Reading the WOR version after reading the RRA version changed my view of Rodrigues home life and the environment he grew up in. Before reading the WOR version, the theme of the essay represented the challenges in the lack of authority from his parents in regards to education. At the beginning stages of his road to the scholar student, the nuns at his private school became the figure of authority. He was embarrassed by the lack of education his parents had compared to his figures of authority, the teachers or nuns. “I was not proud of my mother and father. I was embarrassed by their lack of education…What mattered to me was that they were not like my teachers.” (P.573 Section 24) Overall, as a reader, you can easy assume that he envied the
…show more content…
Without reading this, the theme of the essay made the reader feel as if his ambition for education was something his family was unable to relate to. Therefore, he felt alone and ashamed of his ambition. In the omitted section, Rodrigues stated, “For their children my parents wanted chances they never had – an easier way.”… “In schooling she recognized the key to job advancement.” (p.573 Omitted Section. B) That statement is an example where Rodrigues gives the reader immediate insight of his parent’s views on job advancement. He goes on to described the missed opportunities by both his mother and father throughout their careers, in order to demonstrate the ambition his parents had for education during their …show more content…
The inclusion of this information is pertinent to the reader to understand the disconnection between his meaning of “ambition” from a scholar point of view, and his parent’s ‘ambition’ as a workers point of view. The ‘ambition’ his parents felt stemmed from the loss of job opportunities. Meaning, if his parents were able to go to private schools like he had, they could have captured “the opportunity for job advancement” (p.57 Omitted Section G). In his father’s experience, the opportunity for education was the chance to “…escape from a life of mere labor.” It’s ironic to Rodrigues because those missed opportunities by his parents gave him the ambition to pursue the path that his parents were unable to experience. His parent's shortcomings made him pursue a path he probably would’ve never been exposed
Without reading this, the theme of the essay made the reader feel as if his ambition for education was something his family was unable to relate to. Therefore, he felt alone and ashamed of his ambition. In the omitted section, Rodrigues stated, “For their children my parents wanted chances they never had – an easier way.”… “In schooling she recognized the key to job advancement.” (p.573 Omitted Section. B) That statement is an example where Rodrigues gives the reader immediate insight of his parent’s views on job advancement. He goes on to described the missed opportunities by both his mother and father throughout their careers, in order to demonstrate the ambition his parents had for education during their …show more content…
The inclusion of this information is pertinent to the reader to understand the disconnection between his meaning of “ambition” from a scholar point of view, and his parent’s ‘ambition’ as a workers point of view. The ‘ambition’ his parents felt stemmed from the loss of job opportunities. Meaning, if his parents were able to go to private schools like he had, they could have captured “the opportunity for job advancement” (p.57 Omitted Section G). In his father’s experience, the opportunity for education was the chance to “…escape from a life of mere labor.” It’s ironic to Rodrigues because those missed opportunities by his parents gave him the ambition to pursue the path that his parents were unable to experience. His parent's shortcomings made him pursue a path he probably would’ve never been exposed