Richard Rodriguez

Close Reading “It mattered that education was changing me. It never ceased to matter. My brother and sisters would giggle at our mother’s mispronounced words. They’d correct her gently. My mother laughed girlishly one night, trying not to pronounce sheep as ship. From a distance I listened sullenly. From that distance, pretending not to notice on another occasion, I saw my father looking at the title pages of my library books. That was …

…enough for him. When his “my mother surprised me by asking for a “nice” book to read,” he is only surprised at the fact that she actually wants to read. Again many of his feeling are brought out in this paragraph through such words as “furious, sullenly, and cry.” These examples can all lead to one conclusion which Rodriguez even admits when saying “It mattered that education was changing me. It never ceased to matter.”