Analyzing Richard Rodriguez's 'Achievement Of Desire'

Mark Ching
Professor H.O. Alvarez
ENG 1A
22 April 2018
Desire of Achievement

Richard Rodriguez’s chapter excerpt “The Achievement of Desire” illustrates an example of the scholarship boy. Richard Rodriguez defines scholarship boy as when a person from a working-class background desires to assimilate into a high state of being. The character, Paul, from John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation (1990), represents Richard Rodriguez’s scholarship boy, by trying to assimilate into the culture of the white upper society that he is not apart and losing his own identity by repudiation of his original “working class” language, and also putting up his scholarship boy persona to connect with the higher class by using the scholarship boy’s mimicry, his

own persistence, and impersonation of the dominant, hierarchical class. Rodriguez writes in his chapter “The Achievement of Desire” about himself finding a book that defined his own life, defining himself as a scholarship boy after reading Richard Hoggart's book, “The Uses of Literacy.” In John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation (1990), Rodriguez’s scholarship boy is seen within the main character Paul, a young man from clearly a lower class, as he extorts his way into the lives of several wealthy white families by imitating the characteristics they are familiar with as well as lying about who he actually is.

Paul connects to Rodriguez’s definition of a scholarship boy as they are both from the same class, as they are trying to become something they are not and they also are pushing away their past and their status growing up. Rodriguez is trying to convey that home life for a working-class child is drastically different than the classroom and is extremely difficult for them to change. Although Paul is never put in a classroom setting his actions are not typically those of a student, but he shows his need to change himself with the use of knowledge taken from Ouisa and Flan, which is a complete opposite of what he had in his past life being from that of a lower class than them. Paul’s working-class background can be seen here as he is not wanting to stay in his original class position and caught between having an assured comfort or possibly being successful. Imitating the social class he is trying to infiltrate and coming up with false memories Paul is starting to forget who he is to get close to his goal. Connecting with the Kittredge he says “But I never knew I was black in that racist way until I was sixteen and came back here. Very protected. White servants”. Paul continues to connect with Rodriguez’s definition of a scholarship boy as they both come from working-class families, and they are both trying to leave their past behind to replace it with something they see as better in their eyes, even though it is never stated directly in the film it is heavily implied. Rodriguez writes about the scholarship boy and home life “He enters the house and hears his parents talking in ways his teachers discourage” Paul in the film mirrors Rodriguez’s own struggle of escaping his own culture background and racial difficulties not being part of the white and wealthy. This is seen in the phone call scene with Ouisa, Paul can be seen pouring his soul to her showing just how desperately he wants to be accepted as their surrogate son and inherit their art profession. As the great mimic, the scholarship boy is, Paul continues to put up the false persona to move forward to his goal of acceptance surely losing all of his memory of a past life. Throughout the film, Paul can be seen spinning similar stories of how he is connected to those that the high class would recognize or look up so much so that they would become infatuated and drawn deeper into his lie.
Paul continues to bring up his wealth and high-class status with each family he meets in order to make himself feel as though he does belong. Without missing a step, he does not lose sight of what his final goal is, to become that which he is mimicking, even putting up this false front to a couple who is clearly in harder times that himself. Paul follows the scholarship boy characterizes as he loses his old memories to capture his goal , he is trying to replace every piece of his past with this new lie he is coming up with to make himself seem more important the he really is as he does not want to go back to his old ways and wants to so desperately be part of the higher class, even teaching the couple how they would be able to infiltrate the wealthy themselves. It is implied that from a very young age Paul knew that he did not belong in his working-class status and will look for a more suitable place in upper class society he believes he belongs too, transforming himself until he is accepted as one of them.

Patricia Williams’ critique of societies in general that acceptance can only be an escape from one's own feeling of anxiety by becoming part of the wealthy, but she continues to examine if that will truly bring one freedom from their own oppression. In her essay, “Ethnic Hash” she writes on that subject “The quest for acceptance is a kind of escape; the borders of oneself are patrolled so closely that one is always looking outward, looking toward a home beyond where one is. I wonder if the real privilege of high status is freedom from such anxiety” (Williams 34). As the working-class child finds himself choosing between the two different worlds that come from home and school, as his home in his eyes is seen as very uneducated working class that is stuck in rut, the place he is at is mostly a comfortable place that is just good enough for most. This is not good enough for the scholarship boy as he sees what this comfortable place leads to, it leads him to staying exactly where he grew up in when he wants to move to something better he was never able to be a part being of a working class. Paul makes his decision to pursue his intended opportunities by conning his way into lives of the wealthy white upper class and in this pursuit, he lost in his previous life.

Rodriguez writes, as, like Paul, the scholarship boy fulfills his imagination in the pursuit of his goal.

Although the wealthy white cultures that Flan and Ouisa characteristics show is complete disdain towards Paul in his first appearance, being a young black male integrating into the wealthy culture it is one giant obstacle he must overcome. Paul is seen as something lower than the family when he first burst into their home and again when they know for a fact that he was lying and being an imposter the whole time. Paul follows exactly as Rodriguez wrote that imitating education is the best way to become as what the scholarship boy’s intentions is. As he quotes a graduation speech and sells it as it his own, memorizing every word to make it seem as he is the one who put the paper to pen. Becoming more and more engulfed by the scholarship boy who is a different culture and ethnicity, one who is also trying to assimilate, but not simply into a higher class but a dominant culture entirely different to the one he was born into at home, who is just memorizing and spitting back everything he has locked away, not having his own thought but those of the ones he is trying to portray. Paul is not a great thinker but a great part being able to repeat exactly what he has heard without knowing exactly what it is being said. Paul is a very good actor being able to memorize a script and perform as a wealthy upper class individual. Archiving those thoughts of others he finds to be in the up upper class levels away from his own, a task he must complete to get over the racial hurdle that has held him back ever since he could remember. As he continues to do this very thing, imitating the opinions and mannerisms of which the wealthy white upper class holds, he beings to believe himself as one of them and hopes his race and culture will no longer separate the two

worlds.
Jennifer Gillian in her essay “Plotting Political Personhood,” describes what is happening to Paul in this very instance “Paul, already aware that he is not an equal contractor in his society, continues to make choices as if he were, suggesting how much he had internalized the desire for the national fantasy. Paul's utopian hopes in the potential for future inclusion in iconic American citizenship is always in tension with recognition of his exclusion” (Gillian 151). Imitating to achieve his goal, Paul is clearly a scholarship boy in this instance having to overcome the very thing that will separate him from any wealthy white family, the color of his skin. As he is always seen as something less not only for not being a real part of the wealthy class but because of the fact that he is a black male who is trying as the scholarship to become what he is not and replace his own culture with that of the upper wealthy class, and it is seen in the very beginning that just because of that Flan and Ouisa look at him lower than themselves.

Paul in the film reflects Rodriguez’s scholarship boy in his Catcher the Rye monologue in when he says of “The imagination. That’s God gift to make the act of self-examination bearable” Paul has this imagination but lacks a sense self-confidence of his true identity (Six Degrees of Separation 27). Paul continues to reflect the scholarship boy Rodriguez writes about by showing that as the writing conveys that a scholarship boy is lacking in self-confidence. When Paul first appears to Flan and Ouisa and later when he meets with Trent Conway he shows his lack of self in general not to mention his self-confined issues, wanting to leave and join a better class. The connections with people throughout life in the film is seen to be something no more than just a fantasy thought up by the popular culture to force people to live in their own imaginations. As Ouisa finds out at the end of the film, she hardly knows Flan and no one actually knew who or what Paul was or is. As the scholarship boy from a different culture and ethnicity, one who is also trying to assimilate, but not simply into a higher class but a dominant culture entirely different to the one he has at home, Paul can only find happiness in living a life that is not truly his and moving on to do the same to another group of people. The loss of one's own memory is lost once the person starts to use their own imagination to believe that reality is not something real.
Paul is someone in who is trying to escape their own culture plight, by losing one's memory and assimilating into the white and wealthy. As the film, Six Degrees of Separation writes Paul and his characteristics are seen as the arrangement that Richard Rodriguez is trying to bring to light. The working-class scholarship boy will not accept his position in his lower class and will throw away his culture and memories to be assimilated into the higher wealthy class. Education for the scholarship boy is seen as for Paul for his imitation, the one he clearly uses to access the world where he can take in all the information previously not available to him.