The Achievement of Desire

The Achievement of Desire

  • Submitted By: ysolovyeva
  • Date Submitted: 02/03/2009 6:49 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 369
  • Page: 2
  • Views: 3918

Yulia Solovyeva Assignment # 2 ENGL 101 01/26/2009 The Achievement of Desire Summary By Richard Rodriguez. Richard Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of Desire” is a story about how Richard battles between education and family.. Richard grew up in a family, where parents remained with the traditions of Hispanic culture. Throughout Richard’s essay, he is talking about his great desire and ambition to learn and become educated. He also mentions not once how badly he wanted to become like his teachers to “possess their knowledge, to assume their authority, their confidence, even to assume a teacher’s persona”. The achievement of his desire however cost him his close relationship with his parents. Almost immediately at a young age Richard realizes that learning requires quiet time and space he did not have much at home. The more he was reading and writing, the farther away he was becoming from his parents. Richard often referred himself as a “scholarship boy” who had to be capable of learning in the classroom and at home. It wasn’t easy for Richard to learn at home while everyone around him was distracting him by doing their daily chores and activities. Rodriguez decides to evade this “home learning environment” and adapt to another. In the classroom he tries his hardest to imitate his teachers and even their dictation and accents. The more time he spends in school, the more respect he feels towards his teachers and the less respect he feels toward his parents. At the end of Richard Rodriguez’s essay he seems to somewhat regret the path he chose in life and yearns for the enjoyment he had passed up. Only not long after his graduation he realizes that he had joined a “lonely community” by becoming a member of scholars. Richard describes community of scholars as a union in which everyone is very distant from each other. Richard starts wondering if his desire for becoming educated and its’ process leaves him socially withdrawn. As a result of his uneasy journey through...

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