Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez

1748 Words4 Pages

The following review of Richard Rodriguez’s book titled “Hunger of Memory,” shows the author’s smart way of writing an autobiography. The book is conformed in six well explained essays of Rodriguez’s life placed together, all in order to show the reader the different outcomes during his life as a middle class Mexican-American. The author wrote this autobiography on 1982, in where he explains the moments that he and his family went by during their immigration inside the United States. Richard Rodriguez started attending a Roman Catholic elementary school with a simple knowledge of the English language. Due to the fact he did not know much English; he was not very confident in class and had a very shy personality inside the classroom. During his trajectory in elementary school, he was more into learning the language because of an advice of a nun form his school that when to talk with Richard’s parents. Even though Rodriguez did started to learn the language as time passed by he felt that his Mexican culture that brought his family so close once before was being lost as more and more Americanized his family seemed to become. Richard Rodriguez began to find comfort in reading books, as he began to read more and more he states that lecture was a main importance of his future academic success; reading also helped him to grow in confidence after making him a better writer and a better English speaker. Education became primordial in Rodriguez’s life style, education changed the view that he had over his family of the lack of education they possessed which made Rodriguez feel embarrassed. Nevertheless, another part of Richard was thankful with his parents that he had the support and love of his family to walk the long road and be successf... ... middle of paper ... ...country like the United States and how some must suffer to become and overcome differences and one must be assimilated into the American culture. The author admitted that when he saw other Hispanic students and teachers on campus striving to maintain their ethnicity and culture by demanding such things as Chicano studies departments and minority literature classes, and this was no obstacle for Rodriguez in his life, he became successful, a literature genius, a social thinker, and more importantly he never forgot from where he came from, he was proudly Hispanic, he was a proud Mexican. Works Cited Rodriguez, Richard. “Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez : an Autobiography.” New York: Bantam Books, 1983. Print. “Hunger of Memory-The Education of Richard Rodriguez Summary.” March 12, 2013. Web. < http://kellyanne828.hubpages.com/hub/Hunger-of-Memory>

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