Summary
Chapter 4
March rolls around and it’s debate season. Poison Ivy and Josie compete on the same team, the only time they agree. Their first match is against St. Anthony’s and their school captain, John Barton. Josie has had a crush on John for years, but they’re just good friends. After the competition ends Josie and John meet up and talk. John brings up “Have a Say Day.” He was also there, but he was busy talking to Ivy and the Australian Premier. Josie laments how well suited John and Ivy seem for each other, while John comments on how impressive Jacob Coote’s speech was. Talk moves to the regional dance coming up and school sports, before landing on their plans for the future. Josie tells John she wants to be a barrister, and John reveals he has to do whatever his father wants. Their family comes from a long line of politicians, and John must follow in their footsteps. Josie encourages him to pave his own path, but John argues that’s easier said than done. A darkness and depression enters his words, but Josie manages to make him laugh. At that moment, Ivy walks up.
She asks John for a ride home and they discuss the upcoming birthday party of a rich mutual friend. When Ivy leaves Josie asks about their relationship, and John reveals they’ve been childhood friends. He then asks Josie to see Macbeth, a text they have to read for HSC, with him when it airs at the local cinema. Josie of course agrees, and then the two part ways. For the rest of the weekend Josie thinks about John’s mood swing and what he means to her. She and her friend Anna also get a job at McDonald’s to make some extra money.
Chapter 5
It’s the day of the regional dance, and Josie is nervous. She worries that her dress, made by her grandmother, is too conservative, and that no one will ask her to dance. Her mother reassures her and tells her she has to be home by midnight. The girls pick Josie up in Sera’s car, and they’re all dressed in their individual styles. At the dance, where students from St. Martha’s, St. Anthony’s, Cook High, and a Presbyterian private school are assembled, Josie looks for John, but sees him next to Poison Ivy. She fumes, and her cousin Robert, who goes to the same school as John, comes over and tells her John was forced into bringing Ivy since they live on the same street. Shortly after, Lee and Sera get asked to dance, leaving Anna and Josie alone. The girls begin to worry, but then Jacob Coote and one of his friends walk up. Jacob’s friend asks Anna to dance, and Jacob asks Josie to dance. The pair dance for seven songs straight, and Josie wonders why he picked her to dance of all the girls at the dance. She’s even confused that Jacob made an appearance at the dance at all, and he confesses his school forced him to come and set an example as the school captain. When Josie says it still doesn’t seem like him, Jacob replies that she doesn’t know him at all.
In the ladies room all the girls gossip about the night’s events. Sera teases Josie about Jacob, and Anna says she’s in love with his friend. Poison Ivy comes in, and denies rumors that she and John are dating. Back at the dance Josie continues to dance, but not with Jacob or John. When the dance ends at 11:30, everyone makes plans to go for coffee and pizza, but Josie has her midnight curfew. It looks like Josie won’t have a ride home, but then Jacob walks up and offers to give her a lift. As they walk to the road, they see John and Poison Ivy. The boys size each other up as Josie tries to dispel any awkwardness between her and John. John says he wanted to dance with her tonight, but couldn’t get away in time. He offers her a ride home, but Josie says she already has a ride, so he just kisses her goodbye on her cheek and walks away.
At this point, Jacob has already walked away, upset at John and Josie’s closeness. He makes fun of John, causing Josie to ask if his mother taught him any manners. He tells Josie his mother is dead, which makes her feel guilty. As they walk towards his car, Jacob asks for Josie’s name, even though he teased her mercilessly growing up and danced with her half the dance. When they reach the parking lot, it turns out that Jacob’s car is actually a motorbike. At first Josie refuses to get on, but eventually she agrees, though she screams for most of the ride. When they arrive, Jacob parks down the street so Josie’s mom doesn’t see her on the bike, and walks her to her front door. As they walk, they talk about the death of Jacob’s mom, and what Josie would do if her mom died. Jacob accuses Josie of being a snob for being middle class but going to an upper class school, which Josie denies. Jacob tries to kiss Josie and she steps back to avoid him, but regrets it. To save face Jacob says Josie’s not really his type anyways, and she agrees. Still, the two part cordially.
Chapter 6
Josie’s second encounter with Michael Andretti happens at a family barbecue hosted by her grandmother. For most of the barbeque Josie, Christina, and Michael Andretti stare at one another, until Christina and Michael go into the house alone. Josie follows them to eavesdrop. She hears Michael say he doesn’t want a daughter or to be involved in Josie’s life. Christina says that’s fine, but he can’t come back again years from now and change his mind. She goes back outside, and after a few moments Michael follows. Nonna Katia has watched everything, and judging from the look on her face, Josie deduces her grandmother has figured out everything. Michael goes back into the house, and this time Josie follows him. Josie confronts him and rails at him for being so passive. This angers Michael, and the father-daughter pair agree to stay out of each other’s lives.
At home later that night, Christina asks Josie about Michael. At first Josie stonewalls her mom, but eventually tells her the truth. Her meeting with Michael was upsetting, but she’s more upset at the idea of his presence hurting her mom. She confesses the meeting went differently than she had planned, and Christina says things don’t turn out the way you expect them to. Josie asks her mother what dreams she had when she was 17, and Christina says she wanted a husband that loved her and a family of children. Josie asks if the man of her dreams was Michael Andretti, and Christina confirms. Josie remarks Christina had a simple dream, and Christina replies that those are the hardest ones to make come true. She and Josie snuggle, and order pizza.
Chapter 7
Instead of going away for Easter, Josie and Christina do what they always do and go to Nonna Katia’s. The whole family is there, and Josie must dodge their nosiness. That night, Josie has to stay at her grandmother’s, much to her dismay. Nonna Katia is of course excited, and regales Josie with stories of when she was 17. Against her will, Josie is entranced as she listens to stories of flirting with boys and how her grandmother got married. Her parents arranged a marriage for her to Nonno Franceso, who was 15 years her senior. One day Franceso decided that would move to Australia, and as his wife Katia had no choice but to go with him. Upon arrival in Sydney Nonna Katia experienced a sharp cultural shock, because life and culture in Australia was very different from life and culture in Sicily. She and Nonno Francesco eventually settled in a one-room shack in the outback, which is a far cry from the two-story suburban house she has now. Back then, the Italian immigrants lived mostly in their own communities with very little interactions with Australians, which is kind of how they live now. As she lies back in bed, Josie considers the similarities and differences between society back then and now.
Analysis
Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the novel feature the introduction of new characters, and further characterization of already established characters. John Barton, Josie’s friend and crush from another school, is one key character who Marchetta introduces. Wealthy, brilliant, humble, and kind, John is the embodiment of everything Josie aspires to be and achieve in life. Ironically, John is smothered by the pressures of his father and the society he was born into, leading to bouts of depression and anxiety. Jacob Coote is one character is who fleshed out in these four chapters. His “rebel” and “bad-boy” facade is peeled away a bit, revealing a sweet and vulnerable young man with a big heart. Josie is attracted to him, though she won’t admit it.
Finally, Michael Andretti is given life and color when he, Christina, and Josie all collide at Nonna Katia’s barbecue. The moment when he and Josie agree to stay out of each other’s lives is an example of verbal irony, because both father and daughter mean the opposite of what they’re saying. It seems Josie doesn’t have to look too far to see an example of how her future self might be. Michael is as stubborn, headstrong, and passionate as she is. The moment Michael says “it’s too late. Seventeen-year-olds don’t need fathers,” and Christina replies, “oh God, Michael. I’m thirty-four years old and I need a father,” is particularly poignant, because although Josie won’t admit it, Christina knows her daughter has missed out on having a father figure in her life. And at this point of the novel, it seems she won’t be getting one.
Important themes in these chapters of the book include pressure, community and tradition, and immigration. Until this point, the type of pressure explored in the novel has been the societal pressure Josie feels to conform to the culture and mores of the Italian community. With the introduction of John, the pressure to excel and succeed in life is also introduced. Josie experiences this pressure as well, but it’s mostly self-inflicted. Her mother and grandmother, unlike John’s family, allow Josie to make her own decisions about her career and future plans. John, despite his secure social and economic standing, isn’t afforded the same freedom.
Community, tradition, and immigration are all addressed when Josie spends the night at Nonna Katia’s. In a detailed and image-filled description of her arrival to Australia, Nonna Katia shares stories of what life was like as an immigrant to a different country. She tells Josie about the culture shock she experienced, faced with the weird habits of Australians. Things like women working in pubs and men catcalling women in the streets were out of this world for Katia. As more and more Italians came to Australia, the Italian community grew to the point where they could comfortably isolate themselves and exist separately from Australian society. It’s in this insular world that many Italian traditions and beliefs persisted, even though they were halfway around the world from Italy.
As Josie listens to her grandmother’s experiences, she thinks about the hardships Nonna Katia endured, and says that the people of her generation wouldn’t be able to cope with the pressure. She also wonders about 17-year-old Katia, and what dreams she had when she was Josie’s age. This is something Josie asked her mother about, when the two women were discussing Michael Andretti. She wondered what aspirations her mother had when she 17, before she found out she was pregnant with Josie. The repetition of 17 is important, because as Josie is now 17 herself, struggling to find herself and actualize her own dreams and goals, she wonders how the women in her life handled their 17th year of life. The motif of dreams is an important one in Looking for Alibrandi, because not only are Josie’s dreams of becoming a rich and successful barrister key to her sense of self, the foiled dreams of Christina are what made the existence of Josie possible.
