Richard Rodriguez Speech

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The American dream of success has always been to prosper; to thrive in a competitive society and do better than one’s predecessors. In a short passage, the speaker, Richard Rodriguez, recounts memories of his mother’s past American dream for her family versus the present outcome, by becoming perceptive of the interactions and unconscious and conscious aspects of his family, to point out the discrepancies between the two, and his take on it all.
Sometimes a parent’s most crowning hope and achievement is seeing their children become successful and victorious in life. Rodriguez states how his mother was never surprised by her kids’ affluence and worldly gains as adults. He retells of how his mother predicted all her children would become rich and buy her nice gifts, soft food, a big fur coat and a wig because she will have no hair and no teeth, and that they will only be able to see her eyes. Her eyes will be the only sustainable thing left of her aging body, and Rodriquez uses it to symbolize, that in spite of her old age, the pride she feels for her children will still shine through. This is the imaginative and animated future Rodriguez’s mother foresees …show more content…
Rodriguez then speaks of the present time during a Christmas celebration at his mother’s house. Gifts scatter the floor and it is first assumed that his mother’s dream has come true, but thereafter the atmosphere of the get-together seems to be one filled with tension and awkwardness, the conversation growing “listless” while someone else “groans.” The ambience is without warmth and comfortable family dynamic that one would have imagined from the mother’s earlier descriptions of hopes for the future. It seems the celebration is more of a typical routine burden for all of the children then a time to reminisce and enjoy each other's company as “everyone one seems very tired.” The present is not the colorful time the mother described. There is an impression that the vision was better than the
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