The Achievement of Desire

Chapter two examines the Rodriquez's path as a student and the impact his education has on his life and family life. Using Richard Hoggart's work as a frame of reference, Rodriquez analyzes his life in terms of academic success and familial connections.

Rodriquez's eagerness to displace his Spanish accent struck a chord with me. To me, language is so important as a aprt of one's own cultural identity. We relate to everything through language. In English the word slice says so much in one syllable. At once we understand that the word is crisp and fresh, and we can hear, feel and taste the word. When we learn a second language and begin to speak it natively, I believe we can lose some of the innate beauty and understanding of our first language as it related to one's identity and culture.

I was also struck by the disconnect from his family that Rodriguez experienced as a result of his education. Hoggart's passage explains the sentiment quote nicely:

"From the very first days, through the years following, it will be his parents, - the figures of lost authority, the persons toward whom he feels the deepest love--that the change will be most powerfully measures. A seperation will unravel between them. Advancing in his studies, the boy notices that his mother and father have not changed as much as he. Rather, when he sees them, they often remind him of the person he once was the life he shared with them."

Up until recently, I've always admired my parents and rarely noticed their imperfections. But lately, whenever I'm home from school, I've a difference in intellectual depth. I don't mean to say that my parents are unintelligent; on the contrary, they both have several degrees.

My father, a CPA, is a master of logic; when I'm with him it seems as though we lack an emotional connection. Where he is concerned only with facts and figures, I've learned that I understand a subject most when I can explore it from all possible perspectives, for example, from a philosophical viewpoint or an artistic viewpoint. When we have conversations, it often seems as though we're on different, unrelated planes.

My mother is a person deeply rooted in emotional depth. While emotional intelligence is necessary and a difficult skill to develop, our conversations often fall short because she sometimes relies only on her emotions when giving an opinion. For example, if we were to discuss a political issue, she would most likely possess little background knowledge of the subject, but think that her own, uninformed opinion was good enough. I used to fall victim to that way of thinking, but since I've been at school, I've developed a hunger for knowledge. Now I'm almost fearful of speaking without understanding.