Looking For Alibrandi Chapter Analysis

Marginalized New Australians Looking for Alibrandi is an Award-winning contemporary Australian teenage novel written by author Melina Marchetta, which highlights cultural, age and social boundaries that were evident in the earlier periods of Australian society. In this book a number of characters were discriminated and marginalised due to their culture, gender and social class. Marginalisation is when people are being separated from the rest of the society and thus are powerless and deemed unimportant. This book represents idealistic and revised view of Australian society representing number of characterisations in terms of a patriarchal, Anglo-Celtic, ethnocentric, middle-class
In the book Italians are represented as ‘ethnics’ within the Australian society and they are also known as wogs, new Australians and aliens by mainstream Australians community. It seemed that there were no organised systems in the Australian society to absorb the people with different background in the economic, social and cultural mainstream. By and large this is true even in today’s social and economic perspective. As a result Katia was silenced and disempowered by the Australian community. Italians were ignorant, unable and they were unwilling to learn new traditions, culture and language of Australia as they felt that they don’t belong to the Australian community. (Quote: “We were ignorant and they were ignorant”, Pg No: 78) Furthermore katia was relegated by the discourses of the conservative English customs related to culture. Katia was not permitted to learn English by the Francesco (her husband), resulting in Katia being isolated in the society. She was further isolated upon arrival in Ingham when she saw no one except Francesco for six months. Language and cultural barrier prevented katia from socializing. Additionally Nona Katia always tries to impart Italian culture on Josie (her granddaughter) as she is very rebellious to the Italian way of life, which has to do with Nona’s constant remarks such as "look at
Katia’s arranged marriage indicates that she was dominated by her parents, dominantly her father due to her gender. Males and females genders have clear representations in the Italian community; males are treated as dominant species in a relationship. They make decisions and also they play as the main role in a relationship. Conversely Women’s on the other hand are treated as subservient and they do a minor role in a relationship. Consequently Katia was not treated well by Francesco; she did not have a say about the migration, she was not allowed to learn English or to integrate with Australians, katia was forbidden to have any contact with her daughter after her pregnancy. This exemplifies the authority an Italian male can exert on the women in his family. It was not until Francesca’s death that Nona could be reunited with her daughter and granddaughter; this represents discrimination by Francesco as he descends from a patriarchal society. Male gender is represented as been the decision maker, ruler and the controller in a marriage by the Italian community. Women had to accept that men dominated relationships and to accept the marginalization and the discrimination. Katia was expected to look after the house where Francesco had to work, a stereotypical Italian family. (Quote: “My job was to make a home for us; his job was to make the