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Rodriguez declared that, “The family’s quiet was partly due to the fact that, as we children…
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Richard Rodriguez is a great example of what it is like to be part of the students who belong to the schooled category. Rodriguez himself is one of the many students that lacked the ability to critically think. Rodriguez read and read books that his teacher once mentioned, but still didn’t feel smart. Being a "scholarship boy" Rodriguez was unable to critically think for himself and was unable to capture and completely understand what he was reading. "I lacked a point of view when I read." (Rodriguez 202) Not only did this make him feel like he wasn’t smart but also made him feel insecure about himself.So insecure that many times, after reading a book, he would look up reviews and comments on what people thought of the book because he believed…
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Richard Rodriguez is an American journalist and essayist who often writes about his life and the obstacles he has faced during so. He has become widely known due to his popular book, The Hunger of Memory. In the excerpt that’s presented, Rodriguez talks about how his life has changed tremendously due to education, and he goes on to describe how he feels “assimilated.” Rodriguez comes from Mexican Origins and is the son of Mexican Immigrants and throughout the excerpt he has an internal fight due to the fact that he feels as if he is now a stranger to his once familiar culture. However, the one thing that has taken Rodriguez as far as he has come is his education.…
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The heart of the passage is made clear by the very first sentence. Rodriguez begins, “My mother is not surprised that her children are well-off” (line 1). The subject of the first sentence can be very telling as to the subject of the entire piece, and that is the case here. In fact, the entire first paragraph is totally centered on his mother -- her children, her predictions, how she thinks she’ll look when she’s old. All of that with absolutely no mention of his father. For most couples topics like pride on children’s accomplishments and plans for the future are something they share -- in an optimal situation both parents are proud of their children and their future plans include each other. However, Rodriguez only mentions his mother -- blatantly excluding his father…
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9. How would you describe Rodriguez's attitude toward his parents? Does it change from one point to another? Identify specific passages.…
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First, when I look at the authors push to get an education I see in Richard Rodriguez’s essay that he was very motivated. He started as a young boy with an accent striving to learn more and attain knowledge whenever he could because he knew of the benefits. In the story Rodriguez says that he shifted away from family life to study more and learn more from his teachers. He wanted school rather than his uneducated family. In contrast, Mike Rose clearly didn’t want to be in school, he wanted an easy way out of things. Rose explains he was put in vocational classes by accident, but decided to stay in the classes with the lower level students. He explains how the teachers could care less about the student’s education which affected Rose because he saw himself and everyone as being average.…
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By the end of the “Achievement” chapter, Rodriguez has some very profound things to say about his views on educational reform and personal evolution. The things that he says in the ending pages of the chapter do not really seem like they are the tale of a “happy ending” but more so, a large pun or an ironic statement made about how our desires entail such influential consequences. On pages 72-73, Rodriguez basically states that education is a tough process, a changing process even, and if one wants to become educated, one must be willing to embody some type of mental and/or spiritual change. He makes the point that some people, which would most likely be hippies or democrats –but he refers to them as “Radical educationalists”, are quick to…
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Over the years children have to come to a point where they realize life is not as innocent as they presume. Luis Rodriguez and his brother in the monologue Always Running portray the theme coming of age more effective than his poem “Race Politics” because in the passage, it is more effectively symbolized that Luis learns as tough as people present themselves, everyone has a weakness and the monologue gives more detail on Luis coming to grasp that some people’s reputations are more significant than the feeling of the individual. The story displays that learning comes from experience.…
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Rodriguez’s use of first person narration goes hand in hand with his establishment of ethos within his essay. Ethos is considered the moral element of literature and the credibility of the speaker. The use of ethos often determines whether or not the audience of a piece will trust the thoughts and actions of the speaker. By using pronouns such as “I” and “we,” in reference to both himself and his family, it allows the audience to gain first-hand accounts of a young Hispanic boy in a new American society. Rather than reading statistics of the number of children whose first language is not English and their success in the American education system, or…
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By describing that in his own experience he felt as if he was becoming distant from his own family by saying, “ .. too painful reminders of how much had changed in my life.” Rodriguez gives an example of when he talked to his parents in English he would become frustrated when his parents did not understand, this created a type of conflict. “Matching the silence I started hearing in public was a new quiet at home”. This shows that Rodriguez learned from his experience and took it as a learning…
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In the story, the author is getting pulled in various directions. Rodriguez wants to stay true to his Mexican culture for his parents' sake claiming they, “...grow distant, apart, no longer speak,” but also wants to belong in American culture where his education has driven him to a position not many Mexicans get to or have to opportunity to be (Rodriguez 105). This story confronts the idea that anyone can succeed as long as they are willing to sacrifice their cultural identity in the process.…
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2. What does Rodriguez mean when he says, “[I]n a way, it didn’t matter very much that my parents could not speak English with ease…. And yet, in another way, it mattered very much” (para.15)?…
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The different educational level of Rodriguez and his parents has made it difficult for Rodriguez to communicate with them as he were mostly into books. He felt ashamed on how his parents could not answer; understand his homework questions or what he had been studying. At some point, Rodriguez intentionally tries to hurt their feelings because he thought he hates them for unable to be there for him intellectually. After finding the pleasure of education and knowledge at school, he expect some reactions on sharing his thoughts and reflections with his parents but unfortunately, the lack of abilities his parents possessed made him unsatisfied, unfulfilled and upset with their condition. “His academic success distances him from a life he loved, even from a memory of himself (Rodriguez)”.…
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Rodriguez faces a few tensions in his personal experience such as being a "scholarship boy" as oppose to a well rounded student and and his life at home compared to a more friendly home environment. Rodriguez says that "I was a very good student, I was a also a very bad student. I was a scholarship boy, a certain kind of scholarship boy. Always successful, I was always unconfident. Exhilarated by my progress. Sad. I became the prized student - anxious and eager to learn. Too eager, too anxious - an imitative and unoriginal pupil." ( Rodrigues #283 ) Rodriguez describes himself here as imitating his teachers too much and being a perfect student instead of thinking for himself and taking in the knowledge he is given by his teachers and analyzing it and putting it to use. He is unoriginal and and uninteresting compared to a student who can use their knowledge in their own way and gets more involved. The other tension Rodriguez faces his the tension he has with his family, mostly his mother and father. At home his mother and father both support and encourage what he is doing very much but they didn't like the fact that he would always be in his room and the fact that the only thing he was involved with was school. "He permits himself embarrassment at their lack of education." (Rodriguez #286) This quote shows that Rodriguez's amount of knowledge of the english language and other subjects he had compared to his parents and therefore he was somewhat embarrassed by them and it created a tough home environment to live in because he didn't communicate much with his parents. This contrasts the home environment where their is a strong relationship between the family and their is communication.…
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Richard Rodriguez’s “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” the author Rodriguez presents arguments against the ides of bilingual education. Rodriguez uses this essay to show how he fights through his childhood to understand English. Speaking clear English will help him to fit in to school and society. And English forfeiting his happy home life, to try to become a typical English-speaking student. As a young child, Rodriguez finds comfort and safety when he can hear Spanish sounds at home. But after he goes to school, he felt out of the place because he was a child of two immigrants and have a working-class parent. And then the teacher visited his home and told his parents that it would be help him if they can speak English at home. After that, by speaking English, a problem between Richard and his parents grew. “There was a new silence in the home.” He is resentful that he can’t communicate with his parents about his day as clearly as before. He is sad when he overhears his parents speaking Spanish together but suddenly stop when they see Rodriguez. This was make him felt, now he is an outsider and this is one of the saddest moments of his childhood.…
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