Hunger of Memory: Chapter 6

by Richard Rodriguez
In this memoir, Richard Rodriguez considers the ways in which his education isolated him from his family, background, and culture.

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: Prologue–Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6
25 words 48 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. embark
    set out on, as an enterprise or subject of study
    When I decided to compose this intellectual autobiography, a New York editor told me that I would embark on a lonely journey.
  2. yearn
    desire strongly or persistently
    Some mornings you will yearn for a phone call or a letter to assure you that you still are connected to the world.
  3. listless
    marked by low spirits; showing no enthusiasm
    Mornings spent listless in silence and in fear of confronting the blank sheet of paper.
  4. absorption
    the mental state of being preoccupied by something
    I feared that my absorption with events in my past amounted to an immature refusal to live in the present.
  5. motive
    the reason that arouses action toward a desired goal
    Probably I will never try to explain my motives to my mother and father.
  6. withdrawn
    detached and seeking isolation from other people
    They were changed—became more easy in public, less withdrawn and uncertain—by the public success of their children.
  7. innocuous
    not causing disapproval
    I was very much the son of parents who regarded the most innocuous piece of information about the family to be secret.
  8. intrinsically
    with respect to its inherent nature
    There seemed to me something intrinsically public about written words.
  9. tact
    consideration in dealing with others
    I remember that it earned me a good enough grade, but my teacher suggested with quiet tact that next time I try writing about ‘something you know more about—something closer to home.’
  10. anonymous
    not known or lacking marked individuality
    The change, I suspect, was the result of seeing my words ordered by the even, impersonal, anonymous typewriter print.
  11. phantasmagoric
    characterized by fantastic and incongruous imagery
    I write today for a reader who exists in my mind only phantasmagorically.
  12. contrition
    sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation
    My mother can easily speak to a priest in a darkened confessional; can easily make an act of self-revelation using the impersonal formula of ritual contrition: ‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned....’
  13. disdain
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    Changing the channel, she says with simple disdain, ‘Cheap people.’
  14. aloof
    distant, cold, or detached in manner
    They remain aloof from the modern temptation that captivates many in America’s middle class: the temptation to relieve the anonymity of public life by trying to make it intimate.
  15. bogus
    fraudulent; having a misleading appearance
    They do not understand, consequently, what so pleases the television audience listening to a movie star discuss his divorce with bogus private language.
  16. scorn
    look down on with disdain
    With my mother and father I scorn those who attempt to create an experience of intimacy in public.
  17. distort
    make false by mutilation or addition
    Even when I quote them accurately, I profoundly distort my parents’ words.
  18. precipice
    a very steep cliff
    Each morning I make my way along a narrowing precipice of written words.
  19. eccentric
    conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual
    For by rendering feelings in words that a stranger can understand—words that belong to the public, this Other—the young diarist no longer need feel all alone or eccentric.
  20. reticent
    reluctant to draw attention to yourself
    (In the silent room, I prey upon that which is most private. Behind the closed door, I am least reticent about giving those memories expression.)
  21. intervening
    occurring between events, spaces, or points in time
    The remarkable thing is that nothing has been spoken about this matter by either of us in the years intervening.
  22. crucial
    of the greatest importance
    And that afternoon she seemed to accept the idea, granted me the right, the freedom so crucial to adulthood, to become a person very different in public from the person I am at home.
  23. vie
    compete for something
    (Does she remember how we vied with each other to sit beside her in a movie theatre?)
  24. animation
    quality of being active or spirited or alive and vigorous
    I talk, having learned from hundreds of cocktail parties and dinner parties how to talk with great animation about nothing especially.
  25. impassive
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    His face stays impassive, unless he is directly addressed.
Created on Wed Jun 11 11:14:07 EDT 2014 (updated Mon Aug 20 15:12:52 EDT 2018)

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