Alex Tizon born in the the Philippines immigrated to the United States with his family at a young age of four. Tizon faced many different changes like the things he did for fun, the way he looked and how he acted growing up in the United States as a child. Tizon later took these extreme ideals, which changed his view of the world and wrote “Land of Giants”, which uses emotion and stories about that time period in order to show how his family had to go through many different changes in order to fit in with American life.
The very first thing Tizon tells the reader is what his family had to give up in order to be like an American. Specifically Tizon uses emotion when writing, “First was the abandonment of our native language and our unquestioned embrace of English, even though for my parents that abandonment meant cutting themselves off from a fluency they would never have again” (Tizon 645). In short Tizon means this change was difficult, not only because his …show more content…
Tizon notes an example of this when he says, “A big red-haired kid on a bike spat on me and rode away laughing and making faces” (648). This event happened to Alex at a very young time in his life, but it made him realize that he might not ever be treated equally. This caused him to try and become more American. Alex states, “So I worked on becoming an American, to be in some ways more American than my American friends” (649). Sadly, after trying to become as American as he could he realized that he, “[p]ut in the time, learned to read and write and speak more capably than [his] friends and neighbors, followed the rules, did [his] homework, memorized the tics and slangs and idiosyncrasies of winners and heroes, but [he] could never be quite American as they” (649). Admittedly Alex is showing the reader that no matter how much someone can try to fit in they will not be an American, in an American 's
The very first thing Tizon tells the reader is what his family had to give up in order to be like an American. Specifically Tizon uses emotion when writing, “First was the abandonment of our native language and our unquestioned embrace of English, even though for my parents that abandonment meant cutting themselves off from a fluency they would never have again” (Tizon 645). In short Tizon means this change was difficult, not only because his …show more content…
Tizon notes an example of this when he says, “A big red-haired kid on a bike spat on me and rode away laughing and making faces” (648). This event happened to Alex at a very young time in his life, but it made him realize that he might not ever be treated equally. This caused him to try and become more American. Alex states, “So I worked on becoming an American, to be in some ways more American than my American friends” (649). Sadly, after trying to become as American as he could he realized that he, “[p]ut in the time, learned to read and write and speak more capably than [his] friends and neighbors, followed the rules, did [his] homework, memorized the tics and slangs and idiosyncrasies of winners and heroes, but [he] could never be quite American as they” (649). Admittedly Alex is showing the reader that no matter how much someone can try to fit in they will not be an American, in an American 's