http://www.catholic-pages.com/saints/st_aloysius.asp A blurb on the life of Saint Aloysius, if anyone is interested. Apparently, he was the eldest son in his family, and therefore expected to carry on the family name. The fact that he didn't says a lot about his apparent devotion to the Church. Being the patron saint of youth, the parallel to Sister Aloysius is rather obvious.
In our group discussion last class, my group's conversation drifted to the subject of Sister Aloysius and her motives. It seemed to us that she cares more about the children than Sister James, no matter how much Sister James wants to show her love for them. In the end, she wants nothing more than to bury her head in the sand, pretend that the situation with Donald Muller and Father Flynn does not exist. When she speaks to Father Flynn, she grasps eagerly at his story because she doesn't want to deal with the potential reality of a horrible situation. Sister Aloysius, on the other hand, is willing to break protocol in order to protect the children in her charge, and is willing to lose her place in the church if she can keep her children safe.
She reminds me a lot of Joan Cusack's character in School of Rock (though I wouldn't choose to cast the actress as this character). Both care personally about the children, but find themselves unable to relate to them or to be soft with them due to the need for structure in the children's lives, and due to their position as principal. Joan Cusack's character has a monologue about this:
Intimidated? They hate me. Yes, they do. They sure do. I can see. I wasn't always like this. I wasn't always wound this tight. There was a time when I was fun. I was funny. I was. But you can't be funny and be the principal of a prep school. No, you cannot, because when it comes to their kids, these parents, they have no sense of humor. If anything goes wrong, it's my head. It's my head in the smasher. These parents will come down on me like a nuclear bomb. I can't make a mistake. I gotta be perfect. And that pressure has turned me into one thing that I never wanted to be. A bitch.
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Since this morning, I can't get the thought of Jack Black as Father Flynn out of my head. THANKS.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really good post. I like how you drew a parallel between the two principals. And I totally agree with you on the Sister James burying her head in the sand. She would much rather live in ignorant bliss than go through any hardships or think about anything stressful.
Sister James is kind of like an ostrich isn't she?
ReplyDeleteI know it shouldn't matter, but I think it's cool that Saint Aloysius was male, but is tied to a female character. Usually the mother is portrayed as the super-protecter in these kinds of stories, but I wouldn't of expected it to be a male saint just because of that.
Sr. Aloysius is very aware of her role as principal, how she must be the authority figure. But she is also aware of herself as a mentor to Sister James, which motivates a lot of their interactions. She won't let Sister James turn into an ostrich on her watch. The levels of teaching at work here are quite interesting.
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