The Achievement of Desire

       In "The Achievement of Desire," Richard Rodriguez talks about how education changed him and ended up alienating him from his family and culture.  Throughout his essay, Rodriguez parallels much of his life to that of what Hoggart calls the "scholarship boy."  He  talks about the relationship with his parents and how as time went by it kept becoming less existent.  Throughout his text, he mentions his response to when people tell him "your parents must be proud of you," because it constantly reminds him of his relationship with them.

      A very interesting point that he makes is how he argues that education and imitation are synonyms, that they are one in the same.  He talks about how he use to imitate his teachers in order to feel more educated.  He believed imitation was the key to knowledge and education, enough to make him want to become a teacher to feel the same as his professors.  He also talks about one of the hardest things he had to do was learn how to write without imitating, by coming up with his own thoughts and ideas.  Since imitation could only take him so far, he had to learn how to think by himself.