Exile

Even though he has lived in the United States since he was a young man and is now a U.S. citizen, Alipio still thinks of his homeland in the Philippines. He gives the impression that he is not fully at home in America, in a culture so different from the one in which he grew up. His memories of the Philippines remain powerful. In the second sentence of the story, when he first sees his two female visitors, they remind him of the country girls in the Philippines "who went around peddling rice cakes." The sound of the waves outside also reminds him of his home in the Philippines, where he lived in a coastal town. He used to tell his wife, "across that ocean is the Philippines, we're not far from home." Even though he lives in the United States, he still thinks of himself as...