Hunger of Memory
A detailed Summary of Hunger of Memory
The universal "growing pains" that all children experience
in one form or another are easily recognized in Richard
Rodriguez's autobiographical excerpt from Hunger of Memory.
Rodriguez's childhood was particularly unique given the fact
that while he was born and raised in the United States, he
was strongly influenced in the ethnic environment of a
Spanish family. Although the reader is introduced to only a
short excerpt from the autobiography, he learns a great deal
about Rodriguez's family and his relationship to it, his
conflict of speaking English versus Spanish, and the
paradox that became evident as he used English as his
primary language. Furthermore, the reader learns that
Rodriguez's experiences have contributed to his beliefs that
First of all, Richard Rodriguez came from a family
where his parents had been born and raised in Mexico. After
moving and settling in America, Rodriguez's parents gave
birth to him and his siblings. Rodriguez refers many times
to "los gringos" , a colloquial, derogatory name charged
with "bitterness and distrust" with which his father
described English speaking Americans. This evidence made it

home life considerably changed, Rodriguez's life at school
allowing the reader to make his or her own personal
setting, he would not have confronted the same obstacles
Finally, it was the contrast between the home and the
bilingual education today imply that students like me miss a
the fact that he used to feel a "desperate, urgent, intense"
conversations became strained and less frequent. While his
become independent, he had to assimilate into another way of
one suffers a diminished sense of private individualism by
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1069
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
Category: English
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