down next to Josie, angry that she was talking to another guy. Josie calls him out for not standing up for Anna, and Jacob suggests they start over. Jacob kisses Josie, and Josie says Jacob will have to re-introduce himself to Mama. Josie agrees to cut school on Friday so they can go out. The bus pulls up and as Josie gets on, Jacob says he’ll take her to see Pride and Prejudice.
Lee might have caught Jacob staring at Josie in the café, but Josie makes it clear that Jacob must respect her friends, family, and culture if he wants to have a relationship with her. Though this seems like a bit of a hard thing for Jacob to understand, it’s a sign of progress when he offers to take her to see Pride and Prejudice. Agreeing to see what he formerly called a “pansy movie” suggests that he's willing to adapt to make a relationship work with Josie.
Themes
