Gossip and Appearances - Group 5 by Induni Hendahewa https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr Eliza, Molly, and Induni en-us 2021-08-09 00:06:40 UTC 2021-08-09 02:17:30 UTC hello@padlet.com Induni 107729_7 https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672227544 “I think things got worse when I started at St. Martha’s because I began to understand what the absence of a father meant. Also there were no Europeans like me. No Europeans who didn’t have money to back them up. The ones like me didn’t belong in the eastern and northern suburbs.”

Appearance wise, all the girls at St. Martha’s had their “perfect”, traditional, families, with a mother and a father. Josie did not have this.  Josie’s family also did not have much money and she was a scholarship student. Josie, like many others at her school, cared about how she was perceived. Not being the same as everyone else in the money sense as well as her being European made her feel as if she stood out and was isolated. ]]> 2021-08-09 00:20:30 UTC https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672227544 Eliza 51206_5 https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672231144 “I used to hear my illegitimacy mentioned during the first years at St Martha's, but nobody has spoken about it for ages…. Even though the girls don’t mention it, I bet you that they’re talking about me behind my back.” Pg 8

This quote relates to the theme of gossip in the novel. She hears people about her and her illegitimacy behind her back. This is considered as gossip. This can also link back to appearance as the gossip tells her that people judge her about her mother was a “Bohemian mother who believed in free love back then”. Because of this, when people say her name their thoughts turn to how she is illegitimate and that is her appearance to them.]]> 2021-08-09 00:26:18 UTC https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672231144 Induni 107729_7 https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672237920 “He’s attracted to me and for once someone found me interesting, not because I was Josie’s mother or Katia’s daughter but because I was me, and there is nothing, Josie, nothing you can do to take that away from me.”

Josie’s mum thought that everyone thought of her as just that, Josie’s mother and her mother’s daughter. But when she began dating someone else, she started to understand there were people who did not perceive her as just that, but as Christina Alibrandi. Christina believed she appeared to everyone as Josie’s mother or Katia’s daughter, but she was beginning to realise she was past that appearance that some people thought of her as. ]]> 2021-08-09 00:37:57 UTC https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672237920 Eliza 51206_5 https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672239322 “It took me a week to realise that I was no longer angry about what Nonna did thirty-six years ago. It’s funny that all my high-school life I’ve been worried about what other people think of me and say about me behind my back. Yet all of a sudden I realised that I didn’t care what they thought and I even began to doubt that anyone, give or take a few gossips like Sera, gave a damn either.” Pg 220

This quote has three parts to it. The first part is how Josie saw Nonna in a different way for the first time in her life. This is Nonna’s appearance to Josie. The second and third part are linked together. The second part is Josie telling us how she used to care what her appearance was to others but the third part is how Josie has developed and evolved. She now doesn’t care about her appearance in the eyes of others and this is part of her life that has held her back for the whole of her high-school life]]> 2021-08-09 00:40:15 UTC https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672239322 Molly https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672244714 ‘Even though the girls at St Martha’s don’t mention it, I bet you they’re talking about me behind my back. I can feel it in my bones. It makes me feel I will never be a part of their society and I hate that because I’m just as smart as they are’.

This quote shows that Josie is concerned with what other people think of her because she is half Australian half Italian and she was born out of wedlock. Josie assumes that popular people are perfect and don’t suffer from gossip and rumours. Even though Josie doesn’t like the popular girls, she still wants to be like them because she thinks they’re perfect. Josie behaves in a specific way because she doesn’t want people gossiping about her. Josie is also gossiped about because her nonna had an affair with another man who is Christina’s real father. Josie realises that gossip is a part of life and unavoidable.
]]> 2021-08-09 00:48:40 UTC https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672244714 Molly https://padlet.com/107729_7/agiy75ius74usxhr/wish/1672318335 ‘Oh Josie, you still do not understand. Could you imagine how life would be for me if I married Marcus? Could you imagine what life would be for my sister? People are cruel. They would make our lives hell. But mostly Josie, think of Christina. Back then, think of the way my darling Christina would be treated. It is not like these times, Josie. She would have no one. No Australians, no Italians. People would spit at her and say she was nothing’.

Nonna came to Australia with her husband, Nonno, when she was a newly married teenager in the 1930’s. Josie learns that Nonna kicked Christina out when she became pregnant as a teenager and only started to talk to Christina after Nonno’s death. Nonna is too focused on keeping up appearances. Over the course of the novel, Josie comes to respect Nonna and she realises Nonna was just trying to do the best with what she was given.
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