Jay doesn’t speak Tagalog or know much about the Philippines, which leads him to believe that he only knows “half of.
Later, after traveling to the Philippines with a plan to investigate Jun’s death, Jay feels some degree of cultural dissonance, even as he also believes he belongs there. Jay’s older siblings are no longer living at home, so Jay is stuck in between his parents, who can’t seem to relate to his feelings of isolation and alienation. Meanwhile, Jay’s dad says that the family left the Philippines so that Jay could have a life in the United States, so Jay shouldn’t fixate on his home country. Jay’s mom, who is white, insists that Jay doesn’t know and can’t fully grasp what’s happening in the Philippines. Even Jay’s parents can’t fully understand the specific position he’s in. This upsets Jay, who feels that Seth can’t understand him or his experience. Seth amplifies this alarm when he refers to Jay as being “basically white” because Jay acts the same as white boys at school. After Jay learns about his cousin Jun’s death, he begins reading about drug war in the Philippines and is alarmed to realize how much he doesn’t know about his home country. Later, Jay’s alienation becomes cultural as well as personal. Jay feels alone, because he doesn’t know where he belongs or what his future will look like. There’s no one he can talk to about this, because he and his best friend, Seth, never have “deep” conversations. He has no idea what he wants to do career-wise, but he feels that he’s expected to know.
He has just been accepted into the University of Michigan but isn’t excited about going to college. With this ending, the novel suggests that it’s up to an individual to decide where they belong, and that it’s okay for the answer to be complicated.Īt home in the United States, Jay feels some degree of alienation from those around him. After the events of the novel, Jay decides to take a gap year after high school and travel in the Philippines to better understand his identity and heritage. Meanwhile, other people constantly try to tell Jay where he does and doesn’t belong, both in the United States and during his trip to the Philippines.
The fact that he’s about to graduate high school exacerbates this feeling, as he isn’t sure what he wants to do after he finishes school or where he wants to live. As a result, he feels stuck between two worlds and two cultures. The protagonist of Patron Saints of Nothing, Jay Reguero, was born in the Philippines but moved to the United States when he was one.
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