The Republic" (Rodriguez 634). Rodriguez was oppressed by his books. He did not comprehend or appreciate the narratives he read. At a young age Rodriguez felt that it was necessary to read adult books rather than works written for children. He ignored the timeless classics such as Huckleberry Finn and Alices Adventures in Wonderland. Instead he read "important" books like the Iliad, Gone with the Wind, and even "the entire first volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica" (632). Rodriguez felt obligated to read the latter books, he did not choose to read them for the purpose of entertainment or pleasure. Freire labeled this as the, "banking concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filling and storing the deposits" (Freire 349). Rodriguez read the books for his teachers, so that he would become more like them. Rodriguez didnt realize, however, that he was becoming more of an automaton than anything else. Rodriguez was thoroughly dominated and oppressed by his books and by his teachers. He lacked a voice and an opinion as well. Rodriguez is not only an automaton, but also of a banking concept student. He is a container holding the ideas and thoughts of distant authors and impersonal teachers. Rodriguez does not have opinions or beliefs of his own. His mind is filled with borrowed information and is missing analysis, examination, and point of view. After reviewing Rodriguezs education, Freire would undoubtedly classify him as a quintessential representation of a banking system pupil because in Freires words, "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories" (349). ...
