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
and mainstream factions of Australian society. In the book, Melina Marchetta positions the reader to believe that cultural, social and gender boundaries in the Australian society marginalised people from different background by giving readers an inside view of Italian Australian community from the periphery of mainstream Australian society.
Dominant cultural boundaries and discourses represented in Australian society created and constructed Katia’s experience of marginalization and prejudice.
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
your hair ", describing how untidy she look. It is proven through the above incidents that cultural boundaries which exist in the community constructed katia experience of marginalization.
Dominant gender representations and discourses associated within the Italian society created Nona katia’s exposition to the ostracism.
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
money”, Pg No:225) Francesco moreover treated Katia like one of his farm animals (Quote: "Your grandfather Francesco treated me like one of his farms animals". Pg No: 222). Katia stayed with Francesco baring all the discrimination as she could not disgrace her family honour with going out with an Australian man. She was scared that people would talk and gossip about her family. From examining aspects of the gender stereotyping it was clearly noticeable that Nona katia was marginalized because of her gender.
Leading social class representation and discourses within both Australian and Italian cultures constructed katia’s experience of exclusion from the society. Katia had no social status when she came to Australia; she was living in the rural areas in a shack with no proper medication or food, she was isolated from the civilisation as she had minor position as a migrant in the Australian community. Nona Katia has perception that others are watching them and talking about their family, she is always scared of people talking behind her back. (Quote: people always talk, and it is me who always suffers from their talk, Pg No: 95). . She believes that she belongs to the Italian community and scared that she will get rejected from that society. Katia also believed that Christina getting pregnant without a husband resulted in loss of status in the community. Furthermore as she has minor relationship with Josie and Christina make her feel she is marginalised from the family. In general Nona katia has average middle class house and are recognised as middle classed family in the community. According to the points mentioned above Katia was discriminated and marginalised due to her social class in the Australian society.
From the above grounds it is clearly visible that Nona Katia has been marginalized by the culture, age, social class and gender discourses that are sculptured in the society. The book looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta has represented discourses of culture, race and class leading to stereotyping and thus marginalisation in society.