The short story by Richard Rodriguez is a narrative that surrounds and explains the struggles of a young boy growing up in a nonnative home. Rodriguez is a prospering and growing student but there are some struggles he has along the way. His parents are not English speakers and never had too much of an education. As a boy Rodriguez loved school, he loved to read, from a young age he tried very hard to get good grades and further his education. His home life and school life were very different, the home was very busy and loud, but at school it was much more conformed. He felt that he fit in more at school. In the essay Rodriguez experiences tensions between the native or common sense knowledge of his parents and the ‘book smarts’ or educational
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Throughout the essay Rodriguez struggles with these differences or intelligences. He enjoyed the fact that he was becoming well educated and getting a great education but he struggled when his realized his parents were not liked him. He tried to balance his two lives, trying to keep his native way, the way his parents lived, but also wanting to succeed and further his education. Rodriquez talks of how when young this is a balance between these two ways of thinking but then he writes, “Gradually, necessarily, the balance is lost. The boy needs to spend more and more time studying, each night enclosing himself in the silence permitted and required by intense concentration. He takes his first steps toward academic success, away from his family.” (19)
He begins to become less and less like his family.
In the end the tension was inevitable, his education was very important to him and lead to him losing his native way of thinking. His family slowly came to terms of the fact that they were different. Rodriguez even realized that he should not be embarrassed of them just because they do not have a proper education or cannot speak English well. While he grew apart from his parents they each realized this is what was best. His parents were very proud of their children and therefore he should also be proud of
Throughout the essay Rodriguez struggles with these differences or intelligences. He enjoyed the fact that he was becoming well educated and getting a great education but he struggled when his realized his parents were not liked him. He tried to balance his two lives, trying to keep his native way, the way his parents lived, but also wanting to succeed and further his education. Rodriquez talks of how when young this is a balance between these two ways of thinking but then he writes, “Gradually, necessarily, the balance is lost. The boy needs to spend more and more time studying, each night enclosing himself in the silence permitted and required by intense concentration. He takes his first steps toward academic success, away from his family.” (19)
He begins to become less and less like his family.
In the end the tension was inevitable, his education was very important to him and lead to him losing his native way of thinking. His family slowly came to terms of the fact that they were different. Rodriguez even realized that he should not be embarrassed of them just because they do not have a proper education or cannot speak English well. While he grew apart from his parents they each realized this is what was best. His parents were very proud of their children and therefore he should also be proud of