Journal entries

Journal Entry for Looking for Alibrandi
In the previous chapters, Josephine has demonstrated a change in both her attitude and mind. In the chapters, Josephine has grown from a small girl who hates everything around her and overreacts to every situation around her to a grown girl/woman who understands the people around her and appreciates that not every person can be perfect and that it is not only her that goes through awful and depressing experiences, but other people also go through the same experiences; some even worse. In the subsequent chapters, the Josephine continues to demonstrate changes in her. In chapter 22 to chapter 27, Josephine gets interested in knowing her family better. She shifts her interest in getting to understand her mother deeply and gets to bond more with her grandmother, who she hated at the beginning because of the way she treated her mother. Like in the previous chapters where we have seen Josephine getting to know and understand her father, Michael, she gives the chance to her grandmother and mother and finally begins to understand the importance of having a family. As such, this journal entry will focus on the themes executed in chapter 22 to chapter 27 and examine how the author deals with the themes in each chapter.
Chapter 22
In this chapter, the focus is on the theme of family. Here, Josephine gets to spend quality time with her mother. They go for lunch in an expensive harbor side restaurant where they have the opportunity to talk about her mother’s experiences.

Josephine learns how her grandfather, Francesco, mistreated her mother and how her mother emotionally asks herself why her father never loved her. He was violent against her and even beat her up when he heard Christina was pregnant. Josephine feels really sorry for her mother when she hears all the suffering she went through.
In this chapter, the author tries to bring up the conversation between Josephine and her mother to make us understand what makes Josephine appreciate the importance of her father’s love. In the previous chapters, Josephine spends time with her father and realizes how much her father loves her. Getting to know how her mother was mistreated by Francesco makes her appreciate the love her father shows her. Also, she realizes the hardships her mother had to endure to bring her up. She showed appreciation for her mother “I grumble about my life because I’m selfish, not because you couldn’t provide. For a one-parent family we are pretty perfect” (Marchetta 195). Here, Josephine becomes more mature and maintains a close relationship with her mother.
Chapter 23
In this chapter, the focus is on the theme of family and culture. We get to see how the relationship between Josephine and her grandmother develops. The bond between them strengthens day by day. She gets to learn more about the Italian culture from her mother. The way she shows interest in the Italian culture makes her love and understands her grandmother even more. Her grandmother narrates to her how the Italian girls agreed to marry by proxy, left their country and traveled overseas. These girls obeyed their families’ arrangement and married men they had never met. After getting married, they would stay at home and look after the children and do chores. Josephine finds her grandmother’s stories very interesting and develops an interest in understanding her more.
In the chapter, the author tries to show the understanding that develops between Josephine and Nonna. Josephine gets to understand her grandmother better and the bond between them strengthen “one day, my granddaughter can try to understand me like I’m trying to understand Nonna” (Marchetta 202). She gets to understand that the mean attitude her grandmother had towards her mother was due to the traditions they were bound to obey while they were growing up. Her attitude completely changes towards her grandmother.
Chapter 24
In chapter 24, the focus is on the theme of love. We can see the relationship between Jacob and Josephine being taken to another level. Even though Josephine is reluctant to take Jacob to meet her grandmother, the commitment on Jacob’s sides is enormous. Josephine on the other side has her reasons for not letting Jacob meet her grandmother. The reason being that Nonna still lives in the old age where dating or marrying young girls was not allowed. Jacob also tries to make advances on Josephine. Josephine, however, refuses to let in Jacob explaining to him that it is not the right time to have such advances.
In this chapter, the argument between Jacob and Josephine over not letting Jacob meet her grandmother shows how Josephine loves Jacob when she comes back to apologize fearing that the relationship might end. She has her reasons for not allowing the meeting which is “it’s not their way. I’m young as far as she’s concerned. Girls just don’t go out with anyone just for the sake of it” (Marchetta 205). She says that her grandmother knows she is young and cannot allow her to get into any romantic relationships at the moment. Josephine refusing to give in to Jacob’s advances also shows how she has matured and become self-aware especially when she says “liking doesn’t give us grounds to have sex. I could get pregnant or catch AIDS or something” (Marchetta 212). Her courage to say no to Jacob is also a sign of maturity on her part.
Chapter 25
The focus of this chapter is on the theme of betrayal and discovery. Here, we see Josephine discovering truths about her grandmother that she has kept from them for 35 years. The secret is how her mother was conceived from an affair between Nonna and Marcus. She gets mad at her grandmother for keeping such a secret from them.
Here, the relationship between Nonna and Josephine completely stumbles. Josephine feels betrayed. All through, her grandmother gave her the perception that she was always a good and loyal wife to her husband. When she discovers the affair her grandmother had with Marcus that led to the conception of her mother, she begins to understand why her grandmother treated her mother the way she did. Her perception of her grandmother and her attitude changes completely as she feels betrayed by the lies her grandmother told her, “My mother, though, is the reality… Living with a man who detested her for something her mother did. Living with indifference, if not hate” (Marchetta 218). Even though she is angry and frustrated at her grandmother, she feels sorry for her mother for having endured all the mistreatments by Nonna and Francesco.
Chapter 26
In this chapter, the theme is family and discovery. Josephine cannot hold the anger anymore. She goes to her grandmother’s house after a week of realizing the truth and tries to understand the origin of all the mix-up. When she sees her grandmother, they are both overwhelmed by their emotions and start to cry. Her grandmother opens up to her and tells her how the whole story came to be. She gets to know that her grandfather, Francesco, was unable to bear a child and was always away from home which made her develop an interest in Marcus leading to the conception of her mother. She tells her more about herself and the reasons she decided to keep the secret from them. Her reason is very logical, Francesco being unable to bear a child, decided to raise the child as his own and keep the secret between them.
In the chapter, Josephine gets to understand the justification for her grandmother’s actions. She gets to know more about her family’s history and how they came to exist. After hearing her grandmother’s side of the story, she feels for her and understands her sorrows and the decisions she had to make in the absence of her husband. She appreciates her grandmother for making the sacrifices by the way she describes her grandmother “she hadn’t lived life the way I’d thought. She hadn’t stuck to the rules and regulations. Hadn’t worried about what other people thought every second of her life” (Marchetta 226). This shows how Josephine has grown to become understanding.
Chapter 27
This chapter focuses on the theme of relationship manifested in the meeting between Josephine and John. The friendship between the two continues to grow. When they meet, John tells Josephine how he has finally achieved his goals which make Josephine very happy. John appreciates her for giving him the directions she gave him. The friendship between Josephine and John strengthens afterwards.
Here, the author brings the two teenage friends together. John has finally become positive about life after following the advice given to him by Josephine “I’ve got my whole future planned out the way I want it to be and there is nothing anyone can do to take that away from me” (Marchetta 229). Josephine feels glad she has such a friend in John and finally felt she had good people that loved her around her “I slept with the knowledge that my life was going somewhere good because of good people around me. And no HSC failure could take that away from me” (Marchetta 230). Josephine is finally happy with her friends.
Work cited
Marchetta, Melina. Looking for Alibrandi. Ernst Klett Sprachen, 2009. Print