“A Scholarship Boy” was a new term I learned when I read “The Achievement of Desire” by Richard Rodriguez. I am still fascinated by the drive that was created in Richard Rodriguez to motivate him to educate himself. I feel that his obsession with his education which leads to an unbalanced life of too much school work at the cost of family life creates an illusionary happiness.
This is seen when Rodriguez writes “A primary reason for my success in the classroom was that I couldn’t forget that schooling was changing me and separating me from the life I enjoyed before becoming a student.This “unbalance” leads the boy to become ashamed and isolated towards his family. When in school young children can often be very impressionable to what is taught to them. When Rodriguez’s teachers tried to get the children to read, Rodriguez seemed to take it too far.
His learned attributes of reading from his teachers soon became not only an intensive learning experience for him but an obsession as well. This obsession was that of one toward his books.As he kept reading and getting help from his teachers he says “Didn’t I realize that reading would open up whole new worlds? ” In the fourth grade his reading was extensive and he wanted to get his hands on any book he could. “At the library I would literally tremble as I came upon whole shelves of books I hadn’t read.
” This just shows how much love he had for his books and soon this would seem to affect his family and social life as well.For young Richard to become successful he must give full attention to his education and nothing else. In order to do this he must separate from everything. In the fourth paragraph of his essay, Rodriquez admits that he started to become annoyed with the fact that his parents were not “educated” enough to help him with his homework.
“I was oddly annoyed when I was unable to get parental help with a homework assignment. ” This seems to be just the beginning of the isolation from them.When he writes about himself “outgrowing” this sort of behavior he also adds in that he became bookish and that “Ambition set me apart. When his father found him reading in the closet by himself or when his siblings saw him struggling to bring home all of his many library books, or even when he could not be found the family made a joke about him and would say that he “must be hiding under my bed with a book.
” Between his parents lack of education and his family’s “humor” it doesn’t seem hard to understand why he wanted to distance himself. As young Richard broke away from his parents and concentrated on his schooling, it seemed like he not only wanted the knowledge that his teachers gave him but he also wanted to be them as well.As explained before Rodriguez is embarrassed with his parents lack of education and even writes that he “permits himself embarrassment,” because of this. Without the educational guidance and control that his parents cannot give the only where to look for this is his teachers.
He cannot relate or depend on his family members and therefore can not make an “allegiance” with them. This kind of allegiance is “The kind of allegiance the young student might have given his mother and father only days earlier, he transfers to the teacher, the new figure of authority. As this bond grows between them Rodriguez even wants to be like those who taught him best.He admits “I came to idolize my grammar school teachers.
I began by imitating their accents, using their diction, trusting their every direction. ” This wanting to become like his teachers seems to be the effect only rooting from his parents lack of education. Richard Rodriguez was a young impressionable Mexican boy who’s embarrassment from his parents lack of education drove him away from them and towards his education. His illusionary happiness was portrayed only when he was reading or at school.
