In “The Achievement of Desire”, Richard Rodriguez expresses his frustration with his parent’s lack of English knowledge. He has a strained relationship with his parents due to the fact that English isn’t their first language and they don’t value education like he does. He has made it his mission to become a scholarship boy, which is someone who dedicates their life to school work to, in the end, have a successful profession. He resents his parents for not sharing his interest in learning. In “The Achievement of Desire” is states that, “Unlike many middle-class children, [Rodriguez] goes home and sees his parents a way of life not only different but starkly opposed to that of the classroom” (340). Rodriguez doesn’t approve with how his parents …show more content…
Unlike his younger siblings, who just laugh when their parents say something incorrect in English, he cringes that his parents don’t know the correct pronunciation. I feel like most people are like Rodriguez’s’ siblings. Instead of becoming angry with their parents for saying something wrong, they offer help on how to correctly say the word. Because Rodriguez is ashamed of his parent’s lack of knowledge, he has created a barrier between
himself and his parents. He seems to be blind to all the things his parents have done for him and instead he focuses all his energy on how uneducated they are, in his eyes.
Most people don’t criticize their parents for not acting the way teachers act in class. Most children appreciate their parents for giving them the opportunity to get an education. However, Rodriguez is so infatuated with knowledge that he looks at his parents in disgust because they stopped their education at a certain point. Some people might argue that there have all been times where parents have done something to irritate us. Parents may do things that are annoying from time to time but that doesn’t give kids the right to be rude and undermine their parents. Overall, Rodriguez’s feelings that he expresses towards his parents isn’t something most kids can relate to because a lot of students don’t have the outlook on school that Rodriguez shares in his