Richard Rodriguez, the author of The Achievement of Desire, and Malcolm X, the author of Learning to Read, describe the ways their lives were profoundly impacted, as well as altered, because of their quest for an education. Rodriguez writes about his academic successes, while Malcolm X describes his education as self-taught. Achieving an education changed both men and both men pursued an education for different reasons.
In his writing The Achievement of Desire, Richard Rodriguez describes his pursuit of academic achievement as a way to distance himself from his family as well as his cultural roots: “… A primary reason for my success in the classroom was that I couldn’t forget that school was changing me and separating me from the life I enjoyed before becoming a student” (Rodriguez 196). A realization that took him twenty years to admit, Rodriguez
His embarrassment and sense of shame for his apparent inadequacies, as well as those of his parents, provided the driving force to become educated. Rodriguez describes himself as “The boy who first entered a classroom barely able to speak English…” (195). Becoming educated changed Rodriguez, enabling him to move through academia without the cultural baggage of his past: Describing himself as the scholarship boy, Rodriguez outlines this progression in the following statement: “Advancing in his studies, the boy notices that his mother and father have not changed as much as he. Rather, when he sees them, they often remind him of the person he once was and the life he earlier shared with them” (198). This realization drove Rodriguez throughout his academic career as well as his life.
Similarly, in his writing Learning to Read, Malcolm X discusses the many ways education chang...
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...ly different backgrounds, however, having a similar need and desire for an education. Both men used the pursuit of knowledge and the knowledge they gained to move away from their undesirable beginnings. Malcolm X was a streetwise but functionally literate convict and Richard Rodriguez, a person so ashamed of his cultural upbringing that he sought to distance himself from his heritage.
For both authors education was a means to become incredibly different individuals. Malcolm X became an advocate and a leader, as well as an articulate communicator, while Richard Rodriguez became an accomplished academic without the trace of an accent in his voice, or hint of culture from his heritage.
Works Cited
Rodriguez, Richard. “The Achievement of Desire” Reading America Eighth Ed. 2010: 194-206.
Malcolm X. “Learning to read” Reading America Eighth Ed. 2010: 210-18
How his time spent in prison made him strive for more knowledge. Also, how he taught himself how to be more articulate. Malcolm X had an agenda of why he wanted to convey himself in more literary manner. Malcolm x talks about his use of language, he uses words
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