What concepts of difference are explored throughout the novel?

One of the first themes to appear in Looking for Alibrandi is feeling like an outsider. Central to Josie’s school experience is the sensation of feeling disadvantaged and excluded from the society of her classmates. The principal roots of Josie’s insecurities are her poorer background and Italian-Australian heritage. As a scholarship student, she feels overwhelmed in “a school dominated by rich people” (Marchetta 14). And as an “ethnic” or “new” Australian, as her classmate Poison Ivy calls her, she feels as if she’ll never truly be able to claim Australia as “her country” like her classmates do (Marchetta 236, 239).