teacher said that he is losing any traces of a Spanish accent. Soon, his parents can no longer help him with his homework. His family starts to jokingly make fun of him for reading so much. Rodriguez recalls that sometimes his mother would approach him while studying and try to talk to him. But he responded coldly to her inquiries. “Instead of the flood of intimate sounds that had once flowed smoothly between [them], there was this silence,” (51). He feels that spending time with his family is a waste, or it could be better spent studying. Rodriguez loses the intimate connection he has with his parents, especially his mother. This is detrimental to his emotional well being because it contributes to his seclusion. However, Rodriguez is not truly in solitude until he actively pursues it. Rodriguez begins to actively distance himself from his family and heritage. On nights when the house is filled with Spanish speaking relatives, he leaves the house as a way of breaking the connection. He begins to imitate his teachers’ accents and use their diction. As time goes on, he desires more solitude. Again, this is all normal according to Hoggart. “He has to be more and more alone, if he is going to get on…the boy has to cut himself off,” (47). This is exactly what Rodriguez does; he chooses his education and the classroom over his family. Rodriguez starts to spend an increasingly amount of time studying. “He takes his first step toward academic success, away from his family,” (48). However, later on in life, Rodriguez “yearns for that time when [he] had not been so alone,” (71). He regrets having socially isolated himself throughout his entire life. Rodriguez remembers the connections that he had with his mother and how he shut them down. “I kept so much, so often, to myself. Sad,” (51). He realizes that his connection that he had with his parents wa...
