Topic > "Rodriguez's Wish Fulfillment: A Student's Portrait

In his essay Wish Fulfillment, Richard Rodriguez writes about his experiences as a student. While writing about his education, Rodriguez often mentions a conceptual archetype of personality Originally conceived by author Richard Hoggart, Rodriguez identifies with the scholarship boy and accurately connects his experiences to the archetype. As defined by Hoggart in The Uses of Literacy, the scholarship boy is a student who, despite a family economically disadvantaged, manages to develop intellectually and achieve notable academic success and distinction Say no to plagiarism Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? he makes critical observations about himself and his former life, comparing himself in many ways to Hoggart's supposed scholarship boy. Indeed, Rodriguez's past experiences match Hoggart's description. Hoggart writes that: The boy spends much of his time in the physical center of the house, where the spirit of the woman rules (878). This is also the case with Rodriguez, especially with regards to relationships with his family, and with his mother in particular. He even credits his mother with pushing him towards the future, wanting a better life for her children; according to Hoggart, the boy must isolate himself mentally, in order to do his homework as best he can (624). Rodriguez was often found in the closet, secretly reading novels. Finally, in comparing Rodriguez with Rodriguez, the Hoggart scholarship boy, [] he waited for them [the teachers] to tell him which books to like (625). This was an example of the educational problem suggested by Herbert Spencer. Rodriguez, similar to Hoggart's scholarship boy, learned in a manner of submissive receptivity rather than independent activity (880). Rodriguez, the student, could have broken out of the scholar mold if he had relied on himself, his own thoughts, and stopped believing that his teachers and books were the only sources of education, information, and personal validation. Rodriguez is the scholar par excellence. However this is only true for his youth and not for his present. Rodriguez in no way describes himself as a professional like the scholarship guy. After his education, Hoggart states that the boy with a scholarship [] does not belong to any class [] He cannot directly address his working class, because this, since the intuitive connections have disappeared, would require greater command than face himself than he is capable of doing. (882). This is not the case with Rodriguez who is not ashamed of her youth, but reflects on her past in an attempt to understand her present. Despite his childhood similarities to the Hoggart archetype, Rodriguez had no such problems retrieving his friends and family from the abandoned classroom. His family's alienation caused by his pursuit of knowledge and his professors' respect was not as total as Hoggart would have suggested of his scholarship boy. According to Rodriguez, he spent three summer months living with his parents, relieved by how easy it was to be at home. It no longer seemed very important to him that [they] had little to say (638). Hoggart was stern and definitive in his description of the scholarship boy. According to Hoggart, the student, because of the way he learned, was condemned to an inevitable condition of pseudo-intellectualism, as well as to a possible and definitive deprivation of civil rights. In Hoggart's words, [il.