Review Of A Hunger Of Memory By Richard Rodriguez

The book A Hunger of Memory explores the education of Richard Rodriguez and his struggle to grow up in an American society that treats Mexican Americans differently. Rodriguez goes into depth about how bilingual education impacted him and his family’s lifestyle while going into great length to describe how language has impacted his life. As a bilingual American he struggles to balance his private language (That which is spoken with his family) and his public language. Although Rodriguez did learn English, he was against a bilingual education because it furthered him from the community he was immersed in and his family. As a result, Rodriguez confronts the fact that he is a product of alienation, which he sees with both acceptance and regret.

He recognizes the divide between the Spanish language, which was thought to be a private language spoken between friends and family, and the confident and clear English language. He then notices this difference within his own parents, as his father lacks the communication skills required in the American Public. Rodriguez is then required to learn English from his parents, which he resents because he feels automatically changed by the language. Eventually, he gives way and excels in English at the expense of his. This causes a loss of intimacy within his family, causing him to discover that intimacy is not through language, but through those people he is intimate with. In Graduate school Rodriguez further discovers the interworking relationship between intimacy and education. Richard compares himself to Hoggart’s “Scholarship boy” in the sense that education has changed his life. He compares himself to this boy in many ways, highlighting the scholarship boys ability to speak and learn others opinions, but not his own. This thirst for education further drives him from his