Changes and New Environment
When I immigrated to the United States with my parents last year, I saw American students did not have to wear their school uniforms during the school day. They could cut their hair into strange hairstyles and dye their hair into odd colors, even girls are allowed to wear makeup. In China, these things are never allowed by any school. In “L’amour, CA,” Lysley Tenorio illustrates a similar experience of immigrating: immigrants cannot feel a sense of belonging from the new place if they do not adjust to the differences. Tenorio talks about the narrator and his sister, Isa, who migrate to the United States with their family from the Philippines, experience a sudden cultural shock from new changes, and discover cultural …show more content…
They try to become familiar with their new home, transform and assimilate themselves to look like the people around them. Tenorio emphasizes that immigrants must continue to adapt themselves to new changes because if not, they will never truly belong to the new society.
Through the narrator’s sister, Isa, Tenorio shows that immigrants are not really successful in evolving into the new environment even if they attempt to assimilate themselves. Since the beginning of the story, Isa is always trying to transform herself into a native American teenager. “Like those afternoons when Isa picks me up wearing school-spirit chains around her neck, or the time she wandered into a picture on the front page of the school newspaper … But when school is over, the autograph pages in her yearbook are empty and white” (Tenorio 4). In this quote, Tenorio demonstrates Isa makes great efforts in attempting to make herself become part of the school, such as “wearing school-spirit chains” which shows her support for her new school. He implies that Isa admires the spirit of the school and manifests it in the exhibition of decoration. This is important because Isa wears the same kind of decoration
When I immigrated to the United States with my parents last year, I saw American students did not have to wear their school uniforms during the school day. They could cut their hair into strange hairstyles and dye their hair into odd colors, even girls are allowed to wear makeup. In China, these things are never allowed by any school. In “L’amour, CA,” Lysley Tenorio illustrates a similar experience of immigrating: immigrants cannot feel a sense of belonging from the new place if they do not adjust to the differences. Tenorio talks about the narrator and his sister, Isa, who migrate to the United States with their family from the Philippines, experience a sudden cultural shock from new changes, and discover cultural …show more content…
They try to become familiar with their new home, transform and assimilate themselves to look like the people around them. Tenorio emphasizes that immigrants must continue to adapt themselves to new changes because if not, they will never truly belong to the new society.
Through the narrator’s sister, Isa, Tenorio shows that immigrants are not really successful in evolving into the new environment even if they attempt to assimilate themselves. Since the beginning of the story, Isa is always trying to transform herself into a native American teenager. “Like those afternoons when Isa picks me up wearing school-spirit chains around her neck, or the time she wandered into a picture on the front page of the school newspaper … But when school is over, the autograph pages in her yearbook are empty and white” (Tenorio 4). In this quote, Tenorio demonstrates Isa makes great efforts in attempting to make herself become part of the school, such as “wearing school-spirit chains” which shows her support for her new school. He implies that Isa admires the spirit of the school and manifests it in the exhibition of decoration. This is important because Isa wears the same kind of decoration