Summary Of The Achievement Of Desire By Richard Rodriguez

Rodriguez Uses of Literacy I feel as if Richard Rodriguez is so lost in the Hoggarts’ text he becomes both the reader and writer .He is using literacy so often that it seem like Rodriguez is actually the one writing the "The Achievement of Desire." While reading, Rodriguez discovered Hoggart’s book that defined his own life. It was evident Rodriquez wasn’t the only one struggling with the scholarship boy role. But the great thing about Rodriguez throughout the text he realized how much he engulfed himself into being a scholarship boy; and how much he missed out with his family and life. That through reading Hoggart text he learned about himself and made some decisions to change. Hoggart painted a perfect picture of the scholarship
boy that Rodriguez buried himself under. The scholarship boy (Rodriguez) filled himself with so much knowledge; caused him to be blinded with what really matters in life. For instance, in page 549 block quote 2-He has to be more and more alone, if he is going to “get on”. He will have, probably unconsciously, to oppose the ethos of the hearth, the intense gregariousness of the working-class family group…..mother is ironing—father is intermittently singing a snatch of song that comes to his head. The boy cut himself off mentally, so as to do his homework, as well as he can. As you can see in the intro Rodriguez realizes his fault-he admits his education caused him to isolate himself from his parents. Much of what Hoggart describe a scholarship boy to be and do. At some part of the story, you would think it’s initially Rodriguez story. The way Rodriguez analyzes it. As Hoggart would explain a scholarship boy-- "He discovers a technique of apparent learning, of acquiring of facts rather than of the handling and use of facts" (Hoggart pg.243).Rodriguez pg (557-558) merely bookish, I lacked a point of view when I read. Rather, I read in order to acquire a point of view….Hoggart-the scholarship boy in every obvious way is the worst student, a dummy mouthing the opinions of others. Hoggart is actually explaining the literally definition in his text on what he use to be and what he use to do. While Rodriguez grasps Hoggarts text and interprets and analyze his life exactly into it[uses of literacy],because through Hoggarts text he views a mirror image of him. But then as the text begin to unfold….the very same parents he felt ashamed and annoyed by. (Pg.549 2 column ¶ 2….through the years following, it will be with his parents---the figures of lost authority, the person toward whom he feels deepest love—that the change will be most powerfully measured. After noticing the issues that he was experiencing were the result of being a scholarship boy, Rodriguez examined on how he could innovate himself from being one.
"I left the reading room and the circle of faces. I came home... I spent three summer months living with my mother and father, relieved by how easy it was to be home" (638). The scholarship boy had a tremendously difficult time communicating with his parents just as Rodriguez did. While reading Hoggart texts of a scholarship boy. I believe that it sent Rodriguez into a crucial awareness and enabled him to apprehend himself better.Rodriguez understood that he needed to return to his roots that he had abandoned in his search for knowledge, only after realizing what he had become. If he had not read Hoggart's book, he might not have ever figured out how to improve himself. Again, Rodriguez's ability to grow came from his reading of Hoggart's text….(pg 563) It would require many more years of schooling (an evitable mis-education) in which came to trust the silence of reading and the habit of abstracting from immediate experiences—moving away from a life of closeness and immediacy I remembered with my parents, growing older—before o turned unafraid to desire the past and thereby achieved what had eluded me for so long—the end of
education.