My Children! My Africa! deals with South Africa’s dehumanizing system of apartheid. The focus here centers on education, on the cusp of a crucial period in South African history, and raises questions that endure despite the collapse of the apartheid system. What role does/can education serve in the world? What about reason? Hope? Make connections to Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez- Analyze the techniques used to convey his message regarding language/education- in your analysis. Avoid the plot summary. Analyze the themes conveyed in both works- intertextuality analysis. (Post one comment no less than 500 words.)
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My Children! My Africa and the Hunger of Memory both give education a huge role. Richard Rodriguez, the author of the Hunger of Memory, used education to escape his family and his culture. He did not wish to help with the causes of his ethnic groups because he believed that if they tried, just as he tried, they could become successful, without aids such as affirmative action. Although it was never explicitly stated, I derived from the text that he was a self- hater. He had a lot of problems with the fact that he was Latino. He chose education over furthering his people's cause.
Tommy on the other hand chose the cause and struggle of his people over education. He had great potential, but decided that learning would not make things better, quickly enough. They needed immediate action to make a true difference and that is the path he chose for life. He abandoned education before he would abandon his people. He did not want to wait on education to slowly make the change in the way his people were treated.
Mr. M was Tommy's mentor and teacher. He believed that through a thorough education, a person could become better suited for fighting against the oppressor. Knowledge is the best weapon. He would have partially loved and partially hated to have Richard Rodriguez as a student because Richard Rodriguez loved education and would reform to do just as Mr. M wished. The problem he would have had with Richard Rodriguez though is Richard's lack of a cultural identity. He did not sympathize with the causes of his people and did not join in fighting the oppressors.
Richard Rodriguez was against making it easier for people of his ethnicity to get an education than other Americans because in America everyone has the same opportunities in his opinion. Whether or not this is a valid statement, Richard Rodriguez believed it. He believed if people tried hard enough and put enough faith in education, they could get where they wanted to in life and become successful.
Tommy loved his people, his ethnicity and his culture. He hated the fact that they were oppressed by a group of people whom he did not find superior to his own. Throughout his whole life, he was very intelligent. Despite the future education could have held for him, he decided to contribute to the struggle in a way in which education was not as much of a requirement. Tommy wanted equality and the same opportunities that the white people, such as Isabelle had. He chose to follow that path in life, which was reasonable to him, over the emotions he had. He felt a true kinship to his people.
Richard Rodriguez felt little or no kinship. Throughout his life, he was embarrassed by the lack of education of his family, as expressed constantly in his autobiography, The Hunger of Memory. He was ashamed of who he was a person and ashamed of the dark complexion he had. He felt this dark complexion would have him mistaken for a laborer and not the intellectual he wished to be known as. This is what caused him to assimilate so much to white culture and adopt their education system. He wanted to become successful in the White American world. To do so he sacrificed his ethnicity and did not help with the Hispanic struggle in America.
In both of these works of literature, education plays a huge role. In one literary work, The Hunger of Memory, education was used to escape from problem of a people and assimilate more into the society, while in the other literary work, My Children! My Africa!, education was understood as important, but discarded for what was believed to be more important. The thing that was more important was staying true to your people and reinforcing what they were doing in their revolution. Tommy was a Revolutionary, while Richard Rodriguez was more submissive.
In Mr. Igoudjil’s AP Language & Composition class, we recently attended a play called My Children, My Africa, which took a closer look at the racism and discrimination present during the apartheid in South Africa. One of the major themes discussed in this moving, emotional play was education and its importance in society. Two other major themes found throughout the play were reason and hope. One book that we read over the summer that shares some common themes with My Children, My Africa is Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez. Like the play, Hunger of Memory deals with racial tensions, and most importantly, education’s role in society. To convey his message, Rodriguez drew primarily upon his own personal experiences as well as various other texts which he alluded to throughout his autobiography.
In My Children, My Africa, education is portrayed as crucial to leading a good life and to keeping control of society by maintaining the general peace amongst the young people of the country. Mr. M valiantly makes it his life’s goal to teach the young children of South Africa everything he knows. However, the education system in South Africa during apartheid was in crisis, so despite Mr. M’s passionate teaching, it is difficult for him to give his students a good education. Black schools in South Africa at that time were given 1/10th the funding white schools received, an almost insurmountable barrier to teachers such as Mr. M. The same problem is present in Hunger of Memory, where Richard Rodriguez, a Mexican-American, who is faced with many tough obstacles in the education system as a minority student; the education he received was not the same quality of education that white students received. The role of education as stated by Richard Rodriguez in his autobiography is that it should be a system based upon equality for people of all races (anti-bilingual education); therefore society as a whole will become more equal.
Reason and hope are the other two major themes present in both the play and the autobiography. Reason’s role in My Children, My Africa was to hold society together by stopping violence and discouraging the brewing revolution. Reason is often used in the world to correct irrational thinking or to convince people do to one thing or another. For example, Richard Rodriguez used reason to state his position on issues such as bilingual education and affirmative action. Mr. M used reason to try to persuade the characters in the play. In the beginning of the play, he uses reason to convince Isabelle to debate against Thami, and then later in the play, more urgently, to keep Thami from joining the revolution. Hope is another very important theme that is found in both the play and the autobiography. Hope is very powerful in My Children, My Africa because it is the sole reason why Mr. M keeps on living and teaching when dire straits approached in the form of the revolution. He never gave up hope for a single moment, not even in the face of death. In Hunger of Memory, hope had a somewhat more subdued role, but was important nevertheless. Hope was one of the things that drove Richard Rodriguez forward, just like what happened in the play with Mr. M. it drove him to become a good student and to eventually overcome all of the difficulties faced by a Mexican-American in a biased education system to become successful.
In My Children! My Africa! and Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory, there is evidence that education and hope are important themes of life. In both works, each of these themes can be applied, but are conveyed differently in each.
In Hunger of Memory, education is perceived by Rodriguez by means of memorization. Richard Rodriguez mentions that most of his academic success was through the process of memorization and mimicking his teachers. He was a boy who had just been introduced to a new way of learning, yet he felt a sense of guilt only memorizing and not really using his broader intellectual strength. In My Children! My Africa! the education of the students in Mr. M's classes was much broader than Rodriguez's thinking. In the play, we see Tommy and Isabelle's enthusiasm to learn instantly but they are not going by just mere memorization. They are very eager to go to school everyday, as is Richard, but they do not go just to be like a robot and retain information artificially. They use their intellect and come prepared to debate everyday in class because their goal in life is to gain the most knowledge out of education and keep it. Mr. M had a way to portray education as a must in life, and to bring together his students for the best opportunities in life.
My Children! My Africa! had such a power ending in which Mr. M took a stand for what he believed in, education. In the final scenes of Mr. M, he shows hope for one day having children able to be educated without fear of that education being tainted by hatred and war. Tommy is hopeful that the government will stop all the violence in the world, so that students, such as himself, are able to enjoy proper education. As for Isabelle, she is hopeful that she can apply what she had learned from Mr. M to her own lifestyle and spread his teachings around to educate everyone. There is hope in each character in the play, and hope is a very powerful emotion to have in life, one can even say, you can not exist without it. In Hunger of Memory, Rodriguez is hopeful that he will not always feel this sense of guiltiness from not taking advantage of all the education he was being given. His guilt he feels from his statement about his memorization makes him feel that people need to focus on education, not just what’s being said, but the deeper meaning. He wishes that he did not feel so isolated from his parents, because, being immigrant, they did not receive the proper education he is exposed to. In his book, he was hoping to reach to his parents and start a new connection with them, to replenish what was lost. Rodriguez was able to show that education could be connected not only intellectually, but socially, in terms of his parents.
In both of these displays of the importance of education and the connection to hope, there is a message. A message that extends to the audiences that education should never be taken for granted. It is a powerful tool to be used in life, without it, the world would not even exist. Hope is also an important emotion to have because it takes what seems impossible, and makes able to be possible when it is thought of in a positive way. Both of these ideas can be found in My Children My Africa! And Hunger of Memory.
Roberto Carozza
Mr. Igoudjil
AP Language and Composition
8 November 2007
Hunger of Memory and “My Children! My Africa!” Literary Analysis
“My Children! My Africa!” and Richard Rodriguez’s Huger of Memory are two artistic representations of the same themes. Taking place in South Africa, “My Children! My Africa!” is a play that addresses the social divisions among black and white Africans that have caused a separation of the two races. Though the play focuses on three specific characters, it is able to embody two major concepts: the importance of education and the spirit of individualism. Rodriguez, in Hunger of Memory, puts forth the same two ideas, but does so through an analysis of his personal experience.
Both works stress the importance of education, but they do show contrasting repercussions of receiving an education. In “My Children! My Africa!” the necessity of education is shown through the chaos that ensues when the children in the play stop attending school. The author recognizes the negative effects of ignorance and displays them in the plot of the story, which eventually ends with the brutal murder of one of the main characters. The turmoil in the play begins immediately after the children cease attending school, allowing the viewer to recognize the relation between education and maintenance of order. In Hunger of Memory, Rodriguez addresses both the positive and negative aspects of education through an analysis of his social status during his life. He recognizes how education, in addition to his race, allowed him to rise to an influential position in society both as an author and as a professor. Rodriguez does address, though, the gradual separation that appeared between his family members, who had not pursued education as vigorously as he had. Through this, Rodriguez implies that differences in education levels can cause social distance.
The second theme that both Hunger of Memory and “My Children! My Africa!” include is the theme of individualism. Though the works reflect this theme in different manners, they do both support it strongly. “My Children! My Africa!” uses the protagonists of the story, Tommy, to demonstrate how one must retain a sense of self in order to survive. In the plot, Tommy becomes involved with a radical protest group and, unintentionally, begins supporting counterproductive and violent forms of protest. It is not until the murder of Mr. M, Tommy’s instructor and close friend, that he realizes he has lost himself to the mob mentality. Through this technique, the author of “My Children! My Africa!” is able to show how loss of individual identity can have terrible results. Rodriguez arrives at the same conclusion in his novel, where he recalls his transformation from a Mexican to an American. By this Rodriguez meant that as he became more American, he lost his identity. This view is similar to that of Victor in The Color of Fear. Rodriguez does not view becoming American as a negative development, but stresses the importance of retaining one’s identity, whether it be a cultural identity or another form of individualism. Both Hunger of Memory and “My Children! My Africa!” emphasize the importance of education and retention of one’s identity. Though the works do so in very different styles, they both manage to communicate a clear message that, without a doubt, has an impact on the reader.
There are many different issues proposed in the performance, MY Children! My Africa!. Many of these issues still pertaining to our society today, even though the performance is set in the mid 1980’s during the apartheid period in South Africa. My Children! My Africa! specifically deals with the turning point of the social structure in the country of South Africa. This performance introduces the idea that education can be the foundation of life, saving lives or taking them depending on whether or not the education is followed effectively. Mr. M. shows everybody that education has the capability of saving people, ringing the school bell, trying to get the students to come to school and away from the riots. But likewise, because Mr. M. believes so well in his actions and what he stands for, his life is taken by angry rioters that were using the education given to them inefficiently. Reason displays itself many times during the performance, usually shown by Isabel and her inability to understand the different actions and events involving Thami. Another prominent theme seem throughout the performance is hope. Each and every one of the characters sees hope at some point during the presentation. Mr. M., whenever he is teaching, has hope for all of his young aspiring pupils. Likewise, Thami has hope that he can break the cycle of Mr. Mr.’s teaching and join the revolutionists. Isabel has hope that everything will turn out great despite the fact almost nothing is pointing in a positive direction. Through the whole performance there were many themes introduced, each one giving the audience something new to think about.
The different thoughts of education, specifically how Mr. M. almost forced Thami to learn in a certain way, are similar to, or reflected in the book Hunger of Memory written by Richard Rodriguez. In his book, Rodriguez mentions that the education system that he was taught in, Catholic schools still used older techniques to teach students. They forced kids to learn in a given way because it was supposed to work. As seen in My Children! My Africa! this old fashioned teaching system is not well suited for every student. Thami does not like Mr. M. telling him exactly what to do every time there is something that needs to be done. Rodriguez then goes on to state that because he himself conformed to fit the standards set by his teachers, reading many books that were not required in the curriculum, he went through the system as a scholarship boy. He seemed somewhat regretful that because he had done all of this reading and studying, it was his skin color that people looked at and defined him by. Thami appears to be mad at Mr. M. because Mr. M. knows that Thami has a bright future if he just keeps staying the course. Thami, however, does not want to keep up his conformist ways and decides to break out the course, setting an entirely new one. This new course, as he soon finds out, is not what he was looking for. It causes him to leave the town, the country, in search for a safer environment. This education barrier that needs to be broken down, or at least improved, in reflective in many cultures still today, where the old way is not always the best way. Our society just needs to learn to deal with it, and overcome this difficulty, to become a well educated and functioning part of the world.
In My Children, My Africa!, Athol Fugard explores a number of critical questions regarding the place and function of education in our world. No character better symbolizes this than the teacher, Mr. M, who is representative of the past, and holds strong to his traditions. He strongly believes education is the root of reason and hope. Mr. M is driven - his motivation as a teacher is to stop the policy of Apartheid through education. Without education, he believes, there is no reason. This is best demonstrated by the often violent resistance which creates a back drop for the play. As the violence increases and the reason decreases, the students leave the classroom. By the end of the play, the classroom is empty of students, and the students are empty of reason. The dramatic murder of Mr. M is a shocking symbol of the lack of reason. At the same time, education from Mr. M’s perspective, brings hope. It brings hope to him that there will be a new day, a better day, in which Apartheid is lifted. He feels he does have to fight, because education teaches him that the world is bigger than just him, and even just South Africa.
Both My Children, My Africa! and Hunger of Memory explore education and the problems therein, but they take very different approaches. In My Children, My Africa!, Athol Fugard focuses on the attempts and tragic failure of education to bring peace in Apartheid South Africa. In Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez speaks of the successes and difficulties he faced in obtaining an education in the United States. Rodriguez emphasizes the importance of language in education. He does this through narrative and monologue, characteristic of an autobiography. Language, he writes, is key to truly becoming part of a culture. He stresses that the changes which he undergoes in obtaining both a new language and an education have changed him as a person - both positively and negatively. This underlying idea is repeated frequently, emphasized in detailed narratives spanning from Rodriguez’s early life to his career after college. My Children, My Africa! uses similar methods to speak of both the conflicts during the Apartheid and the role which education played. Each of the characters in the play gives long monologues, similar to Rodriguez’s, in which they reveal their true feelings on a subject and remove the abstractions of dialogue. The strongest monologue is Mr. M’s, in which he reveals the pain which he feels from ultimately failing to stop the violence.
My Children, My Africa! and Hunger of Memory share many themes. Both works focus on the complexity of personal relationships. In My, Children, My Africa, the relationships between Thami, Isabel, and Mr. M are each affected by their complex backgrounds, social statuses, educations, and roles in current events. In contrast, in Hunger of Memory, Rodriguez finds difficulty interacting with his parents after learning English and obtaining an American education. The theme of the mixed nature of education is also explored. In My Children, My Africa!, education drives a wedge between the characters. Similarly, in Hunger of Memory, education makes it difficult for Rodriguez to relate to his parents.
My Children! My Africa! and Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez were very similar in the messages they were trying to convey. My Children! My Africa! showed the importance of education through the fact that it both brought together and separated people. In the beginning of the play, Thami and Isabelle met through a debate at Thami’s school and their friendship became the focus of the play. However, as Thami felt the need to join the fight for black rights as the apartheid tensions heightened, he began to fight with Isabelle and Mr. M. The characters were separated by their belief in the way education could support their cause. Thami believed his education could help him make a better argument for the necessity of racial equality in South Africa. Mr. M believed education allowed people to rise above violence and negotiate a problem, and Isabelle believed education would allow her and others to become successful in life.
In Hunger of Memory, the students were separated in their education by the language barrier. Although Richard Rodriguez went on to receive many academic honors, he struggled in the beginning of his education because of his lack of understanding of the English language. However, throughout the book, Rodriguez discusses the positive and negative aspects of affirmative action. The integration of cultures and the push for equality required by the affirmative action policy allowed students to be brought together and bind with each other.
Hope is present in both stories through the dream of equal education free of racial prejudice and discrimination. In the beginning of My Children! My Africa!, Isabelle wished she and Thami could go to a school together where both races could be integrated. In Hunger of Memory, the entire purpose of affirmative action was to create a world where children from all different backgrounds could go to a school where they would be taught equally and without preference to race.
Both My Children! My Africa! and Hunger of Memory were performed and written to be fairly informal. Both works feature stories and monologues to help the reader and audience feel the protagonist’s emotions and understand their insights. Through this style and tone both the play and the book seem to be performed and written to help the audience find a character to which they can identify. This style is often more effective in drawing in a reader or audience.
The themes common to the play and the book were equality and human understanding. Throughout My Children! My Africa! Thami was trying so hard to be viewed as an equal to a white man in the eyes of the South African government. In Hunger of Memory, Rodriguez only wanted to be given the same opportunites of the white students in his classes. Human understanding was a shared theme because Isabelle and Thami were able to have a close friendship although it was looked down upon in their social environment. In Hunger of Memory, Rodriguez’s classmates came to understand him and his situation only after they were brought together through affirmative action.
Although the play My Children! My Africa! and the book Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez are about different issues in the world, they both have the similarity in that education equals power in life. The two stories focus and stress on the ideas of educating the youth. In My Children! My Africa!, the focus of the story was the idea and the theme of education versus rebellion in South Africa during the apartheid. In the story a young boy named Tommy chose the idea of rebellion with his classmates over his beloved school, teacher Mr. M, and friend Isabelle. Throughout the play education is the idea on the minds of all the characters. Mr. M has the most passion towards education and is clearly evident during his long speeches throughout the play. He is the school teacher in the play, and is always excited when speaking. His tone of voice and mood is seen at the peek when he is yelling at the students to come to school, even though they are out rebelling, shows that he is a passionate teacher filled with emotion and desire to teach and educate the students. Education is a strong issue in the play. It is what brought together Isabelle and Tommy. The actors and actress all spoke with pure emotion during the play on the issues of education through their monologues.
In Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez, the main theme is also education. Rodriguez sees the government as using education to bring together different groups or ethnicities. He believes and hopes for a change in the government that will change the education program for young kids. Education is the key to bringing people of all ages and ethnicities together. Rodriguez wrote in a style that was forceful and created a tone that presented the themes of the book well. These two texts are also similar in the fact that they want a change in the way their society is living. Rodriguez in Hunger of Memory wants the change in the views on education and school systems. In My Children! My Africa!, all the characters want a change. Tommy wants the government of South Africa to change and understand the radical views that the younger generations have. Isabelle wants a change in that the people around her understand the issues present in South Africa on racism, sexism, and education. And Mr. M wants the values of the students to change to a more serious and understanding stand. These ideas are all present in today’s society. Education is still a major issue in the United States as well as around the world. Whether it is the education systems and buildings in Washington D.C. to educating women around the world about sex, education is an important and valuable tool that can only be achieved through school with determination. Education can save the world. By teaching the young generations about history, they will learn from prior mistakes and build a stronger world for later generations to come.
In my opinion, education plays an extremely important role in the world. Without an education, there would not be a lot of order in the world. There is already a lot of chaos going on the in the world, so it is crucial for today’s world leaders to have an education. Another role that education serves in the world is through the sharing of knowledge. Educated scientists in Australia, may have discovered a cure for a disease that affects people all over the world, because of their education and the educational and field journals that are in publication, that cure can be shared with people as close as New Zealand or as far away as Spain.
Reason, I feel, pretty much plays into education. However, there are things that set reason apart from education. For instance, the issue of water boarding has become a controversial topic in the U.S. as well as internationally. Globally, war crimes have been tried where water boarding has been a method of torture. That is where reason comes in. There are debates on whether water boarding is legal and constitutional in the U.S. Reason on human nature and human rights plays a key factor in that debate. While I think hope serves a role in the world, I do not think it is a prominent of a player as education and reason.
I terms of Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez makes it clear that education was very important to him, but it was even more important to his parents. Although he does not deny that his parents were intelligent people, he stresses that they did not get the same educational advantages and opportunities as he and his siblings. In My Children! My Africa!, there is a lot of stress on education. Both Isabel and Mr. M believe that the only way to be successful in life is to receive an education and to try and change the world with the knowledge gained in school. Thami, however, believes that hope is the only way to gain success during the apartheid.
Rodriguez makes use of allusions to convey his message regarding language and education; especially references to The Tempest. In the play, Prospero teaches Caliban all that he knows, giving Caliban an education. Rodriguez makes this allusion to show how education plays an important role in the world.
The major themes conveyed in both works are that you need an education to survive. This is best seen through Rodriguez’s flashbacks on his childhood education and how it has shaped his future. It is best seen in My Children! My Africa!, when Mr. M is giving his speech to Thami as he is ringing the school bell in the middle of the riot.
"My Children, My Africa" and Hunger of Memory both have important points on the state of education in their respective countries of residence. However, they both make more important states o on the state of education in general and the importance of education to a society. Richard Rodriguez, the author of Hunger of Memory and the playwright of "My Children! My Africa!" Education plays a very serious role in the formation of a society and the two works make a very strong a case for that point. Both literary works also display what role education can play in the world. The roles of reason and hope are also discussed by both works in a deep manner. These themes are intricate to the backbone of both, Hunger of Memory and “My Children! My Africa!”
The novel and the play both present these ideas in opposite styles, utilizing fiery pathos and invective in My Children! My Africa!”, while utilizing calmly explained, rational logos in the Hunger of Memory. Thy elaborate on how education can serve the world and the inhabitants of the world in equally potent ways. Richard Rodriguez’ Hunger of Memory appeals to the logic of mankind and sense that education and knowledge are tools of power. However, "My Children! My Africa" builds to a crescendo. It builds to a crescendo when the play is screaming at you to recognize the importance of maintaining and sustaining knowledge. Mr. M’s final tirades and moments of fiery lucidity help elaborate on the strength of the presence of education through the invective that Tommy uses when in discussion with him. The play’s argument is filled with pathos that makes the audience react with anger and sadness all at the same time. Not to mention, that the play keeps you on the edge of your seat at the same time.
The most important aspects of the play and the novel deal with the roles of hope, reason, and education in the world. Both works deal with the issues in a contemplative manner, until reaching a sound conclusion about each issue. They both conclude that education has the ability to change lives and social status. However, "My Children! My Africa!" acknowledges the fear behind education. The play shows that reason can often take over the role of education. Mob and street reasoning rule Thami’s life in this work of theatre. They take over his education and refuse to spit him back out into an intellectual world. Rodrigues utilizes himself, a wealthier, respected person in the literary world, as an example of the power of education and reason to transform one’s social status.
Hope also plays a crucial role in any society in the world. In Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez allows his audience to view how much impact hope has as a force in his life. His faith has always been there for him as a force to believe in, but he declares how much effect his race and his education have had on his opportunities in life. In My Children! My Africa! embraces the positive force of hope. Although the play ends rather bleakly, the characters forge hope for a better future through education. In particular, Isabelle visits the spiritual home of Mr. M in an attempt to reconnect with him. Her meeting with him in his beloved spot on the hill where he began his journey to enlightenment symbolizes hope for the future through education and releasing the pain and sorrow of the past.
In Athol Fugard’s My Children! My Africa!, a horrendous period of history is portrayed from the classroom and not from the battlefield. Rather than focusing strictly on the politics and violence of South Africa’s apartheid, My Children! My Africa!
Explores the apartheid through education and the eyes of children. Through this approach, a question can be raised: What role does education play in the world? Though Thami may not have agreed, education is the only way a person can truly achieve freedom. By becoming educated, one becomes wholly independent, and mentally self-sufficient. With these qualities, no amount of oppression can truly suppress a person and his or her spirit. Reason is an important tool of education, which can allow for the stifling of chaos. It is important that reason, and not hot-headed emotion, be held supreme, especially in an environment such as apartheid-South Africa. In My Children! My Africa!, Isabel employs reason, rather than raw feelings, to govern her actions.
Contrastingly, Thami allows emotions to guide his life and decisions, especially those centered on apartheid. Thami tries to allow logic and reason to control his thought-process as he forges a friendship with Isabel. However, his fears and worries eventually triumph, as Thami allows himself to be driven into the midst of hysteria. The distinctly different human natures of Isabel and Thami come together in My Children! My Africa!, and seemingly balance one another out. In the play’s moment of equilibrium, black balances with white, emotion balances with reason, male balances with female, and chaos balances with composure. This diversity is united in the forms of Isabel and Thami, who are brought together through their educations. It is thus the power and influence of education becomes the central theme of My Children! My Africa! around which these characters and events revolve.
Similarly, Richard Rodriguez’s autobiography Hunger of Memory chronicles the evolution of his life, as led by his education. While it views education in a different light than My Children! My Africa! does, both works clearly understand the mammoth effect that education has on the path of ones future. Rodriguez uses his personal experiences as a tool for conveying his views and opinions on controversial topics such as affirmative action and cultural assimilation. In order to make his work seem less biased, as plagues many autobiographical works, Rodriguez uses skillful allusions to works such as Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Through these allusions, Hunger of Memory appears more credible. This credibility influences the value a reader gives to Rodriguez’s opinions, especially those regarding education.
In viewing both My Children! My Africa! and Hunger of Memory, the global and lasting weight of education is immediately clear. As these works prove, education has the power to unite and divide people. In My Children! My Africa! Isabel and Thami are bonded against the odds through the incredible Mr. M, only to later learn that, at least from Thami’s point of view, unity was impossible. In Hunger of Memory, education serves as a weapon which divides Richard Rodriguez from the rest of his family, alienating and isolating him, despite the knowledge he possesses. Though knowledge is the greatest gift one can possess, it is also the greatest burden, made palpable in My Children! My Africa! and Hunger of Memory alike.
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