The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of three issues – nationality, race and religion – on the life of John Coetzee, the child protagonist of J.M Coetzee’s semi-autobiographical Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life. The article stipulates that the boy’s sense of alienation within South African society is a direct result of his rejection of, respectively, nationality (due to his bilingual upbringing and affection for English history and language), race (the boy cannot comprehend the racial segregation imposed by policies of legislated racism and division) and religion (he is brought up in a secular family and, consequently, does not follow any religious doctrine in a highly devout, predominantly Christian society).