View a FREE sample

Middle Class Pastoral

• Rodriguez describes himself as a "socially disadvantaged" child who grew up under the watchful eyes of his parents.

• He is writing the book 30 years later, as a middle-class American surrounded by rich people.

• He realizes early on that his education would separate him from his parents.

• He sees the difference in language as part of that separation -- the rich people around him now pronounce his name differently than his family did.
• He is writing the book to analyze how he came from a lower-class background to become the person he is today.

• He is conflicted about his education.

• He implies that his family did not have the same education he did.

Aria, Chapter 1

• Rodriguez describes his first day of school as a child with limited English skills.

• School reinforces his idea that English was a public language and Spanish was a private language.

• His...

(read more Chapter Abstracts)

This section contains 3,569 words (approx. 12 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample