Looking For Alibrandi Identity Essay
Looking for Alibrandi is a film that conveys the meaning of identity through the use of a variety of film techniques illustrated by the composers. The Outsiders, a novel by S.E. Hinton also has the meaning of identity hidden away somewhere between its pages, as does the poem The Road Not Taken but between its four stanzas. Poetic and language techniques give us a better idea of the meaning of identity.
Identity, the word that describes who we are and how we see ourselves as a human being. A lot of things in this world contribute and influence our identity, like nationality, culture, family, peers and past experiences. Josephine Alibrandi, a seventeen year old Australian born Italian, is a girl who has many barriers in her current life. She does not know who her father is her nonna is nags on about everything in her life, she falls in love with the school captain of Cook Iyre and her best friend commits suicide. All these barriers are stopping her from finding her identity, but at the same time contributing to it. Josie goes to St Martha’s, a private catholic school that is “all about money, prestige and what your father does for a living.” She is of low social-economic background and is …show more content…
on a scholarship, which makes her an outcast along with her ‘wog’ background. She finds out she is a quarter Australia, and that her last name should not be Alibrandi but Sandford. She accepts this.
Colour plays a symbolic role in this film. At the very start, the scenes are in a sepia hazy colour, which symbolises oldness, traditional and as soon as Josie steps into the frame, all the colours go back to normal, which is saying that Josie is a girl who doesn’t like the traditional ways and likes to live her own life. “This is Tomato Day, or as I like to refer to it, National Wog day.” This shows how much she appreciates her tradition, which is not a lot. Josie’s mama, nonna and herself is seen to be wearing red clothes, which is the traditional colour of Italy “You probably can’t tell by looking at me, but actually I’m cursed, so is my mama, and my nonna.” They also stand out, the three individuals who are cursed. Red symbolises culture. Same concept with the scene occurring during the Regional Dance where she wears a red dress, which, for one, stands out in the crowd which shows her individualness and her outcastness at the same time. And two, the colour represents her culture and background. Jacob on the other hand, wears clothes that are dull in colour, like gray, navy and a dark greenish colour. These colours are the opposite of Josie’s cultural colour but they end up together in a relationship, which shows that Josie does not mind the cultural difference. The scene at the party where it was the first time Christina and Michael Andretti meet each other again. Michael is wearing a white shirt and jacket. As he is someone that Josie has not yet accepted into her life, he is a standout, like an Asian living with the Aborigines in the outback. Throughout the movie, Josie is usually found wearing the colour red, she carries around a part of her culture even if she does not want to. At the start of the last scene, another Tomato day, everything is in normal colours, no sepia haze. It shows how Josie has accepted her identity as an Italian and she is proud of it.
Music plays a major part in this film, setting moods and emphasising scenes. Both diagetic and non-diagetic music is used. During the very first scene, diagetic music is used, and the music is Italian, which highlights the culture and family of Josie Alibrandi. Josie says “This might be where I come from, but do I really belong here?” She believes she does not belong in the old, traditional lifestyle of the Italians; she goes and changes the music to something modern and upbeat, the music the modern people listen to. Non-diagetic music is played in the scene where the St Anthony boys make their first appearance. The music sounds like holy music, or music from heaven, which shows us how much John Barton means to Josie. He’s like, a saint. In contrast to this soothing music is the rock diagetic music being played in the bathroom after Josie ran into her father at nonna’s house. She’s in the bathroom, touching her face with an unbelievable look on her face. Most likely thinking how much she looks like her father. The music is turned off, and realisation hits Josie, that she has just met her father, and her “...father has a scent, a mixture of cigarettes, after shave and a smell that all men have.” When she was on that motorbike with Jacob Coote, her first reactions were screaming her head off in fear, but as she got used to it, she started to enjoy it so she starts screaming in joy. The music adds a happy atmosphere to the scene. Josie looks extremely happy, like that’s where she belongs. In the scene where John and Josie are about to exchange their pieces of paper, or their ‘soul’, music starts playing, music that can be described as dramatic, high singing tone with a slow melody. This builds suspense. Josie has trusted John enough to give him her soul; John is an important part in Josie’s identity. The scene where John dies, and he’s lying in the coffin being carried out, there is a song, a song that sounds saint-like and depressing. This song continues playing as the scene changes to one with Josie in her bed, and she decides to open up John’s ‘soul’. All he wanted was freedom, so Josie ripped up his ‘soul’ and threw him out of the window, releasing his soul, for him to be free. Like her wanted to. Most importantly is the end song, it is the same as the song at the start of the movie but this time there is no interruptions with Italian music, because Josie has accepted her culture, who she is. It shows the change Alibrandi has made from the start of the film to the end of the film.
Voiceovers are one thing that is consistent throughout the whole film. Her voiceovers provide the audience to what she is thinking and how she’s feeling. This lets us connect to Josie on a whole different level and we can understand her more. Like when she says “Their fathers treat them like princesses... They think they have everything, and you know what? They do.” This tells us that even though Josie does not admit it, she is jealous of Carly’s life. But after John’s death she says: “I’ve always wanted to be part of his world. But I don’t belong there... I don’t belong anywhere and I hate it.” She has accepted the fact that she does not belong in the world of the rich. John’s death has affected her greatly, and she now feels like she does not belong anywhere. But after she finds out about her grandmothers lies, after she gets closer to Jacob, after she and Michael has developed a good father-daughter relationship. She is slowly figuring out what her identity is. “I’m Christina and Michael’s daughter. And I’m Katia’s granddaughter. And we’re not cursed, we’re blessed.” Josephine has finally found her place; she has her parents, a great grandmother and a caring boyfriend.
The Road Not Taken is a poem that is similar to Josie in Looking for Alibrandi.
In The Road Not Taken, the character is given two roads to choose from, it does not matter which road is chosen, it will affect and change your life, change your identity. The person in the poem chose the road less travelled by while Josie chose the road she thought was right. The decision to not have sex with Jacob has changed her identity in some way. Whereas if she chose the path to continue with him, she could have turned into a mother, a single mother who dropped out of school to take care of her child. She has chosen the path to forgive her father, instead of continuing her hatred towards him, and that has changed her. She now has a loving father whom she can feel the fatherly love coming
from.
The Outsiders also relate to Looking for Alibrandi as well. “It’s okay... we aren’t in the same class. Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset too.” The greasers and socs are from different neighbourhoods, have different style and the socs are rich pricks. Same with Josie and the rest of St Martha’s. She’s a girl on a scholarship while everyone else paid to attend that school with their own money, or should I say their dad’s hard earned money. But it doesn’t matter what socio-economic class you belong to, at the end of the day everyone is still the same, we’re all human beings. In one of the chapters, Two-Bit says “...I’ll pick up some of our own kind.” This is just like Looking for Alibrandi, where Sarah tells Josie that “The poor marry the poor, the wogs marry the wog, the westies marry the westies and the north shores marry the north shores.” Our identity does not mean we have to marry the people with similar identities as us. Like Josie, she is “cross-breeding” with Jacob as Sarah puts it. But Josie is persistent; she believes that they can make it through the hardship if they believe in each other.
The Road Not Taken and The Outsiders are both related somehow to Looking for Alibrandi. The composers have successfully conveyed the meaning of identity through the variety of techniques they have especially chosen and used.
Identity, the word that describes who we are and how we see ourselves as a human being. A lot of things in this world contribute and influence our identity, like nationality, culture, family, peers and past experiences. Josephine Alibrandi, a seventeen year old Australian born Italian, is a girl who has many barriers in her current life. She does not know who her father is her nonna is nags on about everything in her life, she falls in love with the school captain of Cook Iyre and her best friend commits suicide. All these barriers are stopping her from finding her identity, but at the same time contributing to it. Josie goes to St Martha’s, a private catholic school that is “all about money, prestige and what your father does for a living.” She is of low social-economic background and is …show more content…
on a scholarship, which makes her an outcast along with her ‘wog’ background. She finds out she is a quarter Australia, and that her last name should not be Alibrandi but Sandford. She accepts this.
Colour plays a symbolic role in this film. At the very start, the scenes are in a sepia hazy colour, which symbolises oldness, traditional and as soon as Josie steps into the frame, all the colours go back to normal, which is saying that Josie is a girl who doesn’t like the traditional ways and likes to live her own life. “This is Tomato Day, or as I like to refer to it, National Wog day.” This shows how much she appreciates her tradition, which is not a lot. Josie’s mama, nonna and herself is seen to be wearing red clothes, which is the traditional colour of Italy “You probably can’t tell by looking at me, but actually I’m cursed, so is my mama, and my nonna.” They also stand out, the three individuals who are cursed. Red symbolises culture. Same concept with the scene occurring during the Regional Dance where she wears a red dress, which, for one, stands out in the crowd which shows her individualness and her outcastness at the same time. And two, the colour represents her culture and background. Jacob on the other hand, wears clothes that are dull in colour, like gray, navy and a dark greenish colour. These colours are the opposite of Josie’s cultural colour but they end up together in a relationship, which shows that Josie does not mind the cultural difference. The scene at the party where it was the first time Christina and Michael Andretti meet each other again. Michael is wearing a white shirt and jacket. As he is someone that Josie has not yet accepted into her life, he is a standout, like an Asian living with the Aborigines in the outback. Throughout the movie, Josie is usually found wearing the colour red, she carries around a part of her culture even if she does not want to. At the start of the last scene, another Tomato day, everything is in normal colours, no sepia haze. It shows how Josie has accepted her identity as an Italian and she is proud of it.
Music plays a major part in this film, setting moods and emphasising scenes. Both diagetic and non-diagetic music is used. During the very first scene, diagetic music is used, and the music is Italian, which highlights the culture and family of Josie Alibrandi. Josie says “This might be where I come from, but do I really belong here?” She believes she does not belong in the old, traditional lifestyle of the Italians; she goes and changes the music to something modern and upbeat, the music the modern people listen to. Non-diagetic music is played in the scene where the St Anthony boys make their first appearance. The music sounds like holy music, or music from heaven, which shows us how much John Barton means to Josie. He’s like, a saint. In contrast to this soothing music is the rock diagetic music being played in the bathroom after Josie ran into her father at nonna’s house. She’s in the bathroom, touching her face with an unbelievable look on her face. Most likely thinking how much she looks like her father. The music is turned off, and realisation hits Josie, that she has just met her father, and her “...father has a scent, a mixture of cigarettes, after shave and a smell that all men have.” When she was on that motorbike with Jacob Coote, her first reactions were screaming her head off in fear, but as she got used to it, she started to enjoy it so she starts screaming in joy. The music adds a happy atmosphere to the scene. Josie looks extremely happy, like that’s where she belongs. In the scene where John and Josie are about to exchange their pieces of paper, or their ‘soul’, music starts playing, music that can be described as dramatic, high singing tone with a slow melody. This builds suspense. Josie has trusted John enough to give him her soul; John is an important part in Josie’s identity. The scene where John dies, and he’s lying in the coffin being carried out, there is a song, a song that sounds saint-like and depressing. This song continues playing as the scene changes to one with Josie in her bed, and she decides to open up John’s ‘soul’. All he wanted was freedom, so Josie ripped up his ‘soul’ and threw him out of the window, releasing his soul, for him to be free. Like her wanted to. Most importantly is the end song, it is the same as the song at the start of the movie but this time there is no interruptions with Italian music, because Josie has accepted her culture, who she is. It shows the change Alibrandi has made from the start of the film to the end of the film.
Voiceovers are one thing that is consistent throughout the whole film. Her voiceovers provide the audience to what she is thinking and how she’s feeling. This lets us connect to Josie on a whole different level and we can understand her more. Like when she says “Their fathers treat them like princesses... They think they have everything, and you know what? They do.” This tells us that even though Josie does not admit it, she is jealous of Carly’s life. But after John’s death she says: “I’ve always wanted to be part of his world. But I don’t belong there... I don’t belong anywhere and I hate it.” She has accepted the fact that she does not belong in the world of the rich. John’s death has affected her greatly, and she now feels like she does not belong anywhere. But after she finds out about her grandmothers lies, after she gets closer to Jacob, after she and Michael has developed a good father-daughter relationship. She is slowly figuring out what her identity is. “I’m Christina and Michael’s daughter. And I’m Katia’s granddaughter. And we’re not cursed, we’re blessed.” Josephine has finally found her place; she has her parents, a great grandmother and a caring boyfriend.
The Road Not Taken is a poem that is similar to Josie in Looking for Alibrandi.
In The Road Not Taken, the character is given two roads to choose from, it does not matter which road is chosen, it will affect and change your life, change your identity. The person in the poem chose the road less travelled by while Josie chose the road she thought was right. The decision to not have sex with Jacob has changed her identity in some way. Whereas if she chose the path to continue with him, she could have turned into a mother, a single mother who dropped out of school to take care of her child. She has chosen the path to forgive her father, instead of continuing her hatred towards him, and that has changed her. She now has a loving father whom she can feel the fatherly love coming
from.
The Outsiders also relate to Looking for Alibrandi as well. “It’s okay... we aren’t in the same class. Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset too.” The greasers and socs are from different neighbourhoods, have different style and the socs are rich pricks. Same with Josie and the rest of St Martha’s. She’s a girl on a scholarship while everyone else paid to attend that school with their own money, or should I say their dad’s hard earned money. But it doesn’t matter what socio-economic class you belong to, at the end of the day everyone is still the same, we’re all human beings. In one of the chapters, Two-Bit says “...I’ll pick up some of our own kind.” This is just like Looking for Alibrandi, where Sarah tells Josie that “The poor marry the poor, the wogs marry the wog, the westies marry the westies and the north shores marry the north shores.” Our identity does not mean we have to marry the people with similar identities as us. Like Josie, she is “cross-breeding” with Jacob as Sarah puts it. But Josie is persistent; she believes that they can make it through the hardship if they believe in each other.
The Road Not Taken and The Outsiders are both related somehow to Looking for Alibrandi. The composers have successfully conveyed the meaning of identity through the variety of techniques they have especially chosen and used.