The Scholarship Boy - lecture notes PDF

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Montgomery 1 Emily Montgomery Negash ENG 3550 9 February 2016 “The Scholarship Boy” In Richard Rodriguez’s novel Hunger of Memory, there are many themes that are important to the central plot of the story. There is no theme that is more prevalent than the theme of alienation though. The whole of the story is centered on Rodriguez’s differentness and how he doesn’t fit in to whatever society he is in, no matter where he is. Rodriguez’s biggest reason for feeling alienated is that he was raised in one culture yet he grew up in another. He was raised in a Hispanic culture that didn’t reward white culture or behavior and lived his life in a white culture that his parents and other family members did not appreciate. Not only was Rodriguez alienated from his own family and home-culture but he was also a stranger in the culture that he lived in in America. Rodriguez was alienated by his private language versus his public language. In public he spoke English because that was what he was in America to learn. Rodriguez speaks Spanish in his home because that’s what his family speaks. He has to live two completely separate lives because his family doesn’t believe in the American culture. Rodriguez looked different than the people around him, he talked different than the people around him, and all of these differences made it so that he didn’t fit in and contributed to his feeling of alienation from the people around him in America and even from is own family whom he was related to and who were supposed to love him and support him no matter what. This lead to his criticism of affirmative action because he didn’t feel that he could be offered a higher position than his peers solely based on the

Montgomery 2 fact that he was a different race. He thought that it was unfair that just because of his skin color and where he was born, he should be offered a better job than a peer who has better credentials than he. This idea isn’t fair to those who work hard and earn what they try to earn because they get screwed out of the rewards that they worked so hard for. Rodriguez’s views on affirmative action speak volumes to his character and his beliefs in human rights. Rodriguez as to perform as both a Hispanic man who was born in Mexico, and a man living in a white man’s culture. The word “performs” refers to the way that Rodriguez has to try to blend in with the societies that he is trying to be a part of because he feels as though he doesn’t belong to either culture. When the term “perform” is used, it’s as though Rodriguez is only conforming as long as he needs to just to skate by and get done what he needs to get done. It’s as though Rodriguez is a ghost to either culture because he doesn’t feel as though either culture will fully accept him for who he is, no matter how hard he tries. All of these beliefs simultaneously combine in Rodriguez’s dissatisfaction with having to be both white and Hispanic. He feels as though he is stuck between the two and can’t choose one side or the other because he feels as though he doesn’t belong to either. Rodriguez has to deal with his private language versus his public language and the difference between his family and how they feel about his learning English and his inner feelings about getting along in the American society that he is trying to learn to be a part of....