The Desire to Achieve in Rodriguez's "The Achievement of Desire"

The Desire to Achieve in Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of Desire”
“To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.” – Anatole France

According to Malcolm Forbes “Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” In his book “Hunger of Memory”, Rodriguez tells the story of his education, an education with its ups and downs. He says “education is not an inevitable or natural step in growing up”. Rodriguez may have been a successful student, but, as he realized, his academic success contributed to his alienation from his parents and from his former world. He left the barrio for the British Museum. But, as he argues, the separation from one’s parents is a necessary step for everyone’s development and education of life. In order for one to experience and participate in public life, one must make this difficult decision of “abandoning” his parents and “the old ways”.
In the essay “The Achievement of Desire” Richard Rodri...