For all of those who have been bluffing their way through the novel thus far.
What are your impressions (so far) of Josie? How does she see herself? What hang-ups does she have? How do others see her?
In your response, you MUST reference the text, using relevant quotes from the first half of the novel.
Responses should be submitted as a comment below and be a minimum of 200 words. Due next lesson!
Throughout the book as I read my impressions of Josie were that she was a very independent and often loud girl. She has very strong ideas about everything from herself, her family and the people around her but because of her strong ideas she often doesn’t empathise with the people around her. She can often be selfish as well. In the book there is a chapter where Josie’s mother Christina is going on a date. Josie hates the idea of having to ‘share’ her mother so is furious at her for going on this date without considering how it would make her mum happy, a quote from pg98 has Josie saying, “screw your understanding.”
ReplyDeleteJosie sees herself as a smart, strong individual. Though she is strong she there are still aspects of herself she doesn’t like. Some are trivial and vain like the fact she wishes she were as beautiful as her mother and grandmother and some are more serious like her issues with her family and community and their rules and traditions. “I hated the word respect”, “I’ll run one day. Run for my life.”
Others around her see her as a stubborn pig-headed yet amazing person and in a way Josie knows this. “Oh, ma, it’s not that,” I said facing her. How do you put up with me when I treat you so bad?” She is often loud, stubborn and sometimes rude but in the end is an amazing person and the people around her like her mother, grandmother, boyfriend, friends, and even boyfriend can see this
What are your impressions (so far) of Josie? How does she see herself? What hang-ups does she have?
ReplyDeleteMy impressions of Josie so far are that she is very smart and thinks for herself. Josie can be at times very stubborn and treats her mother and grandmother disrepectfully sometimes even though she knows it. She constantly has fights with her mother and grandmother. Josie says “ one minute we love each other to bits and spend hours in deep and meaningful conversation and next mintute we’ll be screeching at each other about the most ridiculous thing”.
I think Josie see’s herself like she will never good enough for society because she is of a different background. Josie also thinks that she can fight everything even though she really has no control over the situation like when she has to see her father at her grandmother’s house.
Josie’s hang-ups are that she feels that she will never be good enough because she was illegitimate, there is nothing wrong with having one parent. She is also hung-up on her Italian culture, she says “they cannot mind their buisiness and all they do is gossip”. All cultures have different traits. Josie is also hung-up on the fact that she is not rich like all the other people that go to her school, she says “ my biggest problem is going to a school dominated by rich people”. This makes her think that she won’t get into the higher social class when she’s older. She doesnt know that some people have worked their way up from the bottom all the way to the top.
I have read up to chapter 8 and so far lots of dynamic family relationships going on. Different people have different thoughts about Josie.
ReplyDeleteHer grandmother thinks that she is rude because her mother didn't bring her up well. She tells a story to Josie of how young she was when she moved to Australia and got married. She then empathise her grandmother of how her grandmother started from living in a one room shack to a two storey, Italian house.
Her father thinks she's a nuisance and wants her to keep out of his life as they agreed so on pg 69 - '"Okay," he snapped back. "A promise. You keep out of my life, I keep out of yours"'.
Her mother feels sorry to Josie that she is having troubles communicating with her father."Your not so tough, Alibrandi. I can see through you" on pg 71 tells us this.
Her friends think the opposite, that she's strong and fearless. They think she's always 'cool' and never lets anyone pull her down.
Josie finds herself lost. She doesn't know what to do in life. She needs to sort her problems out. She feels like she's imprisoned by her culture and family. 'I'll run to be emancipated', this quote tells us this.
I think that she is trying her best to 'fit in' to both her culture and group of friends.
My impressions so far of what I have read about Josie are that she is a person who stands up for herself; she shows this by when she tells Carly ‘no I’m not. How am I different? Do I look different to them?’ Josie makes this comment when Carly makes a racist remark about ‘wogs’. So far I also think that Josie is self absorbed in all the latest gossip for when she states ‘the time before class starts in the morning is the most exciting. Because we haven’t seen each other for sixteen hours, it’s gossip galore. ‘And also when she says ‘what kind of friend are you? I read from HOT PANTS magazine.’ Josie sees herself that she has to look good and if she doesn’t she would stress out, she shows this when she says ‘I looked myself in the mirror for the billionth time and teased my fringe for the zillionth wishing that my neck line wasn’t so high.’ Others see Josie for instance her mother look at her as she was beautiful, her mother shows this by when she says ‘for the hundredth time, Josie, your hair looks beautiful. You should wear your hair out more often. I can’t believe that you were lucky enough to have beautiful curly hair and you don’t appreciate it.’
ReplyDeleteI have read approximately half of the book.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion of Josie is that she is a strong and independent female that is fighting for her place in society both as being Italian and Australian. Josie is the type of person that her culture and usual life sytle clash creating chaos. What others think about Josie is that she is rude and not brought up/raised properly by her mother, she say mean things to her grandmother which at times she actually means which affect Josie's mothers reputation.
‘A daughter's behaviour always reflects on how good a mother is.’ Josie: ‘Well I guess that means you did a hopeless job as mother because look at the life your daughter ended up with.’
The hang-ups that Josie has is that she is getting mixed up in the worlds of the Italian Heritage which has set guidelines of how women should behave and the other is her Australian ordinary life; her daily life style which is the opposite of the Italian life that represents her differently to the way she would be seen in her Italian life, this is tearing Josie apart, she can’t have both worlds. At times Josephine says to herself that she needs to be emancipated, to leave freely and basically the way she wants to live. ‘I’ll run one day. Run for my life. To be free' this quote tells us.
The other hang-over is Josie's illegimate father who returned. Josie is trying to get close to her father but he keeps pushing her away and doesn't want her in his life. 'A promise. You keep out of my life, I keep out of yours',this quote tells us.
Josie is seen as a smart person by her friends, the one who doesn't play by the rules, the person trying to escape her situations of a double life and going forth and being emancipated and live her usual life style.
Josie is trying to escape her life as a compound of Italian and Australian culture (Australian being a culture she adopted). She is trying so hard to fit into the regulations her grandmother sets but somehow finds a way naturally to withstand this. Josie wanst a free life from her set culture and wants to live her life as a person living a free lifestyle.
'I'll run to be emancipated', is quoted.
I think Josie is trying to follow in her Italian Legacy but at the sametime have a Normal freestyle, both of these worlds clash and Josie is put into chaos and assorted problems that involve her social life, Background and her father.
My impression of Josie so far from what I have read is that Josie is that she is stubborn but very intellectual. One of Josie’s best qualities are she is never afraid to speak her own opinion which most of the time gets her in to arguments but Josie is smart enough to realise when she is wrong. Josie has to go to her nonna’s house every day after school which she hates because her nonna always says nasty remarks about Josie’s mother Christina. As I mentioned before how Josie is never afraid to speak her opinion even towards her father Michael Andretti “You should be a politician. They’re full of crap too.” Josie at first speaks to her father as he is her greatest enemy but throughout the book she realises how much Michael Andretti really means to her.
ReplyDeleteI personally think Josie sees herself as a smart mature young woman who has some faults like anyone else and at times feels very insecure about herself because of her culture and family. Josie also thinks at the beginning of the novel that nobody really pays attention to her and knows what is going on with her emotions and how she feels about her culture and family.
Josie’s hang ups are she doesn’t feel self confidence just because she was illegitimate and has never had a father figure in her life. Another one of Josie’s hang ups is her culture she believes all Italian people care about is what is going on with someone else’s life “It’s people like you. Always worrying about what other people think.” Josie is also hung up on the fact she got in to her school from a scholarship, Josie does not feel like she belongs because she is not as rich as the other kids.
The way people around her see her depends on the person, for e.g Josie’s mother thinks of her as a smart, beautiful and stubborn young woman while on the other hand poison Ivy thinks Josie is nothing but a poor girl who only got into the school from a scholarship and Josie should be treated differently because she has no father.
Journal 5:
ReplyDeleteWhat are your impressions (so far) of Josie?
My impressions of Josie thus far in the book are that she is a very independent, outspoken kind of girl with down to earth morels that everybody can empathise with. One of the relatable quotes in the book that everyone would have said one stage or another is “I will run one day, run for my life”. This quote gives a relatable feeling that is mutual for all the targeted readers. She has a very relatable case that i can understand as i to have a single parent and can understand the hard times she faces. It seems though that she thinks her opinion must be stated and is always right which can sometimes be a problem for her.
How does she see herself?
Josie sees herself as not good enough but also at times like she is too good compared to others. She also criticises herself alot saying she is not good looking and is not beautiful like she describes her mum. Eg. “my mother is absolutely gorgeous and i could never get away wearing a bikini”.
What hang-ups does she have?
Josie thinks she is not good looking enough and does not like the fact that she is Italian. She is very judgmental about people and does not have alot of confidence.
How do others see her?
Others see Josie as somewhat snobby and can be little less judgmental. People can be a little mean to her but she can always be the bigger person and dismiss it.
Throughout the novel my impression of Josie are that she is a very smart, independent and thinks for herself. Josie has times when she is stubborn and treats her mother and grandmother with no respect even though she knows it. Josie regularly fights with her mother and grandmother. "One minute we love each other to bits abd soebd hours in deep and meaningful conversations and next minute we'll be schreeching at each other about the most ridiculous thing", Josie said in the novel.
ReplyDeleteI think Josie see's herself like she will never be good enough for society because she is of a different background."I wanted to go to a school in the inner west where all my friends had gone.They were Italian and Greek and we ruled primary school.They were on my level.I related to them".This quote shows how josie wants to be in a society she relates with so she doesnt feel disadvanted in society.
Josie's hang-ups are that she feels that she will never be good enough because she was an illegitimate child even though there is nothing wrong with having one parent.She is also hung-up on her culture as she is half Italian and the other half Australian. The Italian heritage has different guidelines to her Australian life.Josie's ordinary life style which is the opposite of the Italian life which outcomes differently to the way she should be seen in her Italian life which truly tears Josie apart.Her other hang-ups are the fact that she isn't rich like all the others in her school,Josie says "my biggest problem is going to a school dominated by rich people".This clearly makes her think that she wont get into their league when she is older.
The way other's see Josie varies on who the person is e.g Josie's mother thinks of her as beautiful, smart and stubborn while on the other side Ivy thinks Josie is nothing but a poor girl abd should be treated differently because she is a illegitimate child.
My impressions of Josie are that she is a very strong, smart and confident girl. She is confident in the sense that she is very self-spoken, she can speak for herself and isn’t afraid to voice her opinion. Josie thinks about life, about the things going on around her, she looks to learn and understand. In chapter 8, after her grandmother reveals a little something of her past, Josie thinks to herself, “But I wonder about that seventeen-year-old girl back then...I wonder what she dreamed about...how she turned out to be a person I don’t like...wonder if I’ll turn out to be just like her when I turn sixty-five.” Josie is confident and unconfident about different aspects of herself. She is confident in her in her wits that she may succeed and achieve, and that she has achieved; an upper middle classed girl, living in a two bed roomed home receiving a scholarship to a school comprised of the richer halve of Sydney, surpassing and excelling, being the top of that school. Josie sees herself as strong and independent woman who can stand on her own. She doesn’t think of herself as beautiful, not even ‘good looking’ and constantly wishes for the good looks of her mother and grandmother and even makes reference to an admiration of her father’s dimples and how angry it made her that she had not inherited them. She feels somewhat of an outcast in that of her social status and her family status. She is an outcast in her family because she is a bastard, because her mother had a child with an Australian man and then the man moved half way across the country and is therefore shunned by her family orientated Italian family. Josie’s friends see her as a strong minded smart girl. Her mother and family see her as a clever, brave, painful and difficult, assertive girl.
ReplyDeleteMy impression of Josie thus far is that she is an every day adolescent who faces the same problems as you and i. she is a very strong independent woman who sticks up for what she believes in. She is not afraid of others opinions and will stick to her guns no matter who you are. Even though she feels like the out cast and outsider at her new school she still is strong willed and grows tolerant of immature bullies. Overtime she blocked out bullying and learnt to appreciate her culture instead of being ashamed of it. Josie had to work for what she has. She is on scholarship at this prestigious school. Her family isn’t the wealthiest but she plans to change this by topping the school. Josie a modest girl but this personality trait can put her at a disadvantage in some situations. She doesn’t think much of herself at all. She envies her mother and grandmothers beauty and constantly is trying to impress and look exceptional. “It’s people like you. Always worrying about what other people think”. Josie had to overcome a big thing in her childhood. Not having a father there to be there for her and to nurture her in times of need. This also became blown out of proportion at school but Josie being Josie she learnt to ignore these immature comments and put these "haters" in their places.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading most of the book my impression of Josie is that she is a bright and smart girl but stubborn and ignorant at times. She has mixed feelings about her family during the book and times she is really caring and at other times does not care at all. At the start of the book Josie didn’t look forward to going to her nonna`s house and communicating with her. When her Nonna says that the youth of today have no respect Josie replies by telling her that “it’s not the youth of today Nonna, Its you and people like you”. This shows that she did not much respect her grandmother. Josie sees herself as not wanting to follow the Italian rules like her Nonna wants her to but just wants to be accepted as a normal person and think for herself and not care what people think of her decisions. She also doesn’t forgive the family members for giving her mother a hard time when she fell pregnant. Although she does not particularly like everything about being Italian and the things that come with it however she is still proud to be one as shown when she breaks Carly`s nose for calling her a wog in class. She expresses “ I’m just the same as them and I’d appreciate you not going on about wogs everyday. It offends me.” Josie also realises that no matter what her family say to her that they will always be there for her and care for her, she realises this when she looked at her grandmother and said “I realised she looked tired and I realised I loved her as much as I disliked her”. Another time she learns this is after she had the fight with her mother about her going out with a man from work and then asks her mother how she puts up with her after everything she says. Other people view Josie in different ways some people think her as just stubborn, smart and a waste of space like the girls at her school and then there are the people like her mother, grandmother, father and Sister Louise who think of her as a good and smart person but can sometimes be some of those things.
ReplyDeleteJOURNAL 5
ReplyDeleteAfter reading what I have read so far, my personal impression of Josie is that she is a very brilliant and intellectual girl but at times can be ignorant and stubborn. Throughout the book she has many mixed emotions about her family and the way they think. Everyday after school, Josie has to go to her Nonna's house which she hates because her nonna always talks about Josie's mother, Christina in a nasty way "The two of them are forver at loggerheads with each other." I think that Josie sees herslef as a maturing young womam who is affraid to speak her mind, she also sees heself as a person who doesn't really fit in well with the community because of her background and that she has never had a fatherly figure to look uo to.
Some of Josie's hang-ups are that she goes to a school that is over run by stuck-up rich kids who think they are the rulers "My biggest, though, is being stuck at a school run by rich kids." Another one of Josie's hang-ups are that she is being torn apart by her two cultures, Itlaian and Australian, she is getting confused betweent the two, the Italian culture sets the rules of how a woman should behave and the Australian culture is the normal daily life she she should live every single day. This is tearing her apart "I'll run one day. Run for my life. To be free."
The way that other people see Josie within her communitty depends on who you are and how well you really know Josie. For example Josie's mother will say that she is very smart, thinks for herself and always makes the right desicions, while a person like Ivy will say that she is a poor girl who has no father and should be disrespected.
Just about halfway through the book, to me Josie becomes an extremely independent person, she comes out as a person who values her pride above all else. She always thinks for herself and is quite competitive, especially against “Poison Ivy”. She never thinks twice about saying what she wants to say and even comes up as a first impression when she meets he dad.
ReplyDeleteWith the loss of a father she has grown up longing for one but all the while hating the concept of actually having one. This places her as an outcast in her school not only because everyone has a wealthy family but an entirely different lifestyle and set of expectations.
In regards to her family, Josie always feels different and insecure because she grew up without a father and in her families eyes she is viewed as a parasite and is only weighing the family down with a bad name. Despite all the complications in her life, Josie’s mother has still stuck with her through thick and thin. Josie adores her mother and always wishes she was born with her mother’s good looks, some people have even told her that saying “You’re like an exact replica of your mother... just without the looks”.
Josie has 4 main friends and is residing in a complicated love life between a rich boy named John who is captain of the school and the dream of nearly every girl in the school and Jacob, a rebellious, captain of a public school who doesn’t care less about what anyone says. She is expected to marry John but is deeply in love with Jacob since he matches her carefree personality.
Really, besides some hicks in her life Josie is just an average teenager that grows through the pain, heartbreak and realisation that everyone will eventually go through in life whether it be sooner or later.
From what I have read so far in the book Looking For Alibrandi I can see that the main character Josie is that she is a strong and stubborn person and she is intelligent. Josie is the type of person that is never afraid to speak her mind and sometimes this doesn't work well but she admits when she is wrong.
ReplyDeleteJosie sometimes seems to have self conscious issues such as her image, she doesn't think she is as beautiful as her mum which is stated in the book when she says, "my mum is absolutely gorgeous and I could never get away with wearing a bikini."
Josie is a mentally strong person but there are some aspects of her life that she doesn't like and she sometimes feels down because of her family and the community in which she lives in. She quotes, "I'll run one day. Run for my life."
I am quite interested to read the rest of the book Looking For Alibrandi and to see how it all pans out for Josie.
From my point of view of the novel " Looking for Alibrandi", Josie is an Italian-Australian who is on the last year of high school.
ReplyDeleteJosie seems to be a very talented individual who doesn't really adapt with being different from other students at her academic school.Josie doesn't have a strong relationship with the school students because they were brought up by a rich families whilst she wasn't very rich because the support of a mother wasn't enough to help her get through the stages in life. Many other students were from European backgrounds and Josie found it quite difficult to socialise with them.
Josie doesn't seem to have a very strong connection with her grandmother because she whines of how she has to visit her grandma, however she uses the excuse of "HSC" to help her escape. Josie looks up to her mother and views her as a role model/ single mother who is going through a tough time. Josie compliments the beautiful presence her mother owns and the natural appearance she has.
She doesn't see herself as a talented, beautiful girl.
Many other people, describe her as 'lacking respect" because of how she portrays her personality and people view that negatively.
Andrew Pham.
My impressions of Josie out of the whole book is that she is a woman who knows what she wants and is confident in everything she does. She has her life plan set out and knows what to do to achieve this.
ReplyDeleteAlthough she has difficulty with her background and their traditions and her relationship with her Nonna is weird. she has very strong ideas of people and often very selfish.
she is very independent and really wants to run away from her culture and background and blend in with everyone else. "I'll run one day, run for my life"
Although she may look like she has a lot of trouble and mess, her friends see her as a goodie-goodie and see that there is nothing wrong with her life because she has a boyfriend and a job
Overall I think that Josie has an ideal and regular life with life problems but is lucky in a way to have the people she has that love her.
My impressions of Josie so far in the book "Looking for Alibrandi"is that there are some things that make her unique and special from the others.
ReplyDeleteJosie ,the main character of the book has a personality of having a curious mind and her own mind which she doesn't follow other people.She is has a very intelligent mine and has a stubborn attitude.
She sometimes tries to not get involve with other people like as in chapter 2 when she beat
a girl named Poison Ivy in an exam which Poison Ivy had a hate for her.
Josie perspective of her life is really having a step ahead in life and is really trying to focus on her HSC.
Though Josie hates her Nonna a lot and is weird she stills has a heart for Nonna because its her own family.Her background and culture also makes her different from the rest of the school because of the main populations being Anglo Saxon Australian.Josie truly doesn't enjoy following her Italian culture and also feels left out for going to a catholic school full of rich people though Josie is not as rich as the rest.
Josie has four friends that are all very unique and different to the rest.She doesn't really get along with them but stills have them on their sides.
Her life is already independent with already having a boyfriend and a job.
Josie family hates her mother a lot because of her Italian Culture having to know who your husband is.Even Josie own Grandmother is backstabbing her daughter saying her mother is a bad influence and not knowing who the father of Josie is.Josie other relatives give no respect to Josie mother.
My opinion is Josie is very unusual to the rest and having a sort of unique family she is living in.Having a one single parent is very difficult to get through with your other relatives when your in an Italian culture.
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ReplyDeleteWhat are your impressions (so far) of Josie? How does she see herself? What hang-ups does she have? How do others see her?
ReplyDeleteMy impression of Josie so far is of a smart and intelligent person that shares her feelings with others and speaks of nothing but the truth, the good factors about Josie is that she has a proper bond with her mother, in times of hardship she can always relate to her mother for comfort, which shows me she has a good relationship with her mother.
Josie’s hang-ups are that she feels that she doesn’t belong in the school community she is in, one of the reasons is that she is not rich, “my biggest problem is going to a school dominated by rich people”, and the other is that he does not have a father, because of this she has no one to look up to.
Josie sees herself as a talented and smart individual, she also thinks her life is ‘crap’ reasons for this is she does something wrong her grandmother will relate to the way Christina brought her up, she wishes she could get away from all the ‘talk’ and nonsense that goes on in her family “I’ll run one day. Run for my life”,
Others see Josie as a reliable person, such as John Barton, the reason for this is that they both can both express their emotions to each other, there was a time when they both shared secrets with each other by writing them on paper. Josie is seen as a smart person by her friends and but a person with a lot of problems.
My oppinion is that josie worries too much about her problems, she needs to look on the bright side of things , such as her good grades and achieving her goals.
From what I have read, Josie is 17 year old. She is very intelligent and talented girl. She the type of girl who is confident in herself, but has a stubborn attitude
ReplyDeleteJosie wants to take control of her life and to get the right grades.
Josephine has never met her father, but she has only heard about him from what her mother has told her.
Josie contains hatred for Nonna because she is weird, but Josie still respects Nonna because she is part of the family. Josie also feels left out going to a rich Catholic School and being different to everyone else cause of her different culture background. Josie doesn’t really enjoy being an Italian.
In My opinion Josie is a special girl who grew up with 1 single parent not knowing her father only stories about him must be difficult for her.
Journal # 5
ReplyDeleteWhat are your impressions (so far) of Josie? How does she see herself? What hang-ups does she have? How do others see her?
My impressions of Josie so far is a person who suffers from many difficulties mainly on being illegitimate. Her hatred of her Nonna was because of this problem. She struggles to live with her culture that she mentions as having ‘ridiculous rules and restrictions’, this is shown on page 40. She thinks that nobody seems to understand her and seems to have all of these family problems due to what had happened between her mother and father. She also finds herself as being different from other students from her school, because of their background and their wealth. This is what she finds that is her biggest issue. This is shown on page 6,’ My biggest problem though, is being stuck at a school dominated by rich people’. Her hang-ups are based on her family and her Italian background. She finds it very difficult to fit in with the people around her in her school, even her friends.
So far others, including her friends find her as being self centred and is better than other people, this is shown on page 31, ’You are a snob, you might have one hundred hang- ups, but you still think that your better than the average person’. Her Nonna finds her as being disrespectful, ‘ You are without respect, Jozzie’.
J.T