St Patrick’s College: Lack of Belonging to Place

    Places, such as schools, have not only a unique physical environment, but also a set of practices and experiences associated with them. When we feel alienated from a place, we may feel alienated from that place’s landscape and the physical objects within it, as well as the place’s people and their ways of life.

    The persona feels alienated from his school, St Patrick’s College, and as a result he feels directionless and unhappy. In the second stanza, the persona uses juxtaposition and imagery when contrasting the statue of Mary who has ‘outstretched hands,’ - suggesting she is welcoming - with the image of her face which is ‘overshadowed by clouds.’ This shows that even though a place may appear physically welcoming, we may still feel alienated from it and perceive the environment as cold and unwelcoming.

     The persona’s alienation from the formality and rigidity of the prestigious Catholic school is shown in the imagery of ‘I stuck pine needles/Into the motto/On my breast.’ Instead of respecting and deferring to the school motto, the persona feels inclined to play with it, ‘Under the principal’s window,’ no less. This shows how alienation from a place can lead us to reject the values and beliefs associated with that place. It is possible that if the persona felt a greater connection to the school, he would have embraced its perspective on religion and education. Instead, he rejects its perspective on life and academia. 

      The lack of belonging to the school’s ethos of religion, and formal academia, is further emphasised in the persona’s use of humour when describing the way he confused the school’s motto, ‘Luceat Lux Vestra’ with a brand of soap. The allusion to formal learning expressed in the Latin motto contrasts starkly with the persona’s interpretation of it, underscoring his feeling of being misplaced and alienated.

      Similarly, the persona draws on the irony of the school’s motto, ‘Let Your Light Shine,’ which contrasts with the persona’s growing sense of personal darkness and sense of disconnection. 

      The repetition of the phrase, ‘eight years’ has the effect of emphasising how long and dreary the persona’s time at the school felt to him. This shows how lack of belonging to a place can make us feel despondent and unmotivated.

      The persona’s alienation from place extends beyond the school and includes the surrounding suburb of Strathfield. The simile, ‘Like a foreign tourist’ highlights the way in which the persona feels like an outsider, unable to connect or fully the understand the place’s people and their culture.

      The persona’s distance from the religious practice at the school is shown in the anecdote, ‘Could say the Lord’s prayer/ In Latin, all in one breath.’ Instead of embracing and enjoying the religious experience, the persona wants to rush through it so that it can be over and done with. 

      The repetition and call back to the imagery of ‘Our Lady still watching…unchanged,’ conveys the fact that the persona has remained alienated from the school after his eight years there. Belonging to a place does not always occur simply by spending extended periods of time there. Whilst the school’s physical sphere may be more familiar to the persona, he still feels a sense of psychological distance and disconnection from it.