Similarities Between Destroying Avalon And Looking For Alibrandi

Various amounts of novels and films use the theme of conflict as the focus point of their story to display the different effects that conflicts can have on an individual. The novel, Destroying Avalon, written by Kate McCaffery and the film Looking For Alibrandi, directed by Kate Woods, explores what the protagonists, Avalon and Josie, learn as a consequence of their disputes. Culture, class and self denial prove to be obstacles for Avalon and Josie as they both struggle to achieve a sense of belonging. Both the protagonists learn that family is one of the key factors in their life and also that accepting themselves may have prevented their conflicts from occurring.

Destroying Avalon is a novel which, through Avalon's experiences at her new

Similarly to Avalon, Josie experiences issues with possessing a sense of belonging as well as accepting herself. She competes with herself to accept not only her ethnic background, but also her social status within society. The conflicts transformed Josie’s attitude and personality, from Josie wanting to completely block out her culture to learning that she should be more self-acceptant as well as working on her relationships with her family and friends by the end of the film. Looking For Alibrandi introduces the protagonist through Tomato Day, an annual celebration in which Josie’s Italian family takes part in. Josie is utterly embarrassed that her family participate in this annually and consequently describes it as “national wog day”. This embarrassment is exemplified to the audience as Josie’s facial and body language show no interest in celebrating and she leaves halfway through to head off to Bondi Beach. This action along with Josie stating through a voiceover that “This might be where I come from, but do I really belong here?”, displays her non-acceptance of her culture as she attempts to uptake a typical Australian activity instead of a cultural celebration. Conversely, the final scene of the film displays another Tomato Day, the same time next year and we are shown an amazing character development of Josie. Through the long grieving process of her biological Dad reentering her life plus the discovery of Josies Grandfather not being the biological Father of her Mum, Josie learns to accept that family is one of the most important aspects of her life, and she states this by announcing to the audience “I’m Christina and Michael’s daughter and I’m Katia’s granddaughter. And we’re not cursed, we’re blessed.” This is a complete contrast to the beginning of the film where she repeatedly emphasises the fact she is cursed.