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’s “emancipation” didn’t happen as she expected it would. She thought she’d wake up one morning feeling fantastic. Instead, though, Josie receives a birthday card from Jacob, throws it in the trash, and sobs. As she cries, she realizes she became emancipated a while ago. It happened gradually. She remembers how ostracized she felt at St. Martha’s, until she learned at the walkathon how popular she was. And after learning about Nonna and Marcus Sandford, Josie also realizes that she doesn’t have to make herself feel bad for her parents’ choices.
At the beginning of the novel, Josie implied that her “emancipation” would happen when she was finally able to leave her restrictive family and Italian culture behind. But now, Josie realizes that being free and grown-up doesn’t mean running from her family. Rather, it means accepting what she can’t change, while also coming to a more truthful understanding of how she fits into a social situation.
Themes
As for the culture clash between Italians and Australians, Josie isn’t sure when people will really understand multiculturalism. Multiculturalism, she believes, is just as Australian as rugby is. Now, she knows that she’s Australian, with Italian blood.
Josie leaves readers with the hope that Australia will continue to move toward embracing its immigrant communities in the years to come—after all, accepting immigrants is part of Australia’s identity as a country.
Themes
Things have changed a lot at home, maybe because Josie has changed. She spends a lot of time with Michael—and sometimes, Mama joins them for dinner. Josie watches Mama and Michael talk easily to each other and wonders why they don’t get closer. Michael and Josie fight a lot over silly things, but Josie loves him more every day.
Part of Josie’s emancipation entails feeling more at home with her family members. At this point, that means getting to know Michael—and it also means respecting that she doesn’t know everything about Mama and Michael’s relationship. They may have more secrets that prevent them getting closer to each other that Josie doesn’t know about.
Themes
When it comes to Jacob, Josie doesn’t think it’s her being Italian that’s keeping them apart. They’re just different and don’t know what they want yet. She believes that Jacob has gotten more ambitious and she’s gotten less ambitious—Josie isn’t even sure she still wants to be a barrister. But still believes she’s going to be with Jacob someday, so she pulls his card out of the garbage to save.
After some time to grieve the end of her relationship with Jacob, Josie now sees that breaking up doesn’t totally invalidate their relationship. They loved each other and taught each other important things—about life and about themselves. And this, the novel suggests, is what makes their relationship meaningful, not how long it lasted.
Themes
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It’s Josie’s birthday today and she’s no longer 17. She expected to learn “the truth” at 17—but Josie now knows that a person doesn’t stop learning once they’re no longer 17. She’ll know who she is for her entire life. She believes in God, she believes in her world, and she believes in equality. There are a lot of bad things in the world, but she’s not ready to give up on it. Josie looks forward to sitting with Nonna and Mama tonight. They’re the biggest influences on her life.
Now that Josie’s 18th birthday has arrived, it’s clear to her that her beliefs on her 17th birthday were somewhat misguided. She’s not done growing up just because she’s past the age of 17, though Josie does have a better sense now of who she is. With that better sense of identity, it’ll be easier for her to move forward and make choices that align with her values.
Themes
Josie vows to do everything in her power to keep her family together. She knows people will keep gossiping about her, no matter what she does. Now, Josie knows that it doesn’t matter who she calls herself—she’s Josephine Andretti, she was never really an Alibrandi, she should’ve been a Sandford, and she might never become a Coote. But she knows she’s Mama and Michael’s daughter, Nonna’s granddaughter, and a friend to Sera, Anna, and Lee. Josie realizes that the future she spent the last year longing for has arrived.
More than anything, Josie has learned over the course of this last year that her family is more important to her than anything. And the specifics of everyone’s last names don’t matter as much as the support they show each other. Because of this, Josie lists the people who support her—her friends, her parents, and Nonna—showing that she prioritizes them most of all. They make Josie who they are through their support.
Themes
