Richard Rodriguez

Growing up, people realize that around the time of reaching a mature state, education has affected their personal family life in one way or the other. With that being said, in his essay, “The Achievement of Desire”, Richard Rodriguez headed towards a path where he was unconsciously distancing himself from his family and becoming much more independent than he had expected. Rodriguez gives the reader a sentimental idea of the two contrary lives he had growing up, the life he had as a child, and the life he has as an educated man. He continued believing in his aspiration of how benefits of education can remarkably outweigh the past struggles of both his family and himself. Like Rodriguez, I also, in the past, found some form of solitude in my family life, and was able to partially see myself in his story of desirable triumph.
As years passed along, Rodriguez noticed that he was being driven further and further apart from his parents. This awkward gap between Rodriguez and his family was something that he couldn’t help, mainly because family life and home life were two entities he simply could not keep in balance. “He cannot afford to admire his parents. (How could he and still pursue such a contrary life?)”(par.13), “…the scholarship boy must move between environments, his home and the classroom, which are at cultural extremes, opposed (par. 5)”, says Richard Hoggart, in his book, “The Uses of Literacy”, where Rodriguez found many similarities with the “scholarship boy”. Rodriguez found himself in an environment he grew entirely fond of, knowing that his parents had “a way of life not only different but starkly opposed to that of the classroom” (par.9). Due to these differences, as he was allowing educational authorities to mold him deeply and completely, his growing admiration towards education lead to a diverse gap and alienation that overcame his relationship with his family.
In my perspective, Rodriguez’s biggest motivation was the thought of how