In his essay "The Achievement of Desire," Richard Rodriguez uses the term "scholarship boy." This term first appears on page 431. Rodgriguez sums up his meaning of scholarship boy in a sentence, saying he was "always successful" but "always unconfident." He was "too eager, too anxious - an imitative and unoriginal student."
Rodriguez goes on to use the term "scholarship boy" for the rest of the essay. Although it sounds like a good thing, he uses it to refer to himself and his school experience negatively. Scholarship boys seem like good students, but actually are just imitators. They mimic what the teachers say. Instead of using school as a platform for future successes, scholarship boys only strive to be successful in school. They want to please the teacher, perhaps even be the teacher.
Of course, there are many more than just the two characteristics that you mention -- and I'm not sure that you mentioned the most crucial characteristics. It's important to follow how Rodriguez summarizes the profile of a "scholarship boy," a metaphor for a particular kind of student that he learns about from a book he read by Richard Hoggart, and then explains how he fits the profile.
ReplyDelete