Honors English 10
Rodriguez Essay Richard Rodriguez wrote an untitled passage that poignantly portrays some of the family-related Christmas events that have occurred during his life. This particular selection addresses how his mother’s prediction about her children’s future wealth foreshadowed the scarcity of satisfaction, earnest values, and close interpersonal relationships they developed as adults. In this specific piece of work, Rodriguez effectively utilizes powerful writing elements such as selection of detail, narrative structure, manipulation of language, and tone to convey his feelings of insignificance, futility, hollowness, desolation, and lack of fulfillment regarding both himself and his entire family to the reader. Rodriguez first employs selection of detail to convey his own lack of significance by exempting himself from the specifics he presents when he discusses the success of his mother’s children: “Her two daughters are business executives. Her oldest son is a lawyer.” Rodriguez, then, uses selection of detail to emphasize the importance of his mother’s prediction that her children would “all be very rich” and “have lots of money to buy [her] presents”, but that she will be “a little old lady” without “any teeth or hair” and although they will buy her “a big fur coat”, they will “only be able to see [her] eyes.”

The powerful element of narrative structure is also evident in the above referenced, lengthy, verbatim quote from the author’s mother that takes up most of the first paragraph of the passage. The extensive details that are presented in this quote are in stark contrast to the vague descriptors that are utilized by the author throughout the rest of the piece: “…now the floor around her is carpeted with red and green wrapping paper...her feet are wreathed by gifts”. The indistinctness of the gifts conveys to the reader that they are devoid of true significance. Further, Rodriguez’s use of narrative structure is evident in his use of veiled, unclear statements that are confusing and never clarified to the reader: “(But these are questions of paradise, Mama.)”. Rodriquez also employed manipulation of language many times throughout the passage. Specifically, he masterfully made use of distinct adverbs when describing typically ambiguous actions in order to create a hint of personification: “the room has become uncomfortably warm”, “talk grows listless”, “expensive foreign cars idle sharply”. All three of these adverbs effectively reflect the family members as well as the action words in each of the sentences. This manipulation of language helps to reinforce the emotions that are being experienced by both the author and his family members during the Christmas scenario that is depicted in his writing.
The tone of the writing is one of sadness, melancholy, disappointment, and despondency. Some of these emotions are conveyed directly: “My mother stands waving toward no one in particular. She seems sad to me. How sad? Why? (Sad that we are all going

home? Sad that it was not quite, can never be, the Christmas one remembers having had once?)”. Others are more veiled: “My mother…seems, all of a sudden, very small…she…hands me the coat…I take it to my father and place it on him. In that instant I feel the thinness of his arms.” These statements convey the author’s recognition that his parents have become old and frail, as well as his feelings of sadness and melancholy in response to his awareness. However, the final two sentences of the passage are by far the most powerful of this excerpt of Rodriguez’ work: “He asks if I am going home now. It is, I realize, the only thing that he has said to me all evening.” These statements expose the author’s feelings of dejection, desolation, emptiness, and disconnectedness in relation to his relationship with his father, but they also reveal his emotions related to the other members of his family. Although this particular passage by Richard Rodriguez was not lengthy, it was very expressive and moving. Rodriguez’ ability to commendably utilize the elements of selection of detail, narrative structure, manipulation of language, and tone allow him to successfully share some of his most private and heartbreaking family memories with the reader. The masterful writing skills that Rodriguez uses to examine such significant issues as his family’s level of satisfaction with life, the superficiality of their values, and the lack of intimacy within their relationships with one another, make it possible for him to effectually communicate his innermost feelings of insignificance, futility, hollowness, desolation, and lack of fulfillment in relation to both himself and his family. The result was a powerful and tragically, sad piece of writing that had a long-lasting effect of me emotionally – just as the author intended.