Malcolm X Richard Rodriguez essay --

Richard Rodriguez in The Achievement of Desire by Richard Rodriguez, displayed his early thoughts on education, how he learned from them as he grew older and how he ultimately alienated his parents do-to the way he went about getting his education. Malcolm Xs path toward education is explained in Learning to Read by Malcolm X. His influences, his beliefs and the effective process of what it actually took for X to become ameliorate is explained in great detail. Malcolm Xs reasoning for wanting to be educated was to be sufficient to reach out to Elijah Muhammad, -leader of The Nation of Islam and present himself as an educated person so Muhammad would be able to take notice. Moreover, Richard Rodrguez wanted to become more educated was due to his parents lack of education. In addition, education was Rodriguezs way of distancing himself from his parents and isolating himself into the world of moderates. There are some similarities between Malcolm X and Richard Rodriguez, like the fa ct that they both wanted to overcome their past and make something better of their respective situations through education. For example Rodriguez clearly states that when he was younger and would admit help with his homework his parents absence of an education limited their abilities to help him and he had to find a way to do it himself. Moreover Rodriguezs parents inability to help him was something that he learned from and later indicated that he changed his process of dealing with his schoolwork and his parents. X similarly to Rodriguez had an experience in his past that he worked to change. The work of X reveals that when X attempted to write a letter to Elijah Muhammad, he could not find the words to write that would accurately express his thoughts witho... ... educated so he decided to bury himself into his studies and leave his family life as an afterthought. Rodrguezes parents were always supportive of him and his academic success but he did not embrace them as he should h ave. Next, Rodriguez rightly points out that at his graduation ceremonies throughout life his parents would attend and someone would always say that your parents mustiness be proud. and those words always registered with him. Rodriguezs influences were his teachers during his school years. Rodriguez wanted to obtain the same knowledge that his teachers possessed so he would be able to lose weight on the benefits his education could bring him. Later he realized that he alienated himself from his parents. Rodriguez indicates the time he was in the closet reading a book and his Mother finding him was something he looked back on as one of his regrets.