The Achievement of Desire--Richard Rodriguez

In Richard Rodriguez’s essay, The Achievement of Desire he writes about the kind of student that he was and how it led him to alienate himself from his family. In his essay, he uses several examples from Richard Hoggart’s book, The Uses of Literacy to make clearer the meaning of the term “scholarship boy” and what it meant for him and the direction that his life took.
Richard Rodriguez used Hoggart’s book as a way to better explain himself and the experiences that he lived through. It is quite obvious that he did not really understand himself until he read this book. It was kind of a looking glass into his own mind, a self-realization. Although he always knew that he was different, Hoggart’s book helped him figure out exactly what it was that was different about him, and how these differences affected those around him and his entire life style. In Hoggart’s book, he found an exact description of himself; the way that he learned, and the way that this obtained knowl...