Analyzing Richard Rodriguez's 'The Achievement Of Desire'

Through the narrative “The Scholarship Boy” I find few turning points that I notice a shift in the demeanor of Richard Rodriguez as well as how I perceive the story. First of all, it is made apparent to me that people acknowledge him for his successes by making remarks such as, “Your parents must be proud” or “How did you manage it? According to the opening paragraphs Rodriguez is seen as a model student. Although this may be true, the first turning point I find suggests otherwise as Rodriguez conveys, “For although I was a very good student, I was also a very bad student…Always successful, always unconfident. Exhilarated by my process. Sad.” This quote changed my perspective of Rodriguez because of the negative emotion he expresses toward his family. By the same token, I recall my sister being an outstanding achiever throughout school, yet, she was similarly depressed as well as annoyed towards me and the rest of our family. This flashback assisted me in relating to Rodriguez’s emotions towards his successes. In the same fashion, I am supplied a grasp of his shift in tone and direction in the narrative.

With all the negative thoughts and feelings about his family, Rodriguez never took the time to repair his relationship with him and his family, because books were very important to him than his family. As Rodriguez begin to separate from his family and culture, his Spanish accent also begin to disappear, which he felt very excited. In the beginning of his article he talked about the first day, he enters the class and could “barely able to speak English” (239). Rodriguez felt that he did not fit in with the rest

Richard Rodriguez had faced a lot of problems that most students in America do not have to deal with. Richard had to deal with parents that couldn’t help him in school and wanting to be successful academically. He had become embarrassed of his background and where he came from and did not want to embrace his culture.

Rodriguez also shows us that he has gained the “sociological imagination” by writing about his appreciation and understanding

This separation from his family caused a longing in his life. But this longing was superseded by what he suspected his teachers could give him. Rodriguez develops a double personality of sorts. The person he is at home, the polite child who lovingly does what his parents ask of him. And then the academic persona he

Mark Kingwell, in his award winning book In Pursuit of Happiness, asserts that the pursuit of happiness is meaningful and that the benefits far outweigh the risks. In fact, Kingwell’s argument is centered on the idea that people who want to be happy will be happy if they would only pursue what is that brings them joy. For this reason, he disagrees with the idea that biology is the main indicator of a person’s happiness. The idea that “you are either happy or you’re not” (414). Though studies conducted by various universities and esteemed psychologists have reached the same conclusion. In a study conducted by Dr. Jerome Kagan, a prominent psychologist at Harvard University, he concludes that there is a clear connection between dopamine levels

Jeremiah Ikuadi Professor Jane. W Sullivan English 1101 27 August 2015 My Summer This past summer I spent most of my time working. I worked as a cashier at the Publix Supermarket at Marietta. At first I thought that working at Publix this summer would be just as boring as the other summers working at Publix, but it felt great working there this summer. I met great new people there, I also met my girlfriend, Jazmin at Publix. Jazmin came from the Philippines, she moved to the United States. My best friend Brandon also started working there, both of us attended the same high school. Although working at Publix this summer turned out to be a great experience,it can also stressful most of the time, I had to deal with rude customers, horrible managers,

Maintaining relationships and and focusing on who is important is one way in which I try to combat becoming Hoggart’s definition of a “scholarship boy.” Throughout the excerpt, Rodriguez keeps reiterating the fact that while his schooling grew more intense and successful, he “couldn’t forget that [it] was changing [him] and separating [him] from the life [he] enjoyed before becoming a student” (Rodriguez 534). When I was in high school, I had two major relationships I had to maintain: family and friends. With numerous extra curriculars, rigorous courses, and a part-time job, this was hard at times. According to Haley Bess, these difficulties constitute “the lows” of high school; however, “having to balance a busy schedule...helps you learn time management” (Bess 2,3). On the other hand, Rodriguez would “spend more and more time studying...enclosing himself in the silence permitted and required by intense concentration,” (Rodriguez 536) separating himself from his family. I remember moments in which my Mom or Dad inquired about my day at school, and I had so much on my mind that I threw the questions to the side. Although, in these same moments I knew eventually, I would have to tell them. When the time was right, I updated my parents, and this made our relationship more connected and allow them to feel a part of the education that they are gifting to me. For example, instead of reading a book and keeping my reactions to myself like

Gary Soto, who among many things was a Mexican-American poet, many times wrote about what he knew best: his life. Growing up as a Chicano in America in the 50s and 60s, Soto worked in fields as a laborer from a young age. It is evident that coming from a Hispanic working class family greatly influenced his poem “Ambition”. As he is known for, Soto's poem is filled with imagery of everyday life, while harping on important details and themes of things that he may have seen around him., but in this instance, there was a bit of confusion. To begin with, the poem “Ambition” starts off with the line "For years our ambition was to eat/Chicken"(1-2). Without further analysis, at this point the reader is most likely confused, much like I was. Chicken? How could eating be one's goal, one's aspiration in life? The word ambition is usually associated with lofty goals. It would not seem out of place to say that one's ambition was to become a doctor or to make a better life for oneself. So the speaker in the poem could not truly believe that all that he wanted in life was to eat chicken. The outlandishness of this statement seems to be the speaker pointing huge arrows towards places in the poem that invoke deeper meaning to

​The father figure depicted in this story could be viewed in a few different ways. At first I thought the authors father was kind of a stuck up, rude man, who was sour about the advantages of living a normal life in American society. I felt that he had made his son feel like he could never do what he had down. If a parental figure makes you feel like that, there tends to be a reaction. It could be positive or negative. In Rodriguez’s case he took what his father said, and harnessed it into a positive learning experience. When I thought about more in depth, it became clear that Rodriguez’s father wasn’t putting his son down at all. He was simply explaining to his son how different their worlds where. He was stressing that although his son had more opportunity, and was presented with much greater potential to be excellent, that the work he did growing up was much harder, and tough than most people realize. His father was just making it known that in his working years he did not have many options as to career choices. But on the other hand I can easily see why the author felt that his father had challenged him. Much like I felt my father was challenging me. Rodriguez felt like he needed to prove that he could perform the same task that his fathers use to do to provide for their families. Working with you’re your hands, completing messy, strenuous, sometimes painful jobs was almost a part of Hispanic culture. A part of

In his essay “The Achievement of Desire,” Richard Rodriguez has certain ways of speaking and caring. In particular, he focuses on his education and his family. These two will eventually clash and interfere with each other. Rodriguez contrasts school, family, teachers and most importantly himself. He also tells us how left his childhood and family for education, but when he wanted to return he couldn’t fully do so. He learned he couldn't fully return due to his conforming to education that leads him to observe and analyze everything.

Rodriguez initially uses Hoggart’s book to categorize and describe his own experience as a student. Once he reads Hoggart’s work he finally feels that he has identified himself. He recognizes the separation of home and school and how it is necessary to have this separation to become the type of student he desires, an elite student. Separation from his family and culture is necessary because Rodriguez sees the two as separate worlds. He must be removed from his original culture and family life to achieve the scholarly elite status. He had to devote himself to his studies, which leaves him no time for a family. After Rodriguez claims himself a to be an elite student, he justifies the steps he took in

In Rodriguez’s essay, The Achievement of Desire, Rodriguez illustrates the characteristics of an automaton, thus confirming Freire’s views regarding the banking concept. Despite his classification as a "scholarship boy", Rodriguez lacked his own point of view and confidence, which led him to be dominated by his teachers and his books. In the eyes of Paulo Frerie, Rodriguez would be considered a receptacle. He was filled not only with his teacher’s information, but also with knowledge obtained from his reading of "important" books. Rodriguez is a classic student of the banking system.

As Rodriguez grows into an intellectual student, there is an apparent shift of authority in his life. He found himself to be ashamed his parents and instead yearned to be like his educated teachers. He notes, “I was not proud of my mother and father. I was embarrassed by their lack of education” (Rodriguez 538). In his early school years, Rodriguez often compared himself to his other classmates. American children have educated parents who can help with homework, Rodriguez does not have this relationship with his parents. For example, when trying to

Now I’m actually getting more friends that I could ask for, where everyday I always have a plan to go with my friends somewhere; I finally broke out of my shell after almost a month of trying to. I honestly love this school and I have never felt so productive in my life. Everyday was always another type of day, always something that was new to see. I mean, I love my home, but I love exploring other things more.