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
Debate season starts up in March. The first competition for St. Martha’s is with St. Anthony’s, where the love of Josie’s life, John Barton, is school captain. He unfortunately doesn’t return her feelings. But on Friday night, after St. Anthony’s wins the debate, John comes up behind Josie at the picked-over refreshment table and offers her one of the good cookies he took earlier. They discuss what sweets they hoarded at parties as kids as Mama kisses Josie and then goes to speak to Sister Louise. John compliments Josie on her speech at Martin Place.
The simple fact that John and Josie seem so comfortable with each other and even discuss that they both hoarded sweets at parties suggests that they’re not so different from each other, despite their different economic standing. And Josie’s unrequited love for John is humorous (especially describing him as the love of her life), but in a basic sense it shows how interested she is in boys.
Themes
John explains that Josie didn’t see him at Martin Place because he was with Poison Ivy, talking to the Premier. Josie thinks how alike Poison Ivy and John’s families are. Josie knows she can’t compete: John and Ivy’s parents would talk about politics over dinner together, but John’s parents and Josie’s family would have nothing to talk about. John grabs more cookies, says Jacob Coote was a surprise at Martin Place, and leads Josie outside. Suddenly, Josie is extremely “aware of the social and cultural differences around [her]”—she can’t picture Jacob talking to the Premier.
To Josie, it seems obvious and inarguable that John and Ivy’s parents would get along and discuss only things like politics—in Josie’s mind, that’s just what one does when one is in the upper class. The fact that her family doesn’t discuss politics makes it all the more obvious to Josie that her family is different from John’s. Bringing Jacob into the mix gives Josie another data point, since he attends public school—so he’s working class like Josie, but seemingly without the same aspirations as she has.
Themes
On the veranda, John and Josie discuss the upcoming regional dance (Josie would love to go to with John; the “snobs” at St. Martha’s would be jealous). After a comfortable silence, they discuss what they’ll do after they graduate. Josie shares she wants to be a barrister and asks John what he wants to do. He says he has no choice but to go into law and then politics, like his father. His family believes that John could be the prime minister someday; there’s no escaping tradition. Josie says it’s not hard—her family has worked its way up from humble beginnings, and Josie is going to continue to do so.
Josie’s aside that she wants to go to the regional dance with John because it’d make the “snobs” jealous shows just how caught up she is in what other people think. She doesn’t want to go with him because she’s madly in love with him—she just wants to make other people talk. When John mentions that he doesn’t have a choice but to go into law and then politics, it confirms Josie’s belief that wealthy people have an easier time achieving success.
Themes
John insists that Josie doesn’t experience the same kind of pressure he does. He reveals he’s only school captain because of his family in a bitter voice that shocks Josie. John goes on to say that “this life is shit.” Josie has never seen him in this kind of a mood. She says she thinks life is awful when Mama won’t let her go out or because her family isn’t higher class, but John insists he has a bigger problem: he doesn’t know what he wants out of his life, but he knows he doesn’t want a life in politics. But because John’s father is a minister in Parliament, he has no choice.
Things take a sinister turn here as John’s voice turns bitter—and as he starts to speak about not liking his life. Indeed, this suggests that John may be struggling with some mental health issues. Josie, however, doesn’t seem to totally grasp this. She’s trying to keep things light while John is trying to tell her how trapped he feels. He’s clearly not happy, even if he has all the wealth and prestige Josie wants for herself.
Themes
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Ivy comes up behind John and Josie, insults Josie, and insists it’s time for John to go with her to a party. She says she has to go; her father’s best friend is the birthday girl’s father. John agrees to go, and Ivy walks away. John explains to Josie that he truly has to go, though he’s not looking forward to seeing what fancy car the birthday girl will get from her dad. He explains that in his circle, dads try to outdo each other on birthday gifts. It worked out when he was a kid, because if he wanted something he could tell Ivy, her dad would buy whatever it was for her, and then John’s dad would get him a better version. As John and Josie head back inside, John invites Josie to go see a film adaptation of Macbeth with him.
Ivy and John’s discussion about this birthday party shows Josie that being wealthy isn’t actually as fun as she may have thought. They have obligations to people in their social circle, even those they don’t like much—similar to how Josie still has to visit Nonna every day after school, whether she likes it or not. In this sense, they’re both dealing with similar pressures and expectations, just in slightly different forms. Put simply, Josie’s belief that she and John are so different because of their economic statuses may be misguided.
Themes
All weekend, Josie spends a lot of time thinking about John’s mood swings. She finds them upsetting, since this depressed version of John isn’t the version she knows. Also over the weekend, Josie and Anna get jobs at McDonald’s. They’ll finally be able to afford designer clothes.
Josie reads as wildly self-absorbed here, since she seems to resent John for his bad moods rather than feeling concerned for his wellbeing. Her goals are still small and comparatively inconsequential: have a good time and buy designer clothes.
Themes
