Alex Tizon

Author Alex Tizon is a Filipino born American author who is known for his work as an author, a journalist, for being the Seattle bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, and for winning the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. Tizon currently teaches at the University of Oregon School of Journalism. His most well known work, Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self, is where the excerpt, Land of the Giants, was taken. Land of the Giants focuses on Tizon’s own life and the struggles and adversities that he as well as his family had to deal with when they moved to the United States from the Philippines, when Tizon himself was merely four years old. Other examples of not being able to fit the status quo can be seen in Ted Talks given
by speakers such as, Ron West, Harold Hillman, and Rokhaya Diallo, as well as the classic film, The Breakfast Club directed by John Hughes. Although all of these films or videos address the same topic, because of Harold Hillman’s first hand experience and The Breakfast Club’s focus on such a wide range of people they provide the viewer with a better message and advice on what to do and how to deal with not fitting in to societal norms, clearly making them the better videos. All of the Ted Talks speakers stood out from the status quo in their own individual way.
However, they did not let the fact that they didn’t fit in define them or change the way they lived their everyday lives. Ron West for instance gave a Ted Talk in April of 2016 titled, Finding The Courage to Be Yourself. Ron was bullied as a child because of his physical appearance that made him stand out from the crowd. Finally Ron stood up to his bully and although it had not gone the way that he had hoped, his courage kept him from being bullied from then on. Harold Hillman on the other hand, did not have as happy of an ending. Harold was a gay man in the military before it was acceptable to be open about one’s sexuality in the armed forces. In Harold’s Ted Talk titled, Should you fit in or stand out? Finding your authentic voice, he speaks about how he had to hide who he really was and how it took a toll on his life. Then there is Rokhaya Diallo, who struggled to fit in and find a place while growing up as a young black girl in France. In her Ted Talk, Don't try to fit in: make the world embrace who you are, Rokhaya Diallo explains how she struggled on two fronts, being both black and female, but she would not let this get her down or keep her from accomplishing anything she wanted to
do. All of the experiences that these speakers had can be directly related to the way that Alex Tizon felt when he first came to America.
However, in his excerpt Tizon is not looking for pity or complaining about racism, which is somewhat of the feeling obtained while listening to Diallo’s presentation. Instead he is merely telling the story of being someone who does not fit the status quo and what it’s like to constantly try to fit in and to constantly want to change oneself for the sake or satisfaction of others. Likewise the Ted Talks can also be directly related to the way that the characters in The Breakfast Club felt. Even though the reasons that they didn’t fit in didn’t really have much to do with race or sexuality, each of them still possessed their own personal characteristics that kept them from having a relationship with the others that were stuck in detention that day. All of these films or videos also provide the realization, it doesn’t matter what characteristics someone possesses, it is next to impossible to ever fit in with everyone, or in every
situation. When picking the better video or the most informational, appropriate message provided by the videos, one could examine how each film or video measures up to certain criteria such as, was it engaging and relevant, or was it relatable? Although all three of the speakers felt very strongly about the topics they were discussing, Harold Hillman with his upbeat tone and lively actions stood out above the others. He engaged his audience with historical facts, and ironic personal examples that could almost allow someone to transport themselves into the room at which he once stood, listening and giving his own input about how the United States were going to handle gay people in the military. He was tasked with being on the committee that would eventually determine how he himself would be handled in the military. Harold went on to tell about how he had to lie to save his secret and job. He had to lie about himself for the sake of others. This was another way for him to relate to his viewers as everyone likes to think of himself or herself as a good, honest person, however no one can deny lying at some point to save themselves from trouble. When looking at these two criteria it was clear to see that The Breakfast Club, also fit both of them to a tee. With the film’s setting of Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois, it could make every small-town kid reminisce about the “good ole days”. However, this movie went farther than that. The Breakfast Club wasn’t just relatable to small-town kids but to everyone who had ever been in high school at some point. With all the characters played by an all-star cast there probably wasn’t a single person who couldn’t relate to at least one of them, whether it be the princess Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), the athlete Andrew Clark (Emilio Esteves), the bad boy John Bender (Judd Nelson), the basket case Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy), or the brain Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall). The film talks about how none of the teens communicated during school (with the exception of Andrew and Claire who spoke only minimally) and are now stuck with no one else but each other for an all day Saturday detention. On these two criteria The Breakfast Club and Harold Hillman’s presentation are tied as they both engage the audience and are unbelievably relatable. However, how can one decide which is truly the better source when talking about not fitting in? To answer this question, a third criteria must be brought into play. Who sent the better message? Harold Hillman provided incredible advice when he said, “Don’t ever lose your integrity for the sake of fitting in. Don’t ever lose your soul for the sake of being accepted by others. Don’t ever turn your persona down to the point where you lose that spirit and that energy to be able to give affectively. Be who you are, trust me, its worth it.” The Breakfast Club however doesn’t only describe sexuality or focus on anything so specific; instead it focuses on advice to help in several situations not just personally but also as a society. It shows us prime examples of how ones perceptions can cloud their judgments. It focuses on the fact that a person should get to know someone else before writing him or her off or labeling them. Instead of focusing on everything that is different between the two people why not focus on all the ways that they are similar? The realistic point of views that the Ted Talks speakers offer is much more touching on a personal level than those of The Breakfast Club but if you are not in those specific situations, they could be harder to relate to. However, based on the three criteria examined, when giving someone advice or teaching people how to cope with not fitting in, The Breakfast Club provides the viewer with the most relatable, helpful advice of any of the videos or films. If someone is dealing with a specific reason as to why they do not fit, then perhaps one of the Ted Talks, such as the one given by Harold Hillman, could be more appropriate in that instance. However when dealing with a broad overview of societal norms and fitting in in general, there is no better film or video than The Breakfast Club because of its broad examples, and it being more relatable to the average audience.