St. Patrick's College Peter Skrzynecki Analysis

“A sense of belonging is shaped by connections to other people, places and things”
Belonging in some instances cannot be beneficial for ones wellbeing. Negative consequences may arise from the way in which one develops belonging. Barriers to belonging can be imposed or voluntarily constructed, and allowing one to distort the barriers can affect the way one belongs to people, places, groups or the larger world.

Peter Skrzynecki’s persistent desire to connect/belong to his cultural heritage is carried forth in various poems, such as Feliks Skrzynecki and St. Patrick’s College. Cultural barriers determine whether the composer/responder is able to belong, and shows the ways in which he attempts to belong. The continual desire to belong to
However, Peter Skryznecki’s poem St Patrick’s College challenges this idea through the depiction of an individual who is disengaged and struggles to develop a sense of connection and find his place within the school community. The reflective mood of the poem is established through the use of past tense; Skrzynecki also uses a rather unenthusiastic tone, short sentences and the repetition of “for eight years” to create a chilling atmosphere and describes the long and monotonous time spent in St Patrick’s College which has played a significant part in his life. This also connects to the TV series One Tree Hill written by Mark Schwahn/ Directed by Bryan Gordon in season One, throughout the season the character Hayley is studious, and always puts maximum effort into her school work never lets anything distract from her studies, but then she started to associate with the popular kids such as the jocks on the basketball team in which she developed a relationship with Nathan the captain of the basketball team, also became friends with the cheerleaders. Hayley was known as tutor girl but once she interacted with the popular kids she started to belong and tutor girl was no longer tutor girl it was just Hayley. The opening lines, “Impressed by the uniforms” demonstrates that the identity’s mother was motivated by “superficial” and values of social status when sending him to the school. It was in all of her intentions to provide him with “What was best”, however, the school had become somewhat of an obstacle and the role questions whether this was “for the best” following all the “darkness” he was forced to endure. Furthermore the idea that uniforms allows individuals to “fit in” and identifies that the individual has an affiliation with the school is contrasted to “stuck pine needles into the motto” which indicates the individual’s anxiety and dismissive