Dulcie Attipoe's Blog

                           The piece of literature brings out efforts and struggles in reading tough or difficult books. From Rodriguez’s experience which tells us that reading difficult books for a sense of self-achievement is not a good way to read. On his part, Rodriguez just reads for a sense of accomplishment as it brings him confidence after helping him to conquer the awkward silence during reading time. The idea that “books will make [him] ‘educated’” helps him “to overcome [his] fear of silence” while reading. He never knew what kinds of books were most interesting to him. He blindly followed the book list without even realizing what he needed. What Rodriguez was enthusiastic about was never the content of the book but the ability to claim that he had finished it. He mocks the experience by ironically describing his feeling after reading with “in a ceremony of great pride”. The writer drew our attention to the fact that, when reading, we must read for knowledge and understand