Summary
Chapter 18
Josie only has six months until the start of university, and the speed of passing time is beginning to catch up to her. She thought she’d start university with a fresh mind and no problems, but between Jacob and her usual hang-ups, that’s looking unlikely. One of those hang-ups is her relationship with Poison Ivy, which comes to a head one Friday. As the girls wait for Sister Louise, they’re reading the same newspaper which featured an article about the death of an Italian businessman. Poison Ivy makes the generalization that new Australians like Josie wear a lot of black, a statement that offends Josie because she hates stereotypes, and terms like “new Australian.” The girls argue back and forth, with Poison Ivy accusing Josie’s ancestors of killing her and John’s grandfathers during World War II. Josie of course fires back, and they even argue about who knows John better. By the time Sister Louise arrives, both girls are sulking, and Josie is angry because she thinks no matter her achievements, she’s always going to be an “ethnic” from Glebe as far as Anglo-Saxon Australian are concerned.
Later at work, Josie is relieved to see Jacob when he picks her up. She needs the reassurance of his acceptance of her. Jacob has a surprise for Josie. Someone dumped an old car at his brother-in-law’s mechanic shop, and he and Jacob fixed it up. Jacob is keeping his motorbike, but now he and Josie have a car to drive around in. Josie is ecstatic, and so proud of Jacob. When Michael comes running over because of all the commotion, Josie brags to him about Jacob’s accomplishment too. Michael tells them that Josie was conceived in the same model of car Jacob has now, much to Josie’s disgust, before walking away. Josie and Jacob get into the car, and Josie keeps showering Jacob with praise, which he receives like a shy little boy. He tells Josie that he’s good with his hands, but that she’s good with her head. Josie takes his comment in stride, and says with their different skills they could open a company. Jacob agrees, and starts to say they could be the first husband and wife to...but stops short, realizing what he’s saying. He tells Josie to forget he said anything, but Josie quickly says she thinks he’d be a lovely husband. Jacob replies that she’d be good with kids, and the two snuggle together as Jacob begins to drive. In that moment, Josie pictures herself with Jacob for the rest of her life.
Chapter 19
It’s tomato day at Nonna Katia’s, which means the whole family gathers together to make spaghetti sauce from scratch. Josie and her cousin Robert call this annual event “National Wog Day,” and wonder if their Italian friends were doing the same, but no one would ever admit it. Nonna Katia and her sister Zia Patrizia sit side by side, reminiscing about the past. When Zia Patrizia mentions the year Marcus Sandford helped them, Josie’s ears perk up. During the war, the Australian government rounded up all the Italian men, even the boys, and took them away to work at sugar camps. Without the men around to earn money and help around the house, the women languished. Finally, one day Nonna Katia said enough was enough. To the shock of all the other Italian women, she went to the army and demanded they release at least one man to help them. The army refused, but on her way out Marcus Sandford saw her. In the two years they hadn’t seen each other, he joined the army, and Katia’s English had vastly improved. Marcus tried to get at least one man released, but it was impossible. So instead, he became the extra pair of hands the women needed. He helped them squeeze tomatoes, grow their spinach, and fix Katia’s garden.
Of course, his presence around Katia’s house caused talk in the Italian community. They couldn’t understand why a man, and an Australian man at that, was poking around Katia’s house. Katia and Patrizia paid them no mind, because it was all innocent. Marcus Sandford was there for them, even to help deliver one of Patrizia’s sons. He is also the one who searched tirelessly for Patrizia’s missing son Roberto, and recovered the little boy’s drowned body in a nearby creek. When Marcus brought back the body, he was crying, but Katia yelled at him, blaming him and the entirety of Australia for Roberto’s death. She believes if Australia hadn’t taken their men away to the camps, Roberto wouldn’t have been able to sneak off and fall into the creek. After that night, Patrizia says they never saw Marcus again, but at these words Nonna Katia turns away. This makes Josie think Nonna Katia did see him again. Before Josie can ask, Zia Patrizia asks her if she has a boyfriend. Josie jokingly replies she has 100, before walking over to her mother. That night, like all tomato days, they have spaghetti made by their own hands. Josie confesses this is a tradition not even she will let go of, because like religion, culture is nailed deeply into you.
Chapter 20
Today, July 29th, is St. Martha’s Day, and Josie’s school celebrates with their annual walkathon. It’s an event Josie loathes because as vice captain she has to organize the students, so when Sera suggests skipping out, it doesn’t take much convincing for Josie to agree. The girls go to Sebel Town House, where Trey Hancock, the lead singer of a popular band, is rumored to be staying. They spend a half hour roaming the halls looking for Trey, but don’t see him. They eventually make their way to the bar, where there’s a bevy of news cameras and photographers. Josie looks around, trying to duck the cameras, and sees the Premier, which explains the heavy media presence. The other girls are excited and pose for the cameras, but Josie is filled with dread. Later that night, Josie sees her and her friends on the news, when coverage of the Premier’s visit to Sebel Town House airs. Josie prays that no one else sees the video, but unfortunately her prayers will go unanswered.
The next morning at school during first period, Josie, Anna, Lee, and Sera are called to Sister Louise’s office. Sister Louise is coldly furious, and forces the girls to return whatever money they raised for the walkathon. They will have detention after school everyday, and are banned from future school excursions. Sister Louise then dismisses Anna, Lee, and Sera, but keeps Josie behind. She rips into Josie, and calls her a sheep for following Sera’s lead. As a school captain, her behavior is particularly upsetting to Sister Louise, who tells Josie to follow Ivy Lloyd around for a day to learn the meaning of responsibility. Josie’s blood boils at the mention of Poison Ivy, but Sister Louise isn't done. She reveals that Josie actually beat Ivy last year in the vote for school captain, but Sister Louise doubted Josie’s ability to be a good captain, so she gave it to Ivy instead, and made Josie vice captain. This news floors Josie, who can’t believe her classmates elected her, an outsider, as their leader. Sister Louise tells her that despite what Josie thinks, she and her friends are the trendsetters of the school, and the other girls look up to them as examples. She couldn’t have Josie setting such a bad example as head captain, and even considers stripping her of vice captain. At this, Josie begins to cry and begs Sister Louise not to. Sister Louise relents, but tells Josie that having a badge means nothing if she can’t find within herself the urge to do what’s right.
As Josie walks back to class, she considers everything Sister Louise told her. Looking back, she realizes that even though she and her friends have felt like outsiders at St. Martha’s, that may not necessarily be the case. Everyone loved Anna, everyone wanted to be Lee’s friend, and everyone listened to Sera’s crazy dares. Most of all, they had voted Josie school captain. Josie goes back and apologizes to Sister Louise one more time, but there is no forgiveness in the principal’s eyes. She tells Josie it’s up to her use her potential, and sends her back to class. In class, the other girls do pat Josie on the back and congratulate her for being gutsy enough to skip the walkathon. Josie however turns down their congratulations, and tells her classmates that she was wrong. She believes she was wrong not because of Sister Louise’s scolding, but because deep down she knows what she did was not right. In this moment, Josie’s emancipation begins.
Chapter 21
The following Monday night, John Barton calls Josie and asks her to go and see Macbeth with him like they’d discussed months ago. Josie doesn’t feel the same excitement she used to feel when talking to John, but agrees to go. When they meet up Tuesday night, John is happy, and not depressed like the last time Josie saw him. He blames his depression on exams, and the pair of them enter the theater, while discussing their mutual interests. John mentions that a classmate of his dropped out because the pressure of HSC was too much to handle. Josie asks John if the idea of performing poorly on their HSC scares him, but he asks to talk about something else, as careers and school is all he hears about at home. John goes off to buy snacks, and when Josie looks around she sees Jacob glaring at her from across the movie theater lobby. Josie walks hesitantly over and tries to say hi, but Jacob is upset. He wants to know why Josie came to the movies with John, and why she didn’t tell him. Just then, Jacob’s friends and John join them. One of Jacob’s friends says he thought Jacob was dating Josie, and Jacob replies that he thought so too. Anton pulls the others away, and Josie asks John to give her and Jacob a minute, but Jacob tells John not to go. John tries to help mediate, but that just infuriates Jacob even more. The boys begin to argue, and then shove at each other until Josie steps in and breaks them up.
John finally walks away, and Jacob confesses he’s embarrassed because he talks about her to his friends every day, only for her to be seen with another guy. Josie tries to defend herself, but Jacob points out if he went to the movies with an attractive female friend, Josie would be jealous. Josie agrees, but says she and John made plans to see the movies months ago, before they even started dating, and that she didn’t think Jacob would want to see the movie. Jacob retorts that he is also here to watch Macbeth, because he’s also studying it in school. He tells Josie to never assume things about him, and stalks off. Josie wants to cry, but rejoins John, who tells her Jacob isn’t her type. During the movie, Josie can’t concentrate, and once it’s over she starts immediately looking for Jacob. John sees her looking, and is sympathetic. He tells her she’s a good friend, and that he always feels good around her. He then kisses her cheek, and leaves her to look for Jacob.
Josie sees him and goes over to him, but Jacob isn’t ready to talk. She tries to apologize, but like Sister Louise Jacob doesn’t accept her apology, calling it insincere. He says that Josie always whines and wails about how people treat her, but she never thinks about how she treats others. He tells Josie to go home, and walks off. Josie goes to the bus stop because she doesn’t have enough money for a taxi, and cries. She’s down to her last tissue when someone presses a clean hanky into her hand. It’s Jacob, and he puts his arm around her as she cries. He tells her that she drives him crazy, and she replies that she would never deliberately hurt him. Jacob asks about John, and Josie tries to explain her feelings, but Jacob thinks she likes being with people like John because she wants to be a part of his affluent circle. Josie doesn’t disagree, but argues that just because Jacob has found his niche doesn’t mean everyone else has. She’s still looking like for place, but that doesn’t make her a poser or pretentious. She asks John to be patient with her as she looks for her place. Jacob sighs, says that they have so much to teach other, and asks Josie to see Macbeth again with him because he couldn’t focus on it tonight. Josie agrees and rests her head on Jacob’s back, feeling more for him with every passing moment.
Chapter 22
Christina and Josie decide to do a splurge day on the first Sunday of September. During a splurge day, they break their budget and indulge. They go to a harborside restaurant and talk about Michael at first. Though he isn’t talking to Josie at the moment because of the walkathon fiasco, she continues to think he’s “ultracool.” Christina is happy they are getting to know each other, and when Josie asks why she isn’t jealous or possessive, Christina replies she isn’t threatened because Josie is old enough to make her own decisions. The conversation turns to Nonno Francesco, Christina’s father, and why he was so mean towards her. Christina never knew why, but she feels Nonna Katia followed in his footsteps as if she owed him something. The hardest thing of all was how Nonno Francesco never even saw Josie, his granddaughter. Josie apologizes to her mother for being ungrateful for all the sacrifices Christina made for her, but Christina says there’s no need to apologize. Josie is the only person in her life who has loved her properly, and even though Josie is sometimes disrespectful, she’s still the most important person in Christina’s life. As they go to Darling Harbor for ice cream, Josie tells Christina that Michael has a girlfriend, but she doesn’t think her father loves her. Josie also tells her mother that Michael really loved her when they were younger, but Christina replies that life isn’t a romance novel. This doesn’t stop Josie from dreaming about her mother and father getting back together, especially since she’s there to bind them together.
Analysis
This latter half of Looking for Alibrandi show some of the things Josie knows to be true questioned and thrown out, leaving her shaken. One of those things is Josie’s relationship to her classmates. From the opening pages of the novel, Josie told us that she felt like an outsider because of her scholarship status, her illegitimacy, and her Italian heritage. In chapter 18, her anxiety seems valid, when Poison Ivy makes a generalization about Italian people based on a newspaper article, but then goes on to spout racist and nationalist propaganda about World War II. Ivy’s words cut Josie because although they are enemies, the two girls work closely with each other as captain and vice captain, and Josie figured Ivy at least respected her nominally. In the end, it seems like no matter how smart Josie is, she’s also going to be a “little ethnic from Glebe” as far as people of Ivy’s ilk are concerned (Marchetta 239).
However, in the aftermath of the walkathon debacle, Sister Louise's lecture about Josie and her friends being the school’s trendsetters floors Josie, who thinks about her incidents with Carly Pope and Ivy, incidents that say she’s far from popular at her school. Josie's status as the leading vote-getter creates a sense of irony, as for her entire experience Josie thought she was an outsider, but in reality she was being valued as a leader.
Josie’s meeting with Sister Louise also shakes Josie’s self-identity, while simultaneously sending her further down her path of self-discovery. Sister Louise metaphorically compares Josie to a sheep for participating in Sera’s plan to ditch the walkathon. As an independent and headstrong person, being called a follower and not a leader is humiliating but eye-opening for Josie. She begins to realize that her actions can have consequences on the people around her, not just herself, and that with power comes responsibility. Sister Louise’s sharp words help Josie see the error of her ways, and admit that she was wrong. This is another huge step for her development into a mature adult. Another step happens when she and John go to see Macbeth. John’s criticism of Jacob and his aspirations of being a mechanic upsets Josie, and makes her realize that it doesn’t matter what others think about what’s right and wrong. What matters is how she feels, and if she doesn’t have an issue dating a mechanic, no one else should care either.
Still, even as Josie makes great strides towards self-discovery, there are still some things that she can’t own up to. One of those is tomato day, an event where her family gathers together to make spaghetti sauce from scratch. Josie and Robert secretly call tomato day “National Wog Day,” because Italians can’t be like everyone else and buy their tomato sauce from the store, they have to make their own. Tomato day is a great example of the culture and tradition Josie’s family brought with them and preserved, despite being surrounded by a different dominant culture. As Josie says, tomato day is “a tradition that [she] probably will never let go of either, simply because like religion, culture is nailed into you so deep you can’t escape it. No matter how far you run" (Marchetta 250).
Finally, Josie’s mother Christina offers several poignant quotes in chapter 22 of the novel. When speaking of her father Nonno Francesco, and his refusal to even see Josie, his grandchild, Christina asks, “Tell me, what comes first? What other people think of your family, or love?” (Marchetta 280). Here, Christina outright rejects the pressure her community and society has tried to press upon her, and criticizes her father for allowing the pressure of the Italian community to dictate his actions. Despite sometimes succumbing to the pressure of Nonna Katia’s opinion and judgement, Christina refuses to be made into a sheep by her culture and community. Another important quote from Christina is, “Josie, life is not a romance novel. People fall out of love” (Marchetta 282). This quote definitely references Christina’s own failed romance with Michael Andretti. It could also be a foreshadowing of things to come. Josie and Jacob are so young, and have much more growing up to do as they figure out their futures and chase their dreams. Could Christina be warning her daughter to be open to change and possible heartbreak? Only the upcoming chapters can say.
