Josephine Alibrandi Character Analysis

Females in most countries are often perceived as inferior to males because of emotional issue. In fact female always represented as a weak human and male as a strong human. That is why there is no female in armies, because female’s emotional issues can be counted as a danger in war. That is why male’s sport has more value than female’s sport. There are lots of examples that can clearly show us the difference between male and female in society. In some countries like Italy this issues makes a lots of problems and in some countries such as Australia this issue is going to be deleted from people’s thoughts. But this issue still exists in Australia too. Nowadays Australia is in need of soldiers but the army is hesitated to accept female as a soldier.
In Italian families Women are placed in an inferior role to other males. However the main character, Josephine Alibrandi, does not conform to this typical view. She takes on a resistant view, to the dominant discourse of females. This was orchestrated perfectly by the author. The author has positioned the readers to take on Josephine’s view as the story told through her eyes.

One way this is done, is through the stereotype “damsel in distress”. The female characters are represented in such a way that makes them look helpless and ignorant and that they need a masculine man to protect them. This binary opposition of strong versus weak is evident through the novel. For example when Josephine is at McDonalds, with her friend Anna, they are approached by a gang of young boys. They are placed in a dangerous situation, and they can do absolutely nothing to prevent it. However to rescue them from this, requires a masculine man who turns out to be Josephine’s future boyfriend.
Another portrayal of this stereotype is when Josephine has struck another student in the nose and she is in the principal’s office. She calls her father to rescue her, and he
Women, in particular Italian women are expected to be housewives. They have to stay home in their domestic roles and look after the children and run the house, for example we saw that Nona Katia was often doing something at home instead of going out. Josephine however, steps out of this dominant discourse and strives toward her own ambition, which is a lawyer. She says “I am going to be the first Alibrandi woman who has a say in how her life turns out” this shows that Josephine’s understand of her Italian culture is that women are excepted to follow guidelines, something Josephine is not fond of. All forces are against her, for example her grandmother expects respect from her and wants Josephine to help her in works. Also Josephine’s mother wanted to be something more than what she is and because if that she sometimes puts Josephine trough lots of pressure because she forced by her mother Katia and her mother forced by her mother to do something against what they