“How does Ron Suskind present the difficulties of Cedric’s education in Part 1 and Part 2 of his story?”

In this essay, I will be explaining how Ron Suskind presents the difficulties of Cedric’s education in part 1 and part 2 of his story by comparing the language devices he has used. There are many difficulties Cedric faces at M.I.T in comparison to Ballou High. Ron Suskind presents this by using various language techniques. Cedric goes through many challenges when in Ballou high and M.I.T for example, bullying, and violence. During his time in Ballou High, he has to struggle to get a good education meaning he has to push himself half a mile whilst the school is pushing him down trying to keep him from his true potential. Throughout the articles, Suskind uses various language devices that suggest that it was more than a struggle for Cedric to get an education.

An example of Ron’s array of different language devices is where he says “Failure is persuasive here, even seductive.“ This quotation is personification and also represents that failure is a such a common thing that the students achieve that it has metamorphosed into a presence that lurks around the students enticing them to give in and fail. You can tell this by how Suskind uses the word “persuasive” suggesting that failure is a strong force that is compelling them to give in to failure. Another word he uses is “seductive” meaning that failure is just like how a romantic partner may seduce another making failure almost seem like a common thing and is normal to most students.

Another technique is how he uses the metaphor “The arduous odyssey of Cedric.“ This relates to the question because it is saying that just like the Greek Myth (The Odyssey) Cedric has to travel a long and dangerous journey alone. On this long journey, he also faces a lot of challenging and almost impossible obstacles, but just like the Greek Myth he works hard to prevail. The meaning of the word “arduous” means that it is a long and drawn out process and makes him work up a cold sweat trying to get through school life like a normal student. It also suggests that where ever success may go Cedric will strive to try to follow in its footsteps in hopes of getting a better life at M.I.T just like he dreams for. In comparison to the quote “But where I start from is so far behind where some other kids are, I have to run twice the distance to catch up.” It shows the similarities of how difficult it is for Cedric in both M.I.T and Ballou high. In M.I.T he may have been an outstanding student according to his teachers but he still had to overcome obstacles like bullying and crime.

Suskind shows that Cedric’s education seem difficult by saying that the school is like a “Crime infested ward”. Here the writer conveys the idea to us of violence. Just like a virus, crime is an infection that is easily caught by youths and it is making the students think that crime should be an everyday occurrence and it seems that if you’re not a criminal you’re a nobody. In Ballou High, Cedric received no respect or admiration from his peers and he never had any parental support either. However being popular in a school like this is not a good thing to be proud of.

In part two Cedric is struggling to get the grips of working harder than he ever has before, whereas in part one he is doing well over above average than all his lower achieving classmates. This sudden change is not going well for Cedric as he collapses under the mass workload that he has not prepared for enough in Ballou High. Even with the extra classes taught by his science teacher, he is still under prepared. This makes Cedric defensive to all his peers and he tries to shut everyone out and work by himself, but unlike in Ballou High where being independent pushes you further up the ladder of success by having no distractions but on the other hand in M.I.T working in a collective group gets you further than working alone especially as Cedric is falling behind with his school work. Further in part two Cedric tries to let everyone back into his life but now his peers are too far away and Cedric is just too far behind the rest of his colleges. This really puts Cedric at a disadvantage compared to the rest of his peers, who all come from a higher class school.

In M.I.T Cedric receives no extra support in comparison to the support he received in Ballou High. In M.I.T Cedric is considered the minority. He is only one who hasn’t come from an expensive and extravagant school and him being the minority makes it extremely difficult to be seen as intelligent like the rest of the students. Him coming from a lower class school makes him “unshaped” for M.I.T and he just hasn’t worked hard enough. This puts him at an unfair disadvantage, all because of his different background. We can see this in the metaphorical quote “Being a minority and a high achiever means you have to carry extra baggage about who you are, and where you belong. That puts them at risk” from part two. In this quote the writer describes how being a minority means you have to be at least better than the majority of the white Americans. This shows that Cedric, who has a low social status, comes with “extra baggage” because of his background he has come from a poverty-stricken household. This is different to the quote “But where I start from is so far behind where some other kids are, I have to run twice the distance to catch up.” This is because the first quote is talking about a collective group; the minority students and also how they all are in it together as a whole. Whereas the second quote is talking about Cedric as an individual and how he is by himself who is following behind the whole class, but it also shows that the second quote is more optimistic than the first.

Another quote is when he says the metaphor “But where I start from is so far behind where some other kids are, I have to run twice the distance to catch up.” This suggests that just like a race he has to be competitive to even stand a chance with the other students but to be able to he has to endure his blistering feet and overcome his tiredness to be accepted.The quote shows us how Cedric has to catch up because of his past school where he didn’t have the resource to study as hard as the other students attending M.I.T who have come from more fortunate lifestyles and families, so Cedric has to run twice the distance to be even capable of being accepted into M.I.T and to be able to have a chance at competing with the other kids. This quote shows the big difference of how far ahead he is from all the other students in Ballou High in comparison to M.I.T. However we can see the similarities between Ballou High and M.I.T  when Ron Suskind says “Failure is persuasive here, even seductive.” This points out that at times Cedric was enticed by failure because it meant the pain would stop and he could finally rest, but Cedric never gave up easily.

In conclusion of this essay, the writer uses various language devices to show that Cedric education seems very difficult across his academic life. Suskind uses metaphors, hyperbole’s, similes and much more over the story. The best quotation that took that into effect was when Suskind uses the metaphor “Failure is persuasive here, even seductive.” This is because of what the meaning behind the quote means. Overcoming such an obstacle of being seduced is already a hard enough thing to do, but when everyone else is falling for it, it becomes easier to give in making his education walk a very thin line. Overall Cedric didn’t actually accomplish his dream except for him experiencing what M.I.T had in store for him, and that was not what he was expecting, at all.