The Achievement of Desire

A detailed Summary of The Achievement of Desire

In the text, "The Achievement of Desire" by Richard Rodriguez, the reader is told about the extraordinary educational experience he endures. Rodriguez tackles a psychological battle between education and family. Rodriguez relates what he must undergo to that of a "scholarship boy", which is explained in the book The Uses of Literacy, by Richard Hoggart.

The term "scholarship boy" consists of a hybrid student who must be fully capable of learning in the classroom as well as home. Both of these environments present the student with obstacles he must surmount. Rodriguez vividly describes one distraction of studying at home, "Mother is ironing, the wireless is on, someone is singing a snatch of song or Father says intermittently whatever comes into his head" (655). Rodriguez decides to evade this learning environment and decides to adapt to another. This environment is that of the classroom in which he tries his hardest to imitate the accents and dictation of the teachers. Rodriguez trusts their every direction and appears to respect them more than his own parents, which is apparent when Rodriguez states, "what mattered to me was that they were not like my teachers" (658). Rodriguez says this because of the mere fact that his paren

problems of being a "scholarship boy" would he have chosen a more even balance between school and home earlier in his life.

A major skill that Rodriguez learns is the quick assessment of books for the relevant and significant information. However, since he is a "scholarship boy" he is incapable of formulating fervent assertions. Rodriguez is knowledgeable of this error and expresses it when he claims, "I seemed unable to dare a passionate statement. I felt drawn by professionalism to the edge of sterility, capable of no more than pedantic, lifeless, unassailable prose" (669). Therefore the reader questions if Rodriguez was aware of the

conscious of his blunder while in a library surrounded by his gloomy community of scholars, "Around me each day were dour faces eclipsed by large piles of books" (668). Rodriguez' awareness of his culture imbalance was so severe that he evidently reads through books to see to what extent he has departed from his culture. This grandiose turnaround Rodriguez performs at the end of the text teaches the reader to carefully balance the choices they make in their life.

ts were an excellent example of what he did not want to become.

Rodriguez' obvious desire is the end of education. However, Ro

Some common words found in the essay are:
Rodriguez Hoggart's, Richard Hoggart, Richard Rodriguez, scholarship boy, , father feels, rodriguez' father, reads books, learning classroom,

Approximate Word count = 836
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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