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The Achievement of Desire Review

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The Achievement of Desire Review
Win Sandy Oo
English 1A
Porter
RODRIGUEZ’S EXPERIENCE IN THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL SEPERATION IN PERSUING EDUCATION AND THE RESULT ON WHAT HAD GAINED AFTERWARDS

From the essay The Achievement of Desire by Richard Rodriguez what Rodriguez had experienced help him pointed out the fact that cultural difference separates him from his family but later, education helped him realized the separation and the valuable thing he had missed in life, his family. Rodriguez had a hard time adjusting with his family in his early days due to the culture difference between home and school. The separation made him regret in life at some point and tried to made up for the loss he had with his family.
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)”.
Another fact in culture difference is the surrounding of those two places: his home and school. “The scholarship boy must move between environments, his home and the classroom, which are at cultural extremes (Rodriguez)”. Rodriguez has affection and intimacy from the family’s warmth whereas, at school, he has to be active with thought processes and reflectiveness upon the knowledge he received. The two environments made him act differently and he began to see the reasons upon those
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