In Search Of My Asian Self, By Alex Tizon

Alex Tizon, former journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and professor at the University of Oregon, details the events of his life in the memoir titled Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self. He begins his story in the Philippines, in search of not only the presence of a strong Asian man in the form of Lapu Lapu, a Filipino warrior, but also in search of his own identity. Although Tizon was born in the Philippines, his family had immigrated to America when he was a child. Growing up, Tizon had constantly struggled between his Asian identity and his American identity. Although young Tizon feels as though he must choose between the two identities in order to belong to a community, he is eventually able to address his conflicting identities,

In reference to his racial identity, Tizon comments, “I [am] both Asian and Asian American” (180), which shows a shift in his thought process. In his youth, he believed that he could only be one or the other; however, in adulthood, he realizes that he does not have to give up one to become the other. In response to his other newfound identities, Tizon quotes poet Walt Whitman, who writes, “I am large, I contain multitudes” (194). Whitman implies that humans cannot categorize themselves into only one group. To this statement, Tizon responds, “Acknowledging that I contained multitudes meant that I did not have to place the burden of my worth on any one of my identities” (194). The use of the word “acknowledge” (194) implies that he is not entirely content with his place in the world, but he recognizes that he will always have multiples identities to reassure himself. Growing up, young Tizon, in a desire to fit in with the “all-American” (3) image, viewed himself solely through an American lens, or the “prism of race” (48). However, as soon as he realized that he could be more than his race and that he could connect with people through his writing, the “burden” (194) he had placed himself was removed. Tizon now acknowledges that people can have more than one identity and still feel as though they can belong to a