Analysis of Hunger of Memory Written by Richard Rodriguez - Essay Example

Task: Hunger of Memory Hunger of Memory is a story written by Richard Rodriguez, a young man of Mexican-American Origin fromthe state of California. It is a story of how he began his education as a small boy, how education separated him from his family, and how his search for education drew divisive lines between him and his family, his culture and his background roots. Richard Rodriguez begins his schooling at a tender age, studying Sacramento in his home state of California. He comes from a low-income family with little finances to support his passion for an education. At this tender age, Richard Rodriguez only knows fifty English words. However, this does not deter his quest for knowledge that he diligently pursues until he concludes his studies at the university. He begins from a humble location but ends up in a prestigious place, i.e. he completes his studies in a stately and quiet reading room found in the British Museum, compared to the small humble background where he began his studies. Richard Rodriguez is a minority student owing to his Mexican-American origin. Hunger of Memory is a story detailing poignantly the journey of this minority student through the scales of education. Furthermore, the story outlines the costs he incurs in order to assimilate socially with his counterparts at colleges and the university, as well as what it takes for him to excel academically and record commendable academic success. In addition to these costs, Richard Rodriguez also has to suffer the pain of alienation from his family and culture, as he has to go away from home, stay far away from home long enough to forget his cultural roots and backgrounds. The quest for studies alienates Richard Rodriguez from his parents, his past and his culture. In his celebrated memoir, Hunger of Memory, he describes the high price that one has to pay in order to succeed in a modern middle-class society of America. Hunger of Memory provides a powerful political statement as well as a profound study of how language is very important in the modern world. In addition, it holds provocative positions about bilingual education and affirmative action. As such, the book is entirely an intimate portrait of a boy who struggles to become a man. Richard Rodriguez strives to learn a new second language as a child. He is one of the students who assimilate through learning a new language of their host country. He originally spoke Spanish, which was his native language, but later learnt to speak English just as fluently as any native-born American could speak. This new twist in language brought about confusion in their home as their parents spoke Spanish while at home, Rodriguez, and his siblings had to speak English while at school. Learning a new language is one of the items in education that alienated Richard Rodriguez from his culture. He was born Mexican-American with Spanish as his first language. However, because of education, he had to abandon his native language and learn a new language of their host country, America, in order to assimilate well into their education system. This made him drift away from his culture because before he began studying, Spanish language was the center of his life and consolidated his family. However, learning English language meant he was moving out into a public sphere. This meant he had to split away from his family. This generated a hunger within him, a deep desire of his private past, a nostalgic past, and a private language that he could no longer speak. However, contrary to expectations, Richard Rodriguez embraces the hunger he has for his nostalgic past because of having to move out from being a Spanish student to assimilating into a real America. On the other hand, he also feels nostalgic about the relationships and upbringing he has to go through in his quest to become an educated man. Richard Rodriguez had a catholic upbringing. However, he moves from studying in catholic schools to studying in non-catholic universities contrary to his catholic upbringing. In another way, education robbed him off his original faith instilled through catholic upbringing, as he had to assimilate into education systems provided by non-catholic universities. Schools without catholic statutes and rules did not permit him to continue with his catholic faith. Furthermore, this led to development of a nostalgic feeling in his life because it led him to disassociate with his catholic past. In another case, he had troubles with his skin color. He wished at a time that he had a little more white color in order to feel more similar to the rest of the white students in schools where he attended. He hated to undress during the dark because it would lead him to developing a tan. Being tan meant that one was as poor as the Mexican Day Laborers. Such an unadventurous move made Richard Rodriguez feel guilty of his roots. He felt unlucky not born a white because he did not have the same skin color like his white student’s counterparts. Another memory that Richard Rodriguez hungers for is affirmative action. Affirmative action denied children from poor families an opportunity to continue with their studies. This was a selfish move to meet personal desires of a few selected individuals. He was from a poor past but managed to climb through the ladders of education to get a university degree. Looking back at his past, he reminisces how the society denied good jobs for people from poor backgrounds, and denied them the right to attend good schools. This made children from less disadvantaged backgrounds lack the opportunity to better their lives through quality education. In concluding his memoirs, Richard Rodriguez considers writing as a public act whereby an author is in a position to reveal secrets. Authors can incorporate the intimacy and privacy of their home languages to the public sphere through writing. However, this process evolves from private activity to a public rendition. Bilingual education has significant importance to all those who possess it and not a danger as most culturalists would put it. Knowing two languages allows an individual to blend into two different cultures at the same time. Bilingualism is a form of assimilation that Richard Rodriguez had to go through in order to become a fully-grown man. This, however, tore him away from the culture and family that brought him up. This book does not compare well to other memoirs written by Latina authors about their assimilation into new cultures because of education. According to Richard Rodriguez in his celebrated book Hunger of Memory, he puts all the blame on education as the main cause of his turning away from his roots, his culture, and his language. He ends up detaching from his family in order to pursue his academic goals through education. He ends up learning a new language, developing new cultural practices and forgetting his traditional roots. On the contrary, other Latino writers completely disagree with his argument. They claim that one can study and still maintain their cultures and traditions. For instance, Judy Ortiz Cofer in her ming-boggling memoir entitled Silent Dancing maintains that one can still pursue education in a different country and still maintain their cultural roots. Silent dancing is a story about Judy Ortiz Cofer’s life, about her back and forth travels as a migrant from Puerto Rico. She migrates with her family to settle in the United States at Parterson, New Jersey. She recollects her childhood memories and the stories told to her by her grandmother to paint an effective picture about her culture and experiences. Judith’s mother was only fifteen years old when she became a mother and had to confront harsh realities of having to raise a child on her own, as well as releasing her husband to go and serve in the US Navy. As such, she heavily relied on other women, including her mother-in-law and her mother to raise the child through her first two years of development while still in Puerto Rico. Judy narrates the stories of her growth basing on her personal life experiences as well as stories from her grandmother (Cofer 170). Judy Cofer uses silence to convey her messages in a much more meaningful style than through spoken words. Her mother moved them from Puerto Rico to America when she was three years old to join her husband living in America. Silent Dancing outlines the lives of Spanish men and women within Judy’s surroundings, especially those found at her home. She writes of an uncle to her father and her aunt. The uncle suffers from a drinking problem and the alcohol is eating up his body. Judy visualizes his uncle dancing silently through a dream. Furthermore, she also hears her aunt tell her how right she was in thinking about the abortion of her cousin. Silence in the book communicates far deeper meanings than the words spoken. Unlike in Hungers of Memory by Richard Rodriguez where living in a new land completely eradicates ones culture and traditional practices, Silent Dancing by Judy Cofer maintains the Spanish cultures despite their living in a foreign land, i.e. moving from Puerto Rico (Cofer 170). In conclusion, we can clearly see the difference between the two memoirs. One of them states that education and living in a new country compromises the lives and cultures of an individual, i.e. Hungers of Memory. On the other hand, the other narrative outlines that despite living in a foreign country, one can still maintain their roots and cultures, i.e. Silent Dancing. Judy and her Spanish relatives maintain their cultural values and practices such as banging heat pipes, playing salsa music and clacking dominoes. Characters in Silent Dances maintain their cultural values while at the same time comfortably assimilate to their new environment. Therefore, the stand taken by Richard Rodriguez in his memoirs Hunger of Memory that education eradicates ones cultural values and practices is very wrong (Cofer 170). Work cited Cofer, Judith. Silent Dancing. Houston, Texas: Arte Publico Press, 1990. Print. Pp.170 Read More