Education In Richard Rodriguez's The Hunger Of Memory

The particular focus of Rodriguez’s story is that in order to feel like he belonged to the “public society” he had to restrict his individuality. Throughout his story, Rodriguez discussed such topics as assimilation and heritage. He goes into depth about the pros and the cons of being forced to assimilate to the American culture. Growing up Hispanic in America was a struggle for Rodriguez. This was due to the fact that he was a Spanish-speaking boy living in an English-speaking society, and he felt like he was different than the other children. Rodriguez writes, “I was fated to be the ‘problem student’ in class” (Rodriguez 62). This is referring to Rodriguez’s improper knowledge of English. It made him stand out as the kid that was behind. He wanted to find the balance between the public and private face. He believed both were important to develop. As I read this story it changed the way I looked at people who speak different languages, and how it must be hard to fit in with society if you are not all fluent in English.

Rodriguez’s parents emphasize a large separation of their Mexican heritage from that of “los gringos.” The family speaks Spanish to each other, and the transition to speaking English symbolizes that person being spoken to is an outsider, not one to be trusted, an “Americano.” The language of Spanish, therefore, is a symbol of trust, acceptance, as being part of the family. When “Ricardo” gives up Spanish for English, although he is urged to do so by his parents, he feels he is betraying his family for “los gringos.”

Richards essay describes how he has to “ trade” his Spanish language identity to find his “public” language identity . He remembers his parents trying their best to speak more English in their home to help their kids fit into society . He talks about how the fact that he lost one identity was worth the gain of the other identity he so longed for . “At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true since my birth: I was an American citizen” (454-455). It was at that moment that he knew for a fact that his whole life he was already an American citizen . To him beign an American citizen meant having an English language identity and being able to speak the public language. As a boy Rodriguez was able to only speak and understand the Spanish language . To him it was the only real identity he ever had growing up . He also discussed that because the Spanish language identity is developed among his family members. That the language is somehow responsible for how they were able to identify themselves

Rodriguez describes his youth as a child of Mexican immigrant studying in America, where he had difficulty communicating at school because he did not understand the public language, English. In the beginning, he was shy and afraid at school because he was feeling uneasy with the English language, but with his parents and teacher’s help he “raised his hand to volunteer an answer”, from that day he” moved very far from the disadvantage child…” (987).

The autobiography book, Hunger of Memory showcases the struggles Richard Rodriguez undergoes during his journey towards Americanism. Rodriguez endures struggles towards transforming from being a Mexican to an American boy (Rodriguez, 27). During his education, Rodriguez is considered as a minority the fact he is an immigrant to the United Kingdom. In other words, what Richards concludes is that complexion, race, assimilation, as well as Americanism, are the major challenges he faces during his education. Given the above affections to the American society, it becomes a trial for immigrants to adapt to the American environment that they dream of. Life was generally

Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez is a six chapter book that reads more like a collection of essays than an autobiography. It is written by Richard Rodriguez, a Mexican American author, analyst, educational commentator and intellectual. A large part of his personal treatise is his reflections and dissection of “contemporary education” and its meaning to a Hispanic American child growing up in the 1950s. It is unusual that a young person would write his own autobiography, but that is what Rodriguez offers in his book Hunger of Memory.

Rodriguez has spent his entire childhood with his nose superglued to an open book. He read as many books as he could get his hands on - hundreds by the time he reached his freshman year of high school. He neglected his real world relationships because he spent more time focusing on the relationships in the literature he was reading than on the people and the life that was really around him. I believe that Rodriguez wrote this essay because he finally had the realization that he might have let his scholarly ethics (while they had good intentions), dictate his past in a negative way. I think when he talks about how he reached “the end of education,” he is referring to the point in his life where he made this realization; the point when he finally began to be fully present in his own life.

This story takes place in old Sacramento, California around the 1950’s. A lot of this excerpt from Hunger of Memory covers Richard Rodriguez's childhood and how he has become a grown-up. He is the third of two Mexican immigrants in Sacramento and has two sisters and one brother. Rodriguez shows his youth as "unusual," because of to the battle between his private family life and his public life outside of the family. Before Rodriguez was seven, Spanish was the everyday spoken language and is a part of his home, (qtd. par. 17)…

In The Hunger of Memory, written by Richard Rodriguez, he addressed education by describing his life after he became educated. One of the issues that arise in the piece is his identity. Before Rodriguez became a known speaker, he thought of himself as an unintentional “classmate to children of rich parents” (Rodriguez). From a young age Rodriguez considered himself to be different, especially because he was a mexican growing up in “extreme public alienation” (Rodriguez). Richard Rodriguez questioned his identity. Not because he embarked on a journey from being a “‘socially disadvantaged’ child” to becoming a fully assimilated American, but because that assimilation of the American identity was achieved only after a painful separation from his past, family, and culture. Rodriguez wrote in his piece, “Consider me… a comic victim of two cultures” (Rodriguez). One reason Rodriguez’ identity was questioned, in a “cultural sense,” (Rodriguez) was because he “wasn’t able to use his spanish in school” (Rodriguez). This not only had an impact on his journey of assimilation, but also on his relationship with his parents.

Richard Rodriguez, the author of “The Hunger of Memory,” is a Mexican man who rose above prejudices to become a distinguished member of society through education. Sherman Alexie, the author of “Superman and Me,” is a Native American man who grew up on an Indian reservation with a love of books and a penchant for learning in an attempt to exceed further than the predetermined path set in front of him. Rodriguez perceives education as something that has built a division between him and his family but allowed for assimilation into American life and achieve more than the initial expectations of him, meanwhile, Alexie, who remains close to his family and defied all odds, perceives education as a life-saving tool that could potentially change

Argumentative Synthesis No matter how much we hate waking up early for school or studying all night for those tests and exams, most of us know that education is very important. Education aims at developing and bringing out the best of a student’s inner personality and self. I believe the aim of education is to learn and grow as an individual and be able to pursue a career that best fits you. Richard Rodriguez, Marry Louis Pratt and Paulo Freier all come from different back rounds and settings of their views on education and experiences. I will be discussing Richard Rodriguez experience on education, and Marry Pratt Louise views on it as well as Paulo Freire thoughts on education and how all of these compare to my view of the aim of education.

In the Hunger of Memories Rodriguez worked very hard to to become a student and acheive what he did in college. He felt as if he overcame the obstacle that minorities face such as getting a good education he would be different. One thing when he became a student, he was considered a “minority student”. He felt as though he shouldnt be considered minority because he was a student but now he is just categorized as the minoirity student. It is such a struggle because you are trying to hold on to who you truly are, but in order to be normalized you have to get rid of things that make up who you are. Things such as your language which is looked down upon if you do not try to assimlate and speak English.

Rodriguez uses a series of conflicting emotions to describe the culture clash between his Hispanic heritage and his new American heritage. After years of growing up and adapting to a new output on life, Rodriguez tries to rid of every struggle and memory of his past life, but couldn’t seem to shake one. Growing up as a Mexican-American he automatically

Education has always occurred to me as a system of knowledge learning during which I master my language, form a logical mind, and gain insights about the world. I consider it as a necessity to personal success, since it has always been the case: throughout history only nobles received proper education, thus education is a representation of power; at the present time people with higher degrees are likely to acquire more achievements, as well as resources, so education means opportunity and wealth. Little do I know about the connection of education and identity until I read Sherman Alexie’s “Indian Education,” his personal account of his early school years, in which he articulates his experience of abuse, discrimination, and poverty on

During this semester, we have been learning that education is the key of the success and also that it is a big a power of knowledge that we humans tend to absorb. This type of ideas and definitions has been provided to us through messages in some movies and readings like “Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress” also in two readings called “Is Google making us stupid” written by Nicholas Carr and “We should Cherish Our Children’s Freedom to Think” written by Ho. Therefore, In the movie and these two readings, I have found that there are parts that relates me in some ways.