Hunger of Memory

1. Rodriguez opens his autobiography with the assertion that "It is not possible for a child--any child--ever to use his family's language in school. Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses of schooling and to trivialize the nature of intimate life--a family's 'language.'" (12) According to Rodriguez, what are the public uses of schooling? Do you agree with this definition?
2. Do you agree with Rodriguez's idea that the public and private worlds of American society are profoundly divided? Cite examples for your position from Hunger of Memory, Black Boy, The Feminine Mystique, and Desert Exile. What role do language, culture, and law play in the separation of intimate from public life?
3. After his summer work experience in the fields, Rodriguez decides that he will never know real work because his education gave him a public persona "able to defend my interest, to unionize, to petition, to speak up--to challenge and demand." (138) Does the evidence of this course support Rodriguez's assertation that only people educated into a public identity are capable of challenging and demanding change from the dominant culture? Using evidence from the various resistance movements described in this course, respond to Rodriguez's claims here.
4. Later, Rodriguez concludes that "The child who learns to read about his nonliterate ancestors necessarily separates himself from their way of life." (161) Do you agree that educated people are by definition separated from the less-educated working class? What would be the implications of this for popular protest movements? How does this critique affect your understanding of, for example, the Civil Rights movement? Cesar Chavez's unionization battles in the agricultural fields of California's Central Valley?
5. Rodriguez addresses some of the same issues that DuBois raised in The Souls of Black Folk. Compare and contrast DuBois and Rodriguez on the issues of assimilation and cultural resistance, as well as the potential burdens of education on "minority students." (You might want to re-read DuBois' chapter "Of the Coming of John".) Does Rodriguez believe that DuBois was correct to say the problem of the twentieth century was the problem of the color line? Do you?

Richard Rodriguez On-Line

Online Newshour

A collection of essays Richard Rodriguez has written for the PBS newsprogram, Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

Jinn Magazine

The online magazine of the Pacific News Organization. Richard Rodriguez is a contributor, and the link should direct you to a listing of his articles.

"The New, New World"

An undated interview with Richard Rodriguez by Reason Magazine. Rodruguez discusses culture and assimilation, and describes himself as "left of center."

It's CLASS, stupid!

1997 article Rodriguez wrote, arguing that the end of Affirmative Action allows universities to focus on the educational disadvantages faced by the poor.

Internet Resources

A Fine Line: Memory and Boundary

A 2002 ThinkQuest project offering a brief biography and summary of the book. Includes links to other reviews of Hunger of Memory.

"One Nation, Indivisible: Is It History?"

The Washington Post maintains a site dedicated to contemporary debate on ethnic identity and immigration. The site opens with an article considering immigration since 1965.

"The Conservative 1960s"

Review in "The Atlantic Monthly" of Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the GOP. Provides a different view of the 1960s than that presented in most films and books and a 1960s context for the conservative renaissance of the 1980s. Note: The magazine now requires a paid subscription to view its archive. I've left the link because the article was excellent, but you will need to subscribe to gain access.

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