Christmas By Richard Rodriguez Analysis

507 Words3 Pages
Richard Rodriguez’s passage reveals his attitude towards his family and himself. He uses figurative language to describe his Christmas. He uses selection of detail and tone to express his view. While growing, the living conditions were poor, yet his mother never doubted that her children would become successful and wealthy. Rodriguez remembers hearing her predict the future and the presents they would one day purchase for their old parents. Rodriguez uses the above terms to show the drifting of his family and himself, which makes this Christmas different. Rodriguez exposes the thoughts of both his family and himself, with quotations and interjections of his own thoughts. Not only has the Christmas room grown “uncomfortably warm” but the conversation is headed that way as well. Comments such as, “We have to get…show more content…
Rodriguez watches his family depart and notices the sorrow and worry felt by his aging mother. He watches her wave goodbye "toward no one in particular," and cannot understand the exact reasons for her sorrow. After speaking to his father for the first time all night, he realizes that they are sad because they are so quickly losing touch with their children. Never again will their Christmases be the way they once were in the past. Maybe he feels a sense of guilt for being selfish in his own desires to become wealthy and successful and wishes he had realized that his parents, the people he owes so much to, still need love and affection. Richard Rodriguez’s attitude about Christmas is doubly layered. He is fond of “the Christmas one remembers having once,” but he realizes that it is fruitless to try to regain the old spirit of the holidays when the family has changed so much since then. Rodriguez is resignedly nostalgic about his family, and the ways in which they do not reflect their past selves
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