'Achievement Of Desire' By Richard Rodriguez

Achievement of Desire by Richard Rodriguez describes the story of his identity and culture distinctively, as he mainly illustrates the difficulty of compromising between the academic world and the life of a working class family. For instance, due to Richard’s guardians whom stayed with the traditions of their Hispanic culture, his ambition to learn and become like his teachers separated him from his roots. Besides, at a youthful age, Richard acknowledges that learning requires attributes such as calmness, time, and space, in which he did not quite have at home. As his desire expanded to read and compose, his isolation from his parents enlarged. Even though Richard cherished his parents, he likewise felt accountable for the embarrassment of their thick accent and behavior. In short, the dissociation of what his parents lacked and what he wanted to achieve left Richard questioning how his thoughts and …show more content…
Nonetheless, Richard found deep understanding himself as he reads The Uses Of Literacy by Richard Hoggart. He finds himself belonging to a certain group of people, ‘the scholarship boy’. Richard Hoggart states that a scholarship boy “is at the friction-point of two cultures”. The scholarship boy comes from a working class family background. When Richard starts school, he thrust into an opposing environment, where the chaos of a working class home is fading and the boy is somewhat surrounded by “mental calm”. Seeing that, school can be seen as a part of the ‘outside world’ to someone whom comes from a working class family. He enters the class “barely able to speak English” (482). It is simple to see a young boy getting caught up in such a situation, as his parents are barely scraping by and know he is in a place where he can ensure his future by getting a good