1953 – Essay

The text 1953 by Geoff Page explores various ideas of belonging and not belonging through each individual poem within the book. Through these ideas, we are given a deeper understanding of society at the time and the different characters. More specifically, in poem VI “Sandra” and poem VIII, we delve deeper into their own sense of belonging and discover connections between the two.

In Poem VIII, Pete feels the town is too small for him, describing it as “cramped despite the paddocks stretching all around it” and therefore, not belonging. This is also the case in the poem “Sandra” where Sandra feels that she has failed to conform to the society’s expectations of marrying and having children before the age of 25. The women’s expectations on marriage before they got too old is entirely appropriate and the women around Sandra are all single and hoping for a suitable marriage. It is understandable since they are still working and most, like Peggy, would have been encouraged or forced to stop their job after marriage.

Sandra knows the behind the scenes of the town, she the “filer of a thousand files”, she reads every one of them, and knows what’s going on in the town, or a least she thinks she does. “I’m the one who knows just ‘where’, this is another declaration of knowledge. Most of the town declares that they know what’s going on in their own lives and those of close people around them, however dramatic irony dicatate that they don’t and internal monologues reveal depths that the other characters do not see. However, Sandra may know what goes on in the town, but she doesn’t know the people personally. She only knows what’s in the files, the surface.