Summary
Chapter 28
The next morning Josie is walking towards homeroom when she sees Poison Ivy crying on the stairs. When Ivy sees Josie, she rushes over and tells her that John Barton is dead. Josie is shocked, and tells Ivy to stop being ridiculous. Ivy tells her that John killed himself, and Josie yells at her to stop lying, until Ivy says her father wrote the autopsy report. At this, Josie walks to class, but then has to run to the bathroom to vomit. She tries to remember John, but can’t picture him. She wants to go home, but she has to take her economics HSC. After her test she calls her father to pick her up. He comes, and thinks she’s only stressed about her test, until she tells him that John Barton has killed himself. Michael has no idea what to do because at this point, Josie is too angry at John to cry. She tells her father of all the bullying and judgement she had to endure because of her illegitimacy, and how it made her think about killing herself, but she didn’t. She wonders how someone like John, who had wealth, social standing, and breeding, could dare to kill themselves. Michael tells her those things don’t necessarily lead to happiness, but Josie doesn’t accept his answer. At a loss, her father takes her inside and calls for Christina.
When Josie sees her mother she clings to her. Josie and Michael tell her John Barton is dead, and Josie refuses to let her mother leave her side. She confesses to her parents that she’s afraid to die, and Michael says John was afraid to live. She also tries to blame herself, saying she should have recognized the signs, but Michael says no, she can’t think or feel for other people. Josie’s parents try to comfort her, but all she feels is cold and afraid. She finally falls asleep, with her parents wrapped around her. Josie wakes up suddenly during the night, as if she was shaken awake. At first she’s confused, but then she remembers the notes she and John exchanged during their coffee hangout months ago. She finally opens his note, and finds a poem he wrote about loneliness. Try as she might, Josie can’t remember what she wrote in the note she gave to John. She tears up his note and scatters the pieces in the wind, but one lone piece comes back to her. She wonders if, like the piece of paper, John is still alone.
The next day Josie tells Jacob about John’s suicide, and he takes it harder than she does. He wonders what the rest of them have to look forward to if someone like John found life not worth living. The night before Josie dreamt it was Jacob who died, not John, so she’s afraid to let him go. Jacob makes Josie promise to never stop dreaming, because without dreams there’s nothing to think forward to, and he thinks that’s what happened to John. Josie agrees, and makes Jacob promise to never stop dreaming either. Josie musters up the courage to attend John’s funeral, and it’s packed. She wants to scream at John about how many people loved him. At school, the teachers hold special talks about HSC, because they believe that’s what made John kill himself. Josie knows better, and thinks John knew for years he was going to die. She remembers their talk about emancipation, and thinks it's about the horror of John dying to achieve his, but the beauty of her living to achieve hers.
Chapter 29
Speech Night has arrived, and it’s pretty emotional. Josie receives several awards, but Ivy is valedictorian. Josie doesn’t doubt it, and realizes that Ivy isn’t Poison Ivy anymore, but just Ivy. The girls run into each other in the bathroom, and begin to babble about their fears to one another. At first this confuses Josie, but she remembers John saying they were similar to each other. As they part ways, Josie asks her to have coffee sometime if they ever see each other at university. They hug, and Josie can finally cry with someone about the events of the past few weeks.
After speech night ends, Michael takes Josie for pizza. He reveals that Josie’s poetic speech reminds him of Christina when she was in high school, because she also loved poetry. It was her dream to study English at university, but it got deferred when she became pregnant. Josie wonders how people let others stop them from going after their dreams, and Michael calls her naive. He then tells her that he wants to adopt her, and give her his last name. Josie, hellbent on her parents getting back together, asks if he wants to change her mother’s last name as well via marriage, but then turns serious. She tells Michael to not be offended if she needs more time, because the decision doesn’t only impact her, but also Christina and Nonna Katia. Still, she’s happy, and calls him Dad for the first time. After this, Michael drops another bomb and reveals that he’s staying in Sydney. He’s even bought a house near to where Christina and Josie live. This of course thrills Josie, especially when says he broke up with his girlfriend in Adelaide. She has high hopes for a reconciliation between her parents, but Michael says the move is so he can fulfill his duties and responsibilities as a father. When he drops Josie home, she tells him she loves him.
At home, Christina and Josie sit in companionable silence before Christina asks Josie if she’s made a decision. Josie shrugs, and asks her mom what she thinks. Christina admits she cried, not because she sees the adoption as a rejection, but because after having Josie to herself all these years, now Michael has a claim on her as well. Josie understands, but realizes that changing her name will be more for Michael than for herself. By changing her name she hopes to alleviate some of the guilt he still carries from 17 years ago. However, she doesn’t think a full adoption is necessary, because that’s for people that don’t have anyone. Because she’s always had Christina and Nonna Katia, an adoption is unnecessary. Christina remarks that Michael is a lucky man, and Josie replies that they’re all lucky people.
Chapter 30
A few days after Speech Night Jacob comes over to Josie’s house to see her. He hugs her, tells her it’s not her fault, and then says he thinks they should take a break. Josie starts to freak out, and demands an explanation. Jacob says it’s because he doesn’t want to get serious with anyone, and points out the negative differences between him and Josie. Josie doesn’t believe him, because Jacob has never indulged in self-pity, but Jacob says he’s been fooling himself the whole time. Until he met Josie he didn’t care about his grades, but dating her has made him feel like a failure. Josie still doesn’t believe him, and thinks he’s breaking up because he’s waiting for someone more of his type to come around. Jacob says that’s nonsense, and reminds Josie that she still hasn’t introduced him to her grandmother. He accuses her of being the one waiting for someone better to come along, like the reincarnation of John Barton. That comment is insulting, and Josie is appalled. Jacob says this is who she said he was, the boy with no rules, regulations, or Italian culture to keep him in line. Josie grabs at this and says he’s breaking up with her because of their cultural differences.
Sick of being called racist, Jacob reveals that Josie’s culture is one of the things he loves most about her. As bad as he feels when he’s around her, it’s not because she makes him feel that way. She’s opened up his mind so much, and now he wants more out of life, but he has to figure it out on his own. When Josie brings up the day they almost had sex and Jacob said he loved her, Jacob says he still does love her, but that she was right to refuse him. Josie isn’t sure of herself right now to dedicate herself to one person for the rest of her life. Jacob thinks they still have a great chance at being together forever, but now isn’t the right time. Josie starts to cry, and Jacob does too. He offers to still take her to her graduation dance, but she tells him to leave. He says he’ll call her and tries to hug her, but she pushes him away, so he leaves. When Christina comes home Josie starts to cry even more, so she calls Michael. They try to comfort Josie by telling her it’s for the best and that one day she’ll get over it, but Josie is convinced she’ll never fall in love again.
Chapter 31
After spending days crying in her room, Josie finally ventures out to meet her friends for pizza. Josie tries to dodge their sympathy and pity, but any mention of Jacob or his friends makes her cry again. Anna says she and Anton are going strong, and Lee reveals she finally had sex. Anna and Josie ask questions, and Sera suggests that if Josie had slept with Jacob, they would still be together. Josie remembers that Jacob said during their breakup and knows this isn’t true, so she ignores Sera. Later on as they walk to Anna’s house Lee and Josie talk privately, and Lee says she think Josie did the right thing by not sleeping with Jacob. She says Josie is different from her and Sera, and is the type to wait until love or marriage. Josie wonders if sleeping with Jacob really would have kept them together, and Lee says the loss of her virginity is too important to Josie for her to have given it away. Lee continues to say it felt like losing the last thing belonging to childhood, and wishes that she was a little girl again. Josie agrees, and the two girls wrap their arms around each other’s shoulders and follow the others home.
Chapter 32
Josie’s emancipation didn't happen the way she expected. She thought she would wake up one day and see the light, but it actually happened when she was crying. She had just thrown a birthday card from Jacob in the trash when she sat thinking and reflecting on the past year. She realizes that her emancipation didn't happen at one particular point, but during a series of events. Her past hang-ups were superseded, not by new ones, but by a few sorrows. She now knows where she belongs, and it’s not where the Seras and Carlys of the world have slotted her, but in a place she’s carved out all on her own, where both her Italian and Australian roots are on display. Her parents get along better than ever, and she wonders what’s holding them back, but seems to be letting them figure it out on their own. She and Michael Andretti are closer than ever, and she loves him more everyday. She sees his faults, but loves him all the same.
As for Jacob, she knows it’s not their cultural backgrounds keeping them apart, but their lack of self-knowledge. Neither of them knows that they want from themselves, much less each other. But for Josie, that’s finally okay. In her heart she believes she will one day be with Jacob again, so she takes his card out of the trash and places it on her mantle. She finally realizes it doesn’t matter if she’s Josephine Alibrandi, or Andretti, or Sandford, or even Coote. What matters is who she feels she is, and she feels like Michael and Christina’s daughter; Katia’s granddaughter; Sera, Anna and Lee’s friends; and Robert’s cousin. And as Josie looks back at her year, she realizes the “one day” everyone talked about finally came, because she finally understands.
Analysis
After ending the last section on such a high, it’s even more tragic when everything comes crashing down in the first moments of chapter 28. John’s suicide is the climax of Looking for Alibrandi, and the last major event to take what Josie knows to be true and turn it on its head. Sure, John had been depressed for most of the year, and often talked about how crappy and hopeless life was. And yet, he was the son of a rich, successful family who had everything going for him. Sure, he sometimes buckled under the pressure of his family and their expectations. But the last time Josie saw him, he seemed as if he’d figured out how to move past his parental pressure. Alas, for John the means of his emancipation was death. Though Josie can now look back and see the signs and hidden messages behind John’s final words to her at the rugby match, at the time his words seemed motivational and inspiring. Now, they’re the words of a hurt and lonely young man desperate for a way out.
After spending most of their relationship thinking John had the life and potential future she aspires to attain, Josie is confronted with a hard truth. Success, money, and affluence does not equal happiness. Being a member of the “in crowd” or earning access to certain social circles would not mean she has attained fulfillment. There’s more to life than tangible success, and John’s death proves that.
John’s suicide is an example of the irony of fate. Even Jacob, who was far from John’s biggest fan, recognizes the deep tragedy of his rival’s death. He wonders aloud to Josie what any of them have to look forward to, if someone like John who had everything was driven to suicide. In the end, Jacob determines that one of the keys to life is having dreams and goals. Dreams, even unfulfilled dreams, are what got Nonna Katia and Christina to persevere through their toughest times. Now, in spite of their confusion about the future and their own plans, Jacob tells Josie to never stop dreaming, because at least they’ll have something worth living for and working towards.
Marchetta uses a slew of similes to make powerful comparisons and statements in this last movement of the novel. For example, she uses a simile to compare John to a lone piece of paper that flew back to her after she threw it out her window. When the paper comes back to rest on Josie’s windowpane, she wonders if John is still alone like the piece of paper, wherever he is. Another effective simile compares Josie to a junkie that has mood swings whenever they take a hit. This simile does a good job of explaining the range of emotions Josie has experienced this past year, and how quickly and thoroughly different events can impact her feelings. Josie was getting a good grip on her feelings and learning how to let go of superficial things, but John’s suicide demonstrates that there are things you can’t let go of.
Jacob breaking up with her is another event that Josie can’t let go of at first. At the time, it feels like the world is ending and she believes she will never fall in love again. However, those are the thoughts of a younger, less mature, and more dramatic Josie. Those are the thoughts of a Josie was just beginning her seventeenth year of life. The Josie at the end of the novel is wiser and more mature. It takes her some time, but she recognizes the truth and validity of Jacob’s perspective when he was breaking up with her. Although she has come a long way on her path to self-discovery, she has a ways to go, and so does Jacob. It’s prudent and fair for them to develop themselves as individuals before committing to a serious relationship together.
By the end of the novel Josie has undergone several inversions. She’s gone from bitterly disliking Ivy to sharing a unique bond with her. Instead of finding her grandmother annoying, she understands her and values not only her sacrifices but also the time she gets to spend with her. Instead of allowing rude and snide remarks from people like Carly and Sera impact her, she’s learned to tell them to mind their own business. Instead of resenting her culture and viewing it as a cage, she sees the beauty in tradition and takes pride in her heritage. Finally, instead of viewing her father as a stranger, she’s keeping him as a crucial piece of her family and life. As Josie eloquently asserts in the last few sentences of the book, it’s not important what her last name is. What’s more important is who she is to the people in her life. Her emancipation came when she stopped trying to reconcile the “Alibrandi” in her with her Australian-ness, and instead focused on being Josie. Josie’s story resonates with readers around the world because the themes explored and experiences she has are universal to teens everywhere. Her story is particularly poignant to first- and second-generation immigrants who struggle to reconcile their family’s culture with the culture of their new country. With immigration rates higher now than ever, it’s clear that Josie and her story will remain popular for years to come.
