In Laurinda by Alice Pung, the setting plays a crucial role in shaping the narrative and themes of the novel. The contrast between Lucy Lam’s home life and the elite private school, Laurinda Ladies' College, highlights the disparity between different social classes and the challenges of navigating two very different worlds.
The settings in Laurinda—from the elite, privileged world of Laurinda Ladies' College to Lucy’s working-class immigrant home—play a vital role in shaping the story and its themes. They highlight the disparities between social classes, the pressures of conformity, and the challenges of maintaining one’s identity in a world that often demands assimilation. Through these settings, Alice Pung explores the complexities of race, class, and belonging in contemporary Australia.
Setting Laurinda in the 1990s allows Alice Pung to explore a time when issues of class, race, and privilege were prominent in Australia. It emphasizes the personal and social challenges Lucy faces in an elite school without the influence of modern technology, while also situating the story in a broader context of economic and cultural shifts. The setting gives the novel depth, making it a reflection on the past that still resonates with contemporary issues.
Laurinda Ladies' College
The primary setting, Laurinda Ladies' College, is an exclusive private school for girls, representing privilege, wealth, and power. The school is depicted as an institution that upholds social hierarchies, where students from affluent families hold significant influence and authority. Laurinda is physically and symbolically a world apart from the working-class, immigrant community that Lucy comes from. It is a place where social status is everything, and students are expected to conform to the school’s rigid, elite standards.
A World of Wealth and Privilege: Laurinda’s setting is marked by opulence, from the school’s facilities to the lives of its students. This sense of wealth creates an intimidating environment for Lucy, who enters the school as a scholarship student. The stark differences between her world and Laurinda’s heighten Lucy’s sense of isolation and highlight the broader theme of social inequality.
The Cabinet's Influence: Within Laurinda, there is an even more exclusive inner world controlled by the Cabinet, a trio of powerful girls who manipulate both students and teachers. The setting within the school becomes a battleground for social power, and Lucy’s interactions with the Cabinet reflect the deeper pressures of maintaining identity in such an environment.
Racial and Class Divides: Pung uses the Australian setting to highlight the racial and class divides that exist within the country. Lucy’s experiences at Laurinda reflect the difficulties faced by immigrants in breaking into elite spaces, while her home setting demonstrates the challenges of working-class life. The novel critiques the barriers to opportunity and the way certain spaces, like Laurinda, are designed to exclude those who don’t fit the mold of privilege.
The novel is set in suburban Australia, and this setting provides a backdrop for the exploration of themes like class, race, and privilege. Laurinda, as a prestigious institution, reflects the upper echelons of Australian society, where whiteness and wealth dominate. Lucy’s family, on the other hand, represents the immigrant experience in Australia, a story of working-class struggle and resilience. The setting of the broader society reinforces the social divide Lucy navigates.
The contrasting settings in Laurinda—the prestigious school and Lucy’s working-class home—serve to underscore the novel’s central themes:
Class and Social Mobility: Laurinda represents both opportunity and exclusion. For Lucy, attending the school is a chance for social mobility, but the stark differences between her background and the privileged world of Laurinda highlight the challenges of bridging the gap between social classes.
Identity and Belonging: The tension between the two settings reflects Lucy’s internal struggle with her identity. She is torn between the expectations of her immigrant family and the pressures of conforming to Laurinda’s elite culture. The contrast between these worlds forces Lucy to confront questions of who she is and where she belongs.
Privilege and Power: The setting of Laurinda as a prestigious institution reveals the entrenched power structures that favor the wealthy and privileged. The school’s environment, dominated by the Cabinet and its social hierarchies, illustrates how certain individuals wield power and how others, like Lucy, must fight to maintain their sense of self.
Lucy’s Working-Class Home
In contrast to Laurinda, Lucy’s home setting represents modesty, hard work, and immigrant life. Lucy lives in a working-class, Vietnamese-Australian community with her parents, who are factory workers. Her home is small, humble, and filled with the struggles of maintaining a livelihood in a foreign country. It is a sharp contrast to the wealth and privilege she encounters at Laurina.
Cultural Disconnection: The setting of Lucy’s home reflects her cultural background and the challenges her family faces as immigrants. Lucy’s parents have traditional values and work tirelessly to provide for their family. The disconnect between her home life and the elite culture of Laurinda creates tension for Lucy, as she tries to balance the expectations of both worlds without losing herself.
Contrast with Laurinda: Lucy’s home life provides a grounding influence, but it also intensifies the feelings of alienation she experiences at Laurinda. The vast difference between the two settings underscores the themes of identity, class, and belonging. While Laurinda offers opportunity, it also requires Lucy to confront the ways in which the school’s culture conflicts with her own upbringing.
Pre-Internet and Social Media Era
In the 1990s, social interactions were largely confined to face-to-face encounters, phone calls, and physical spaces like schools. By setting Laurinda in this time period, Alice Pung emphasizes the power dynamics that take place in person rather than online. The absence of social media means that power plays and bullying by the Cabinet, as well as the exclusion and manipulation Lucy faces, are conducted directly, making these actions more personal and immediate. This setting highlights the intensity of school life in an elite environment without the influence of digital technology, where social hierarchies are built entirely on personal interactions.
Cultural and Social Tensions in Australia
The 1990s were a significant period in Australia in terms of race, class, and immigration. The country was grappling with questions of multiculturalism, identity, and inclusion, especially with an increasing immigrant population from Asia, including Vietnamese refugees like Lucy Lam's family. Setting the novel in this time allows Pung to explore these tensions through Lucy’s experiences as a first-generation Vietnamese-Australian navigating an elite, predominantly white institution. The racial and class divisions that Lucy faces at Laurinda reflect broader societal issues that were prominent in 1990s Australia.
Economic Growth and Class Divide
The 1990s in Australia were marked by economic growth and the rise of a more affluent middle class. However, this period also saw a widening gap between the rich and the working class. By placing Lucy in a prestigious school in this era, Pung is able to contrast her working-class, immigrant background with the wealth and privilege of the Laurinda students. The social divide is sharpened by the economic landscape of the 1990s, making Lucy’s struggles with belonging and identity even more poignant.
Conservative Gender Expectations
The 1990s, while a time of progress in many areas, still held relatively conservative views on gender roles, particularly in institutions like Laurinda. The portrayal of Laurinda as a place that molds young women to fit into elite, upper-class society reflects the gender expectations of the time, where girls were often expected to adhere to certain standards of behavior, appearance, and ambition. By setting the novel in this period, Pung underscores how these expectations shape the experiences of the girls at Laurinda, and how Lucy, as an outsider, resists or struggles with these norms.
Reflection on the Past for Contemporary Readers
By choosing the 1990s, Pung provides a nostalgic but critical look at a time that modern readers, especially adults, can reflect on. The novel allows readers to consider how much has changed or remained the same in terms of class, race, and privilege in Australian society. It also prompts younger readers to see the social dynamics of an earlier era and compare them to the present day, allowing for a broader understanding of historical and social changes.