Theme

The major theme in this book is the cost of assimilation and education for the first and second generations of immigrants. As the Rodriguez children become educated, more educated than their parents, and learn to speak better English, better than their parents, they become more and more separated from their parents because of lack of communication and a lack of similarities. As a child, Richard Rodriguez feels less intimate with his family because of his education. However, he believes that the benefits of education outweigh the drawbacks. As the children grow older and become very successful, the parents begin to feel their separation grow even wider. Even though they are proud of their children and hold most of the responsibility for their success, they feel the intimacy in the family has been lost. When their children grow up and get married to people who do not speak Spanish, they feel even more isolated. Because they never learned how to speak English with confidence, the Rodriguez parents cannot express their true thoughts and feelings in English to their children-in-law and grandchildren. At one of the Christmas gatherings Richard’s father, “asks if [Richard is] going home too. It is the only thing he has said to [him] all evening” (Rodriguez 212). Even though they are family, the Rodriguez’s are unable to share the intimacy a family should have because of the difference in education. The parents give up their hopes and dreams (the father dreamt to become an engineer) and instead have to transfer those dreams onto their children. The theme that Rodriguez presents is that education can take away from a family’s relationship, but it is necessary for the success of the next generations.