The pain behind this memoir is so poignant and relatable, despite the uniqueness of Rodriguez's situation. He writes that he hopes people will be able to relate to his story, and perhaps this is one way of going about that: Instead of viewing his life through the specific details that the memoir paints, what could be learned by focusing on the way circumstance shapes social perception? In other words, it was easy for others to judge him as stupid when in reality, he was bright and a quick learner under serious stress, with challenges facing him that others couldn't see.
Therefore, Rodriguez experiences a frustration caused by the difference between what he believes about himself and what he is able to experience in his community. In his family, he knows he is a smart one, and he believes he understands more than people give him credit for, but that doesn't take away the real difficulties of learning a language, and perhaps the barrier does hold him back in ways. He knows that perhaps he is missing out on learning, which comes with bitter pain, and secondly, he knows that he isn't stupid.
From his own point of view, the memoirist is clearly depicting a life of sorrow and loneliness, caused by a rift between him and his school community, but from a more abstract, third person point of view, the story takes on a new color. He is struggling to maximize his potential, and then, understanding the complexity of his struggle, he longs for full expression. Because he cannot fully maximize his potential, and because he is emotionally frustrated, he is often regarded in a negative light by those he hopes to impress, filling his psychology with shame. The drama of the book is to see whether Rodriguez can forgive himself and his fate so that he can be more complete and joyful, or whether his sorrow can serve him in some way, as it does in the writing of his memoir.
