Novel Study-Saving Francesca November 17, 2006

Justine Kalinsky

Symbolism of name

Justine is a Hebrew name for just or true. The name does suit her as she is true to her feelings and beliefs.

Speech

• Colloquial expressions, formal vs informal language, use of swearing (blasphemy), other.

Appearance

• Clothing, mannerisms, disfigurations, age, sex.

Actions

• How do the characters react to each other?
• What impact does this have on the narrative (story)?
• How do the characters actions relate to  the themes of the text ?(you need to list the page numbers where you have found your examples)

Justine likes St. Sebastions better than St. Stellas. She never really had any friends at St. Stellas and the other students there thought it was because noone liked her. Justine sat on her own by choice though. She didnt like discussing the same things such as ”the tragic return of off the shoulder shirts”. She was independant and confident enough in her own identity to sit on her own.

Other

• Describe the stereotypical nature of the characters and how they relate to their peers or society.
• What do you think about the characters and do you know anyone like them?

Justine doesn’t play a huge role in the book and only comes up occasionally. Her character is dynamic though and complex. Justine adds to the story though in her relationship with Franesca as she is misperceived like Fransecsa.

Novel Study- Saving Francesca November 3, 2006

 

Francesca Spinelli

Symbolism of name

 Saving Francesca is a novel targeted at teenagers. Melina Marchetta, the author refers to the dilemmas of teenage identity.

Franesca is the Italian name for Freedom and the novel commences around this issue. Her freedom is crushed and controlled by her ‘friends’.

 Throughout the book Francesca gets called many different versions of her name, Fran, Frankie, Frank because she acts differently around everyone in her life and they perceive her differently. Towards the end of the book when Francesca is finally starting to find her own identity the name suits her. I believe the author did choose the name Franescsa for its origin and meaning but also for its individuality a bit like Francesca herself.

Speech

Francesca as the narrator speeks informally throughout the book. She uses words such as morons, bitchy,slutty and butch. She also uses quite intelligent words as well though. Francesca in some of her speech is quite witty, consice and well spoken. Francesca talks like she is talking to a friend and it makes the book easy and enjoyable to read. 

 At the start of the book she doesn’t talk much to others, she just talks in her head. It is towards the end when she has found her identity and made new friends that she talks more to others.

Appearance

Francesca’s appearance isnt gone into great detail in the book. The only details you receive are that she is female, 16 and of italian descent. I think the author doesn’t mention her clothes because it is of little importance. The author doesnt want you to judge her on face value and make presumptions on her appearance.

Actions

Francesca is perceived differently by everyone because everyone wants her to be who they think she is. Whilst Francesca is forging her indentity and eventually making new friends at St. Sebastians she is  gradually acting different. She is becoming reminiscent of what she was like in yr 7 when she was friends with siobhan and her soon to be ‘friends’ thougtht she was a show off.

A turning point for this is in Mr. Ortley’s Drama class (pg 112-114). He puts on the song ‘venus’ and Thomas Mackee starts to dance. Francesca wants to dance but is thinking “My ex-Stella friends, like Michaela, would think i was a dickhead. A show-off. A loser”. But she dances.

She is finally becoming free again.

Other

• Describe the stereotypical nature of the characters and how they relate to their peers or society.
• What do you think about the characters and do you know anyone like them?

Film Review- Bend It Like Beckham October 26, 2006

Film Review- ‘Bend it like Beckham’

Who wants to cook Aloo Goobi when you can bend a ball like Beckham?

Women are not supposed to play football. Especially not young Indian women. ‘Bend it like Beckham’ follows Jesminder ‘Jess’ Kaur Bhamra, a young Indian woman living in Manchester as she attempts to follow her football dreams much to the dismay of her strongly cultural Indian family.

In the opening scenes Jess wakes up to from her dream of playing for
England to the reality of parents who would prefer that she learnt how to cook traditional Indian dinners and be a good wife than a famous footballer.

Unbeknown to her parents she joins Hownslett Harriers a local all girls football team. She can finally see a path to her dreams. But when her parents find out and ban her from football she has to make a decision. Will she chase her dreams and risk her relationship with her family?

‘Bend it like Beckham’ is a movie that will leave you feeling good. It looks at teenage issues and cultural boundaries. I think particularly teenage girls can relate to some of the relationship problems she encounters with her coach, friends and family.