Alibrandi’s

Fingerprint

By Kumaresh Muthubalasuriyar

Identity is like a fingerprint; a unique

identifier of who you are. In the book,

“Looking for Alibrandi” by Melina Marchetta,

Josephine Alibrandi is experiencing an identity

crisis. The author takes the reader on a

journey through the life of this central

character, a teenage Italian/Australian girl

who deals with the traumas of growing up.

Throughout this journey, the author skilfully

casts her in a number of relationships which

challenge her identity from the conflicts of

cultural heritage with her single mother and

her Italian grandmother to the unexpected

return of her long lost father. She also has to

deal with the acceptance of her school mates

and the romantic dilemmas between two very

different young men.

On the journey of finding oneself and

belonging, relationships can create, support

or hinder. The author’s message is that people

must create their own identities and do so

through the decisions they make. When

people allow themselves to be influenced by

others, their sense of identity is compromised.

People must be true to themselves in order to

develop and maintain a strong sense of self.

Marchetta skilfully entwines Josie’s feelings,

beliefs and values into relationships of clash,

support, love and loss which enhance

character building and eventually leads to

acceptance of oneself.

The relationships Josie experiences with her

mother, Christina and grandmother, Katia or

Nonna, are pivotal pieces of evidence to

overtly demonstrate strength of Italian

women. They believe that their strong

personalities are part of their genes and the

author develops their persona throughout the

novel very obviously through their

interactions as mother and daughter just like

when Christina stands up to her mother,

portraying her strength as an individual being,

“ ‘People? What people? Italians? Mama, I

have already disgraced myself in their eyes

and there will never be anything to change

that, so who cares if they talk about me?’ ”

This is one of many situations where

Marchetta uses her skilful manipulation of key

characters to develop Josie’s family’s identity.

Her relationships with her boyfriend, Jacob

Coote, allows for her deep inner thoughts to

be expressed, and provides an insight into her

heart and mind, “[Josie] ‘I’d like to be a rebel

Italian… But I can’t.’ [Jacob] ‘Why not?” …

‘Because I have no father. Because if I did all

those things hypocrites would shake their

heads smugly and say, “See, I told you she

couldn’t amount to anything.””

Marchetta also uses events such as the

slapping of Poison Ivy to impact upon Josie’s

life as whole, where the rivalry of those two

characters are used to consistently draw out

Josie’s inner thought about present events in

her time such as her stubbornness and where

she stands on the theme of racism when she

is confronted by the nun’s for hitting Ivy

because she was called a “wog” or “ethnic”,

[Josie to Ivy] “ ‘I’m not an ethnic,’ I spat out

furiously. ‘I’m an Australian and my

grandparents were Italian. They’re called

Europeans, not ethnics. Ethnic is a word that

you people use to put us all in a category.’ ”

(p. 166).

All though Marchetta uses characters to

impact upon Josie’s identity throughout the

book, she also uses climaxes such as John

Barton’s death and Michael’s return as a

father into her life to portray a softer, weaker

and more honest side of Josie.

Marchetta makes Josie’s soul hearted

thoughts be conveyed when she is crying in

pain to her father about the death of John

Barton but then Michael says to Josie, “You’re

going to go on living. Because living is the

challenge Josie. Not dying. Dying is so easy,”

(236), for consolation. When she talks about

her dreams with the recently deceased John

Barton, “If I could be anything but what I am,

I would be tomorrow. If I could be what my

father wants me to be, then maybe I could

stay for that, too. If I could be what you want

me to be, I'd want to stay. But I am what I am,

and all I want is freedom.” The author uses

these situations to turn Josie’s outward strong

personality into that of a frail emotional girl,

who cannot control all aspects of her life.

Marchetta creates a depressing, solemn

reality when John Barton dies, and uses the

situation to deepen the relationship between

Michael and Josie. The depressing mood is

continued by the breaking up of Jacob and

Josie’s relationship which symbolised Josie

hitting rock bottom because she states to her

mum, “I feel so terrible Mama. I’m more upset

now that I’ve split with Jacob that I was when

John died. What kind of person am I?”

Marchetta uses skilful manipulation of key

characters throughout the novel to place Josie

in a cultural identity crisis.

The author positions Josie on this journey of

discovery as a descendant of Italian migrants

in a power struggle of multicultural Australia,

where she has to find her place in society and

define her identity. Josie expressed her

realization of cultural unacceptance when she

stated, “My Mother was born here as far as

the Italians were concerned, we weren’t

completely one of them. Yet because my

grandparents were born in Italy we weren’t

completely Australian,” (p.7). The Italian

community continue their gossiping about

Italians who don’t follow traditional, cultural

expectations of values such as divorce. Hence

Josie, even within her own culture, is met with

critical eyes because of her single mother

parentage. Josie expresses the deep seated

cultural expectation of the Italian heritage

when she states, “Like all tomato days we had

spaghetti that night. Made by our own hands.

A tradition that we’ll never let go. A tradition

that I will probably never let go either, simply

because like religion, culture is nailed into you

so deep you can't escape it. No matter how far

you run.” (p. 174).

Josie is a working class student among many

wealthy ones and the author orchestrates her

clash with Ivy Lloyd to show how strongly she

wishes to be accepted, “I want to belong to

her world. The world of sleek haircuts and

upper-class privileges. People who know

famous people and lead educated lives. A

world where I can be accepted. Please, God,

let me be accepted by someone other than the

underdog,” (p. 32).

Melina Marchetta ended the book by

revealing Josie’s true identity, exposing her

true grown up self as the resolution.

Marchetta portrays Josie as a whole by the

end of the book because she finally realized

that she should just be herself and not try to

be someone other people want her to be,

““One day came. Because finally I

understood.”” With Josie having found

herself, her problems have been resolved and

her hope and faith in life has been restored.

Therefore throughout the novel, the author,

Melina Marchetta, resolves all themes of

identity, racism and societal class

differentiation.