The Achievement of Desire, Essay Example

Richard Rodriguez’s essay “The Achievement of Desire” is an autobiography of the main changes that he perceived in himself as he passed through the education system. The majority of the story is centered on education, which is founded on self-discovery and self-analysis as he contrasts himself to the definition of a book, which opened his eyes to his path in life. He was alienated from his family and culture because he majorly focused on his school work, and he never had adequate time for a social life because of his concentration on reading, as well as studying. Engel’s focuses on memory that she believes that it exist out of time, as well as beyond the influence of the daily events. She believes that our self is being reshaped into our coherent personality (Engel 74). Thus, I believe that the majority of the individuals will approach the past the manner novelist approaches the creation of literacy character. In my opinion, the theory of self, we shape and reshape the memories to produce selves, which serve specific purposes and that arouse predictable responses from the audience we “play to” at the moment. It is clear that we fashion selves that will be perceived differently by the society has argued by Engel. The memories are shaped, which will change the self of a person. For instance, when Rodriguez read the book entitled “The Uses of Literacy” by Richard Hoggart’s his memory was reshaped, where he alienated from his family, and culture. The book reshaped his self, where he was not social again making those people who knew him to ask themselves some questions (Rodriguez 83).

In my opinion, “The Self as Personal Historian” is a theory that comes out in the work of Engel, where individuals believe in themselves to be an own personal historian. Our memory records the events in the past events and search up the others, which we thought they were lost or buried. This implies that people do things intrinsically, which means that it is the intrinsic part of the human being to organize past encounters and reproduce them from time to time (Engel, 89). Engel believes that we recall the past to justify, as well as understand who were are. This theory demonstrates the elements of Rodriguez in his essay because he faced challenges in growing up in two different cultures. Rodriguez was determined and has a passion to succeed beyond the limitations his Mexican culture or parents attempt at higher education. Through the books he read, he believed that he will be able only to succeed if he pursues knowledge through education. Through self-discovery, he became aware that he needed higher education to achieve his goals, but this reasoning detached him the family members and his cultures. Engel successful presented the self that reflects now and the past because we need to recall the past through the current experiences (Engel 108). Therefore, humans use their memory to recall and reflect the experiences, which is part of the human being. From the theory, memories and ideas are the most intimate part of humans. We can tell stories that happened in the past using the memories and telling these stories will entail creating self for others. This is attributed to memory theory created by Engel, which fits on Rodriguez while learning different cultures. Rodriguez begins his educational experiences with memories of second grade, a Hispanic student out of the cultural territory of social status along with language. While he a working-class child, Rodriguez felt that he was not part of the system. His parents were hard-working and uneducated, but they enrolled him to a private school so that he can give him all opportunities to receive a good education. While in school, he was able to see the difference between the school and the affiliation of his home. This was possible because he used his memories to connect the two. When he entered an English class, he was reminded of the Spanish culture that he passed while he was young. I believe that ideas and memories were fundamental in enabling Richard Rodriguez to learn English more easily than he thought. Therefore, ideas and memories as highlighted by Engel forms a major part of the entity that enables one to connect the past and now. The information is stored in the subconscious mind that allows the person to retrieve the information when needed. This was true in the case of Rodriguez when he retrieved the language he had learned to comprehend English (Rodriguez 130).

I believe that psychological theory was evident in Engel’s work. We employ the past to justify the who we are, and memory expands as we grow. Psychology deals with our memories in the way their functions. In this case, memories work by allowing persons to recall past experiences and reproduce them. Engel underscored the fact that the only avenue towards linking the past was using the minds to recall the past. Nonetheless, it was not clear in the essay the mechanism that initiates the memory that is connected to the past events in his life. Engel has demonstrated the role of psychology in line with making people become own historians (Engel 156). This has been attributed to memories and ideas that humans have in mind. In fact, she says that psychology is a field, and literature is a wilderness. The term wilderness is used by the Engel to mean the efforts we always make to recall our past experiences. This is done by provoking the subconscious mind that stores past information and enables one to retrieve whenever needed. Rodriguez passed through many challenges in life “searching” for life, which shows that he was passing through the “wilderness” in order to attain success through academics. Rodriguez understood that the only avenue towards success was education, and he became motivated through attaining this goal. He had to train his mind and ideas to drive his goal. Rodriguez searched the element of self because he struggled between two cultures. This was very traumatizing because it was created conflicts in his mind. While, attending school, he faced many challenges because he needed to understand the language as he was new at the school. At some point was to alienate with his family in order to concentrate on his studies, which was challenging because alienating the family was very painful. Psychology was evident in Rodriguez essay as he was able to use the recall the language he had learned in the past to learn the present language (Rodriguez 147). He was able to link the language through mind and memories towards self. The self he had developed through the training of the mind contributed immensely towards his educational attainments. Rodriguez was able to eliminate the past experiences after discovering that they were not that good in his life. This means that he was able to recall his past experiences, especially those that seemed to impact his life negatively.

Finally, Engel underscored the fact that it was through the mind that we can recall past experiences to enrich our present and future. This will be true when humans use their memories and ideas to recall past events that will enrich the present. In Rodriguez essay, when Rodreguez that he was overambitious, whilst lacking self-confidence, as well as self-acceptance, he discovered ways of getting undivided attention from the educators in the school. He understood that his attention was now on teachers rather than his parents, which implied that there was a shift of respect that was not good in his life if he wanted the blessings from his parents. Therefore, to change this negative trend he forced to recall a specific instance in his life in the past on returning home from the school, where he reminds himself that one of the nuns told him that she was proud that he almost losing his Spanish accent. This compliment was important because it sat deep in his memory, which made a turning point in his life. This made him take a greater interest in his English classes, and he became to blossom socially, thus interacting with people more easily. This was an important period to Rodriguez because it demonstrated the power of memory and ideas among humans (Rodriguez 220). This allowed him to change his mind, thus changing his life greatly promoting his self-identity and self-confidence.

Works Cited

Engel, Susan. Context Is Everything: The Nature of Memory. New York: W.H. Freeman, 2000. Print.

Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez : an Autobiography. New York: Bantam Books, 2004. Internet resource.