Amazing, moving, inspirational self-discovery.

"He has to be more and more alone, if he is going to "get on". He will have, probably unconsciously, to oppose the ethos of the hearth, the intense gregariousness of the working-class family group. Since everything centers upon the living-room, there is unlikely to be a room of his own; the bedrooms are cold and inhospitable, and to warm them or the front room, if there is one, would not only be expensive, but would require an imaginative leap - out of tradition - which most families are not capable of making. There is a corner of the living-room table. On the other side Mother is ironing, the wireless is on, someone is singing a snatch of a song or Father says intermittently whatever comes into his head. The boy has to cut himself off mentally, so as to do his homework, as well as he can." - Hoggart, Richard. The Uses of Literacy. Chapter  10 ; Rodriguez, Richard. The Achievement of Desire