Scholarship Boy
In Hunger of Memory Richard Rodriguez describes what he believes the “scholarship boy” to be. He relates to us that by his definition he himself is a “scholarship boy”. ... To Richard Rodriguez the “scholarship boy” is one whose family life and academic life are constantly at odds. “ the ‘scholarship boy’ is one who must move between environments, his home and the classroom, which are at cultural extremes, opposed. ... At the same time the “scholarship boy” values education and desires the acceptance of the academic world that he longs to be apart of. ... The boy needs to spend more time studying, each night enclosing himself in the silence permitted and required by intense contradiction. ... Since the “scholarship boy” must live in two very opposite environments simultaneously, as a result he tends to experience many conflicting feelings as well. “ With his family the boy had the intense pleasure of intimacy, the family’s consolation in feeling public alienation. ... ” As a boy, at home Rodriguez feels secure and confident, whereas in school he feels awkward and ignorant.