Themes and Issues.

PRESSURE
Jacob: "Welcome to the nineties, Josephine. Women don’t have to be virgins any more."
Jacob is saying that hardly any of the girls of the 90's are virgins anymore, but since Josie was brought up with an Italian background she doesn't understand this. Jacob was brought up to think that not being a teenage virgin is ok, but Josie was brought up to think it wasn't.

Josie: "…Women don’t have to be pushed into things anymore…it’s (virginity) not a prize and I’m not a prize. But it’s mine. It belongs to me and I can only give it away once and I want to be sure when it happens Jacob…or one day someone else is doing it. I don’t want to do it, Jacob, because everyone else is doing it." (p213)

Josie is saying that she can't be pressured into doing something that she's not ready for. She doesn't want to have sex just because everyone else is.

Michael: "…living is the challenge, Josie. Not dying. Dying is so easy. Sometimes it only takes ten seconds to die. But living? That can take you eighty years and you do something in that time, whether it is giving birth to a baby or being a housewife or a barrister or a soldier. You’ve accomplished something. To throw that away at such a young age, to have no hope, is the biggest tragedy." (p236)

Michael is just telling Josie that to die is the easy way out, to live is the challenge.

"Father Stephen said that peace is a state of mind. We will never have world peace, John, so we have to be peaceful within ourselves and that will make us happy." (p134)

To be happy you have to be peaceful within yourself because we will never have world peace.

John Barton: "I’ve always had to be the best because it’s been expected of me." (p46)

Because John's father is an important person, he is expected to live up to his father and be important too, he must always have the best.

"But I don’t know what I want to be…how can I tell my father I don’t want to study law, if I don’t know what else I want to be." (p133-134)

John is pressured into studying law just like his father but he doesn't want to, he doesn't know what he wants to do. That's why he can't tell his father.

DESTINY
Josie: "…we’re masters of our own destiny."

we create our own future, we make it happen.

Lee: "That’s rubbish. If your father’s a dustman, you’re going to be a dustman and if our father’s filthy rich, you’re going to be filthy rich because he’ll introduce you to his rich friend’s son. People breed with their own kind…the rich marry the rich, Josie, and the poor marry the poor. The dags will marry the dags and wogs marry wogs…" (p144)

Lee argues that opinion by saying we are born into the life/future we are meant to have.

LEADERSHIP
Sister Louise: "I know what came over you. You decided to become a sheep for the day, Josephine. You weren’t a leader. You were a follower. You’ll never amount to anything if you can be so easily influenced." (p181)

Josie wasnt being the leader, she was influenced by her friends, she followed them.

"You and your friends are trendsetters. The girls look up to you. They copy what you do. They’ll probably slap you on the back to congratulate you when you get back to class. I couldn’t afford to have my school captain set such a bad example…you have to remember that you aren’t a leader because you’re given a title. You’re a leader because of what is inside of you. Because of how you feel about yourself." (p184)

The other girls respect Josie and her friends, they look up to them. She wasnt given school captian because Sister Louise believed she wouldnt make a good leader. You are a leader because of whats inside you, not what your title is.

RESPECT
Nonna Katia: "I am an old woman now and I deserve respect." (p36)
"But there is no respect left with the youth of today." (p37)

Nonna believes old women deserve respect, but there is no respect left in today's youth.

"Mam says that satisfaction isn’t what I should search for. Respect is. Respect? I detest the word. Probably because in this world you have to respect the wrong people for the wrong reasons." (p138)

Respect is what you should strive for. Josie doesnt like respect because you have to respect the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Respect should be something you earn.

YOUTH
Josie: "It’s not the youth of today…It’s you and people like you. Always worrying about what other people think. Always talking about other people." (p37)

Josie disagrees with Nonna, and says that its not today's youth that isnt respectful, its her for always worrying about what other people think.

"When I hear Nonna Katia tell me about how life was forty odd years ago, I find it hard to believe that she was just seventeen…when she married, and was taken half way across the world. But then again Mama was just seventeen when she gave birth to me…it makes me realise how young we youth of today really are." (p79)

Nonna was an adult when she was seventeen, she was married and taken half way across the world. Mum was an adult when she was seventeen because

SNOBBERY
John: "I will not associate with pretentious people with nothing constructive to discuss except what kind of car they’re getting for their 18th birthday." (p 47-48)

"The beautiful people are the ones who have the most modern hairstyles. If long hair is in, they’ve got it. If one gets her hair cropped, so do the others." (p80)

"…no matter how smart I am or how much I achieve, I am always going to be a little ethnic from Glebe, as far as these people are concerned." (p167)

FASHION
"Why do you have to wear those low medical shoes?’
"Maaa, they’re Doc Martens." (p51)

SCHOOL SOCIAL LIFE
"The time before class starts in the morning is the most exciting. Because we haven’t seen each other for 16 hours, it’s gossip galore…" (p8)