analytical essay on mother tongue

A Summary and Analysis of Amy Tan’s ‘Mother Tongue’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Mother Tongue’ is an essay by Amy Tan, an American author who was born to Chinese immigrants in 1952. Tan wrote ‘Mother Tongue’ in 1990, a year after her novel The Joy Luck Club was a runaway success. In the essay, Tan discusses her relationship with language, and how her mother’s influence has shaped her use of English, as well as her attitude to it.

You can read ‘Mother Tongue’ here before proceeding to our summary and analysis of Amy Tan’s essay below.

‘Mother Tongue’: summary

Amy Tan begins her essay by offering her personal opinions on the English language. She recalls a recent talk she gave, when, upon realising her mother was in the audience, she was confronted with the fact that the formal standard English she was using in the public talk was at odds with the way she spoke at home with her mother. She then contrasts this with a moment when she was walking down the street with her mother and she used the more clipped, informal English she naturally uses with her mother, and her husband.

Tan calls this a ‘language of intimacy’. She points out that her mother is intelligent and reads things which Tan herself cannot begin to understand. But many people who hear her mother speak can only partially understand what she is saying, and some even say they can understand nothing of what she says, as if she were speaking pure Chinese to them.

Tan calls this clipped informal language her ‘mother tongue’, because it was the first language she learned and it helped to shape the way she saw the world and made sense of it.

Tan notes the difficulty of finding a term to describe the style of English her mother, as a Chinese immigrant to the United States, speaks. Many of the terms, such as ‘broken’ or ‘limited’, are too negative and imply her English is imperfect.

She acknowledges that when she was growing up, she was ashamed of the way her mother spoke. Her mother, too, was clearly aware of how her use of the language affected how seriously people took her, for she used to get her daughter to phone people and pretend to be ‘Mrs Tan’.

She observes that her mother is treated differently because of the way she speaks. She recounts a time when the doctors at the hospital were unsympathetic towards her mother when they lost the results of the CAT scan they had undertaken on her brain, but as soon as the hospital – at her mother’s insistence – called her daughter, they issued a grovelling apology.

Amy Tan also believes her mother’s English affected her daughter’s school results. Tan acknowledges that, whilst she did well in maths and science, subjects with a single correct answer, she was less adept at English. She struggled with tests which asked students to pick a correct word to fill in the blanks in a sentence because she was distracted by the imaginative and poetic possibilities of other words.

Indeed, Tan conjectures that many Asian American children are probably encouraged to pursue careers in jobs requiring maths and science rather than English for this reason. But because she is rebellious and likes to challenge people’s assumptions about her, Tan bucked this trend. She majored in English at college and began writing as a freelancer.

She began writing fiction in 1985, and after several false starts trying to find her own style and idiom, she began to write with her mother in mind as the ideal reader for her stories. Indeed, her mother read drafts of her work.

And Tan drew on all the Englishes , plural, that she knew: the ‘broken’ English her mother used, the ‘simple’ English Tan used when talking to her mother, the ‘watered-down’ Chinese her mother used, and her mother’s ‘internal’ language which conveyed her passion, intent, imagery, and the nature of her thoughts. When her mother told her that what she had written was easy to read, Tan knew that she had succeeded in her aims as a writer.

‘Mother Tongue’: analysis

The title of Amy Tan’s essay is a pun on the expression ‘mother tongue’, referring to one’s first language. But Tan’s language, or ‘tongue’, has been shaped by her actual mother, whose first language (or mother tongue) was not English, but Chinese.

The different forms of English that mother and daughter speak are also a product of their backgrounds: whilst Tan’s mother is a Chinese immigrant to America, Tan was born in the United States and has grown up, and been educated, in an English-speaking culture.

Much of Tan’s 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club is about daughters and their relationships with their mothers. But Tan’s interest in language, both as a cultural marker and as a way of expressing thought and personality, is also a prevailing theme of the novel.

In this respect, if the parable ‘ Feathers from a Thousand Li Away ’ acts as preface to the novel, ‘Mother Tongue’, in effect, acts as a kind of postscript. It helps us to understand the way Tan approaches and uses language within the stories that make up The Joy Luck Club .

An overarching theme of Tan’s novel is mothers emigrating to America in the hope that their daughters will have better lives than they did. This is a key part of ‘Feathers from a Thousand Li Away’, and it helps us to understand Tan’s conflicted attitude towards her mother’s use of language as explored in ‘Mother Tongue’.

Many of the mothers in The Joy Luck Club , such as Betty St. Clair in ‘The Voice from the Wall’, feel isolated from those around them, never at home in America, and hyper-aware of their outsider status, despite becoming legal permanent citizens in the country. Tan’s autobiographical revelations in ‘Mother Tongue’ show us that her own mother struggled to be taken seriously among Americans, and Tan diagnoses this struggle as a result of her mother’s different way of speaking.

Tan, by contrast, used standard English – what used to be referred to, in loaded phrases, as ‘correct’ or ‘proper’ English – and was thus able to succeed in getting herself, and by extension her mother, taken seriously by others. Language is thus more than just a cultural marker: Tan reveals, in ‘Mother Tongue’, the extent to which it is a tool of power (or, depending on the use, powerlessness), particularly for those from migrant backgrounds.

In this connection, it is noteworthy that Tan chooses to focus on the school tests she undertook before concluding that her mother’s ‘broken’ style of English has been misunderstood – not just literally (by some people who’ve known her), but in terms of the misleading perceptions of her it has led others to formulate.

The class tests at school which reduced English proficiency to an ability to recognise a ‘correct’ answer are thus contrasted with Tan’s resounding final words of ‘Mother Tongue’, which see her seeking to capture the passion of her mother, the ‘nature of her thoughts’, and the imagery she uses: all things which her daughter has clearly inherited a respect for, and which school tests fail to capture or observe.

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Mother Tongue Analysis Essay

Introduction.

Over time, language has played a fundamental role in various societies across the globe. From enhancing simple things like general communication to creating a viable environment for social, economic, political and economic growth, language and literature have become very crucial tools in the growth of human life through constant progress. It is based on these reasons that some important aspects of language will be analyzed in this paper.

In essence, this paper seeks to analyze the essay Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, in which various aspects of language and rhetorical evaluation are detailed. It is important to note that Amy Tan not only uses the article to give us an insight into her world of writing and the continuous commitments she made to better her mastery of the English language, but she also expresses different rhetorical values and emotional aspects of her mother tongue that greatly helped in advancing her expertise in English and literature. It is upon these features of her language learning that the rhetorical evaluation, in this paper, will be done.

Topic Statement: An individual’s mother tongue contributes greatly to the advancement of one’s expertise and mastery of language and literature.

Thesis Statement: Even though there are many aspects and characteristics of mother tongue that are important in facilitating skill in language and literature, the most important ones are the educational qualifications and academic expertise, mastery in the use of emotions to express ideas, and the appeal to shared values of the audience.

Brief Summary of the Essay

In brief, the essay is a literary account given by Amy Tan about her life and how she gradually learned various aspects of the English language. Some of these issues include the differences between her “professional” English (the English she spoke at official forums like lectures or when writing) and her “intimate” English (the English she spoke at home with family and friends), the language and literature challenges brought by her mother tongue (Chinese) in speaking good English, and how we should generally strive to use simple English (or any language, for that matter) that is easy to understand by both native and non-native English speakers.

In expressing these important facts, ideas, notions and opinions, Amy Tan personalizes her talk by using her literature audience, her mother and her husband as examples of her mother tongue influence on her English.

These personal accounts of her life and the people close to her greatly help in passing the intended message to the readers since many people, especially audiences that use English as a second language, can easily relate to her personal experiences.

Analysis of Rhetorical Strategies

Is the author qualified.

Considering the fact that Amy Tan is not a native English speaker, she has strived to master the English language to the point that she earns a living out of her writings like the Joy Luck Club; it is evidently clear that she is indeed highly qualified as a good English writer and speaker.

In addition, Amy Tan’s good qualifications are demonstrated by the fact that she has been able to give over half a dozen talks to different groups of people on how to improve on their English. Furthermore, Amy is not a professional, she would have not been able to give these many lectures in an efficient way.

Finally, Amy Tan’s qualification and trustworthiness as an effective English communicator are made clear when her mother, who has a “limited” skills in English, is able to read Amy’s book until she gives the verdict “so easy to read”.

Does the author appeal to the shared values of her audience?

To a great extent, Amy Tan appeals to the shared values of her targeted audience, people whose English speaking or writing skills are somewhat influenced by their mother tongue. This literary appeal is, essentially, the reason Amy’s mother is able to read her book in an easy way.

Again, despite the influence of her Chinese mother tongue, Amy Tan still manages to master the English language and gives lectures to a professional audience while ensuring that she follows all the necessary English speaking skills principles.

As we move towards the end of her essay, Amy embraces the need to find a way of communicating and appealing specifically to audiences like her mother who needed simple English, the English that she grew up with. Being able to appeal to the values of both complex and simple English audiences is undoubtedly a great literary skill.

However, it is worth stating that there are some sections of the essay where Amy admits that her initial writings were majorly based on her life experiences and her environment. In as much as this may be viewed as a good thing, the writings do not entirely represent the happenings in other places that people struggle with the influence of mother tongue on their English. For example, the family routines, while she was growing up or the “judgment” calls she made when faced with tricky English tests, are not the same for all non-native English speakers.

Does the author use emotions effectively?

Amy Tan’s many adventures and experiences as she strived to learn English evoke a lot of feelings. For example, when she felt mad and rebellious when her mother did something that she thought was not good for her learning. On the other hand, she praises her mother and the influence of their mother tongue in shaping who she was as a writer.

There are also instances that Amy talks about how she felt about her writings and career progress as a writer. All these good and bad feelings clearly demonstrate her effectiveness as a speaker and writer on the use of emotions to make her readers feel or react to her work in a certain way.

Overall Evaluation of the Text’s Effectiveness

Through different language tools, personal experiences and literary expression of certain emotional issues, Amy Tan greatly communicates to her readers. Of course there are some instances in the essay that she overstates her experiences and opinions to the point of forgetting about her audiences and the need to be precise. Nonetheless, in overall, her essay can be said to be effective.

From the above analysis, it is evidently clear that a person’s qualifications and academic expertise, mastery in the use of emotions to express ideas, and the appeal to shared values of the targeted audience are key factors that greatly contribute towards the improvement or worsening of mother tongue’s influence on language mastery. For this reason, language learners should ensure that these aspects are keenly considered in their learning processes.

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Bibliography

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Mother Tongue

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Summary and Study Guide

Summary: “mother tongue”.

“Mother Tongue” explores Amy Tan’s relationship with the English language, her mother, and writing. This nonfiction narrative essay was originally given as a talk during the 1989 State of the Language Symposium; it was later published by The Threepenny Review in 1990. Since then, “Mother Tongue” has been anthologized countless times and won notable awards and honors, including being selected for the 1991 edition of Best American Essays .

The original publication of “Mother Tongue,” which this study guide refers to, breaks the essay into three sections. In the first Tan briefly primes the reader on her relationship with “different Englishes” (7). Tan bridges the first and second parts of the essay with descriptions of her “mother’s English,” or her “mother tongue” (7). In the second section Tan describes the impact her mother’s language had on her; Tan’s mother is a Chinese immigrant who often relied on her daughter to produce “perfect English” (7). In the concluding section Tan then connects her mother’s English to Tan’s own choices regarding writing style and career.

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In the initial section of “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan locates her position as “a writer… someone who has always loved language” (7). She describes the multiple Englishes that she uses, from formal academic language to the English she uses with her mother to the English she uses at home with her husband. The section concludes with Tan’s description of her mother’s “expressive command of English” (7), which is in conflict with her mother’s fluency in the language. Although her mother might speak English that is difficult for native speakers to understand, to Tan, her mother’s language is “vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery” (7).

As Tan moves through the second section of “Mother Tongue,” she describes some of the more difficult aspects of being raised by a parent who spoke English that others struggled to understand. Tan references the oft-used language of “broken” English and suggests that her mother’s English and way of speaking, despite its obvious interpersonal and social limitations (including harming Tan’s performance on such metrics as standardized tests), provided Tan a different semantic way of understanding the world.

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The final section of “Mother Tongue” transitions into personal reflection as Tan describes how she has reckoned with being raised by her mother in a xenophobic society. As a writer, Tan only found success when she moved away from more proper, academic register and instead wrote “in the Englishes [she] grew up with” (8). The essay concludes with Tan’s mother’s opinion about Tan’s most famous novel, The Joy Luck Club , in which Tan attempted to write in this fashion. Her mother’s “verdict: ‘So easy to read’” (8).

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Mother Tongue

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“Mother Tongue” is an autobiographical essay in which Amy Tan identifies the varied nature of language in her everyday life. As a result of her mother ’s presence at a talk for her book, The Joy Luck Club , Tan becomes acutely aware of the many different “ Englishes ” she speaks. Tan realizes that this is the first time her mother has heard her daughter speak in such a setting and with such a professional tone. Tan associates the English she speaks at events with the standardized forms of English she learned in school.

Tan tells stories of her past, contrasting the English she uses at home—her “mother tongue”—with standard English. Tan speaks in the same English as her mother when they are alone and in front of her husband—he is used to her changes in speech and does not detect Tan’s shift when she responds to her mother. Referencing a recent conversation she recorded, Tan relays a story her mother shared about a Chinese political gangster; parts of the transcript perfectly capture the rhythm of her mother’s speech and the detail she provides. Tan refrains from describing her mother’s English as “broken” because it suggests that her mother’s knowledge is somehow lacking. Instead, she argues that it shows the limited perceptions others have of her mother. Her mother’s stockbroker and doctors demonstrate their own closed-mindedness, refusing to take her seriously and requiring Tan to facilitate conversations on her mother’s behalf.

Tan describes her own childhood experiences with standardized English. She struggled with her English studies because of the way her mother’s use of language influenced her internal problem-solving skills, and Tan illustrates her frustration and the way she used this frustration as motivation. Instead of admitting defeat, Tan vowed to “master” the English language, assimilating to standardized English and forgoing the use of her “mother tongue” outside interactions with her mother. It isn’t until the start of her writing career with The Joy Luck Club that she realizes that the English she writes in is unapproachable and difficult to read. As such, in finding her way back to her “mother tongue,” Tan shifts her focus to an imagined reader, using a voice that she has grown to love and accept—the voice of her mother.

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Amy Tan's 'Mother Tongue': Analysis

In her essay, Mother Tongue , Amy Tan contemplates how her background shaped her life, her education, and brought her shame, but ultimately, she learns to embrace her background. Tan describes the way that she was stuck between two worlds. When she is with her mother, she speaks in simple English, but while she is in the public eye, she shifts to an English that is more formal and acceptable; one that English-speaking people accept. Tan relates her story of her mother talking about a gangster that wanted her family in China to adopt him because her family had more status.

She tells us the story using her mother’s language, so we can see how expressive her mother’s broken English is. Even though the language is not what we may be used to, her story is something we can follow. It is vivid with detail and images. For Tan, her mother’s language is the language of her childhood, and it is clear, and full of imagery. She has no difficulties understanding exactly what her mother is saying. She knows that this simple English is the same language that helped her understand the world, helped her formulate her views, and helped her learn to express herself.

In the beginning of Amy Tan’s narrative, “Mother Tongue” she states, “I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language – the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth” (Tan 299). In these few sentences you understand the passion she has for the English language and what it can do. Tan explains to her audience that she was introduced to the English language in many ways. She gives numerous examples of different language from the different influences in her life. Her use of language in this essay helps to prove her point that you shouldn’t base your judgment of someone’s intelligence on their use of an unfamiliar language. Tan’s rarely uses concise language, so much so that my word editor recommended the use of concise language on multiple quotes. She uses her writing as a strategy to effectively prove her point.

Tan’s intended audience could be anyone that had to learn a new language to fit in where they live. She shows the readers that there is more than one kind of correct English. She often refers to the “Englishes” that she uses. Tan points out the narrow-minded views that many people have of people that come from different backgrounds or cultures. The use of her mother’s experience shows the reader that people would judge way to quickly after hearing her mother talk. People would often assume that her mother was uneducated, even though she “reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stock broker and reads all of Shirley MacLaine books with ease- she does all kinds of things I can’t begin to understand” (Tan 300). Tan is trying to motivate people to accept the things that make them different. She is showing the audience that people will often have misconceptions about people that come from different countries, and people that aren’t easy to understand.

Amy Tan can effectively persuade her readers by her use of ethos and having a strongly known character. Tan uses easy to read language throughout her essay. Even without elegant words, the readers can still understand the complexity of the argument she is making. In the last paragraph Tan is able to emphasize the way that she is more concerned with her audience and appealing to them. She states, “Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: ‘So easy to read’ ” (Tan 302). She is not seeking the approval of critics and chooses not to write like a professor even though others might believe she should. She writes purely for her audience and wants them to be able to understand her writing to the fullest.

Tan makes her writing so easy to read because she knows that most people who natively speak Chinese have a hard time being understood by English speaking people. She has goodwill for her audience because she has felt the pain of being treated poorly due to language barriers. Tan vividly describes a time when her mother was treated unfairly simply because the other person didn’t understand what she was trying to say. She recalls a time when a hospital would not look for a lost CAT scan for her mother until she came to translate. Since her mother was unable to speak perfect English, the person in charge of the results did not concentrate on what she was saying. It wasn’t until Tan came and explained what her mother was talking about that the doctor would take the situation seriously. The doctor immediately responded to the request and apologized for the mistake. It makes it clear that people who did not have perfect English can sometimes get misunderstood and disregarded. Tan explains how some people are treated simply because they are thought to be inferior. Not speaking perfect English according to how Tan’s mother was treated prevented her from accessing or getting the right services. The author’s way of writing is unique and complex on how she develops her points. She shows us the problem then tells us why it is a problem.

The carefully chosen writing style of “Mother Tongue” makes the essay feel like a conversation that you are having. Tan engages the audience directly when she says, “You should know that my mother’s expressive command of the English language belies how much she really understands” (Tan 299). By directly addressing the audience she is able to show that she wasn’t writing this essay just to share her ideas, she really wants the reader to understand what is happening, and why it is such a difficult situation. Tan uses many storytelling techniques to make all the experiences feel more personal. By making the readers struggle to understand her mother, Tan makes the reader feel the frustration of the thick language barrier. We are compelled to experience all of the confusion as if we are having a real conversation. The reader is made to feel empathetic towards the situation. Tan knows what her mother means, and she feels bad that others don’t get to experience her thoughts or ideas. Tan’s writing style gives her readers a glimpse of what it must feel like to be stuck between the two worlds. As a reader you are made to feel the road block that is put in the way of her mother. It creates a feeling of defeat when she knows that her mother is capable of expressing her own ideas, but due to people’s impatience she has to constantly be a translator.

Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” : Rhetorical Analysis

In the essay Mother Tongue , Amy Tan believes that everyone speaks different languages in certain settings and are labeled by the way they speak. The author interested by how language is utilized in our daily life” and uses language as a daily part of her work as a writer. Throughout her life she recognizes her struggles applying proper English instead of the broken used in her home.

She became aware of how she spoke was when giving a lecture about her book The Joy Club and realized her mother who was in the audience did not understand what was being discussed. This was because she never used proper English in her home or talking to her mother. It is her belief utilizing proper English and broken English is essential in communication depending who you are talking to. The next time she noticed this about her English was when walking with her parents, she made the statement “not waste money that way”. This is due to the language barrier in her household that is used only by her family. Her mother was raised in China and spoke Mandarin her English always came across as broken to everyone outside the family, which made it hard for her to understand when someone spoke proper English.

Amy insured everyone that met her mother’s that even though her English seem “broken” it does not reflect her intelligence. Even though people placed this label on her mother of the way she spoke she rejected the idea that her mother English is “limited”. She highlights the fact that even her mother recognizes that her opportunities and interactions in life are limited by the English language. Amy Tan realizes that how you communicate within the family dynamic, especially for immigrant families plays a large role in in the growth of the child. It allowed her to acknowledge that perhaps her family’s language had an effect on the opportunities she was provided in her life. For instance in her experience, she notices that Asian students actually do better in math tests than in language tests, and she questions whether or not other Asian students are discouraged from writing or directed in the direction of math and science. Tan changed her major from pre-med to English and she decided to become a freelance writer even though her boss told her she couldn’t write. She eventually went on to write fiction , she celebrates the fact that she did not follow the expectations that people had of her because of her struggle with writing and language. With her mother as an influence Tan decided to write her stories for people like her, people with “broken” or “limited” English. In the essay , Mother Tongue, Amy Tan goes to great length to persuade the readers of her experiences being multicultural family that the effectiveness and the price an individual pays by insuring that their ideas and intents do not change due to the way they speak, whether they use “perfect” or “broken” English. Tan also clarifies to the readers that her “mother’s expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands”. She uses many examples to take readers into her life experiences to discover this truth. She utilizes the first person view throughout the essay and adds her firsthand knowledge of growing up with a multiple languages spoken in the home. This was done to validate of her argument and shine a light on the importance of this issue in her life as well as her culture.

The examples she uses is when she tells a story of her mother’s struggles with a stockbroker because of her “broken “ English, Tan quotes her mother’s words “Why he not send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money”. Amy Tan did this to give the readers an idea on how this particular situation played out and how her mother’s English affected outcome. The authors writing is also very emotional and somewhat angry at throughout the essay , it makes her and her family very sympathetic figures. Tan’s specific concern is being shunned by both white-America and the Asian population. This also further her strengthen her views that puts her in an equally frustrating position from the perspective of Americans with the stereotypical views of Asians. Many people in college looked at her funny for being an English major instead of Math as a major. Individuals of Chinese decent are associated with math or science and that is because of the stereotyping that Asian receive. This is based on studies being conducted that a majority of Asians do in fact excel in mathematics and sciences.

Amy also observed that many of her instructors towards math and science as well and was even told by a former boss that writing was not biggest attribute and should focus more onto her account management skills. The author states that “perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me”. The author utilized the nonfiction essay form to discuss how language played a major role in her life. This also allowed her to show the readers how her relationship with the English language and her mother has changed over the years. In her essay , Mother Tongue Amy Tan describes numerous incidences that helped shape her views as a writer. The uses of first persons account to describe her experiences with her mother and how her mother’s use of the English language influenced her upbringing, such as a story her mother once told her about a guest at her mother’s wedding “Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Like off-the-street kind. He is Du like Du Zong – but not Tsung-ming Island people….That man want to ask Du Zong father take him in like become own family. Du Zong father wasn’t look down on him, but didn’t take seriously, until that man big like become a mafia. Now important person, very hard to inviting him. She may have chosen to focus on this type sentence structure because it gave the readers sense of awareness into her life and also to make it easier for them to understand the factors that shaped her style as a writer. In conclusion after reading Mother Tongue, it became very apparent that her mother played an important part in the author’s life. However, after further reading, I determined that she could have been addressing a specific group of people. She is also explaining her story to people who read her works, since so much of her literature seems to be influenced by how she views of the English language. Amy Tan goes to great lengths in the essay to give bits and pieces of how she overcame the perception that many people had of her, since she did not do as well with English-related schooling as she did with the Sciences, or Math.

Analysis of “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” presents a narrative between the author and her mother (470). The story tells of the conflicts and discrepancies between the US and Chinese cultures. The author employs the writing approach to discuss the two cultures since she is convinced that language acts as a powerful tool. She seeks to discredit the belief that Asians cannot succeed in liberal arts despite their performing well in science and mathematics.

Although the author derives pleasure in writing stories and sharing them with others, she realizes that it is not just valuable to obtain people’s attention but also offers the opportunity for self-advancement. She narrates details regarding her mother, especially concerning her use of the English language, which was rather limited. Irrespective of her fluency in speaking English, Tan always understood what her mother predestined when she communicated using “broken” English. Through the application of satire, dialogue, and pathos the publication establishes the strength of language and that its power is employed in articulating experiences and sentiments to other people.

At the commencement of the story, the author underscores that she does not prefer becoming a scholar but a writer since she can only provide personal perspectives on the English language and its disparities in different settings. Her objective was to demonstrate that she has unspeakable thoughts regarding her sentiments on how she learned English in her education but can communicate using broken English with her mother.

The author maintains that the language assisted in influencing the way she perceived things, articulated ideas, and understood occurrences across the globe. Such expressions show the feelings of the author over and above the way she understood English with the help of her mother tongue (Tan 472). Tan employed “as if” many times in the story as a way of pointing out that individuals who cannot speak fluent English appeared strange in the American culture. People in the United States wrongly believe that individuals who only communicate their feelings using broken English are stupid and their actions are meaningless for their lack of proper thinking.

In the essay, Tan presents the dialogue involving her mother and the stockbroker. In some instances, Tan is aware that her mother’s communication is not well comprehended by other people. The moment Tan saw that her mother was finding it difficult to express her ideas to the stockbroker she stated that she has many times found herself in problems with her broken English. Regardless of her difficulty in articulating her thoughts, she goes ahead to shout to the stockbroker. This shows that the mother does not realize that her broken English is at times problematic for others to easily understand her ideas. This occurrence demonstrates that, in addition to the stockbroker being of American origin, he disrespects Tan’s mother.

This is evident in the stockbroker’s pretense and ignorance of Tan’s mother despite her earning profit from the business. The mother attempts to claim the money that she is supposed to acquire from the stock. Despite the ignorance and disrespect bestowed on her by the stockbroker, the mother continues communicating, which demonstrates that she is a brave woman (Tan 473). This also signifies that the language people speak, their mother tongue affects the way others perceive. Although the mother can only communicate her imperfect English, she still reserves the right to obtain what she has worked for.

The author employs dialogue to make readers understand that individuals who can only express their notions using broken English, and not just her mother, are not lesser people than the ones who use impeccable language and deserve to be treated with equal respect over and above being protected by existing laws. It is unjust that many people from the United States always despise others who cannot use proper English in their communication. This is perhaps what pushed the author to learn perfect English since she would not want her mother tongue to become a hindrance in her articulation of feelings to other people or demand what is rightfully hers.

The moment a person gets ideas on a matter at hand; there is a need to share them with the relevant people (Bhandari 266). The application of perfect language has been found to directly ensure that articulated ideas make sense to the people listening. In a different point of view, the author could have wanted to learn perfect English and write stories as a way of employing language as a tool that ensures others become open-minded and obtain a broad perspective of the world around them.

Tan affirms that she endeavored to preserve the real meaning (470). This directly underscores the importance of telling the story concerning her mother which lies in the need to express that language ability discloses what teats cannot. The author’s intention, zeal, and application of imagery and rhythm of speech are geared towards strengthening the nature of her ideas. In the story, the author vividly describes the power of language in ones’ brain. Reading concerning the way broken English influences her mother’s experiences may change the notion of people holding the American culture of such people who find trouble articulating their ideas in impeccable English as stupid.

Tan employs satire as a means of exploring the rationale behind English acquired from school and books not being appropriate to employ at home with people such as her mother who cannot effectively use the same. In such instances, there is a need for both parties to use their mother tongue irrespective of one’s knowledge and education level. The author affirms that the different approaches to speaking English are not vital as the objective of every language is to make sense to others for easy understanding. Such is the strength of language that should be felt in all contexts and not just in the use of broken English (Bhandari 268).

People should be proud of their mother tongue since it provides the best approach of communicating with their mothers and other members of the family and understanding their feelings, experiences, over and above socializing and expressing ideas. Tan shows this when she states that she feels nearer to her family when using broken English. In addition, this affirms that people who articulate their thoughts using broken English do not lack ideas and knowledge as they could also be learned as in her case.

Mother tongue expresses Tan’s view and personal encounters, in addition to persuading other people to understand the power in spoken language. Her writing also appeals for the respect of all irrespective of the language barrier. Through the narration regarding her mother, Tan acquired the ability to reveal the existing problem that greatly affects others and which should be tackled in all cultures.

Works Cited

Bhandari, Nagendra. “Reinventing Cultural Identities in Diaspora: A Mother-Daughter Dyad in Tan’s Narratives.” Tribhuvan University Journal, vol. 32, no. 1, 2018, pp. 261-272.

Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” The Threepenny Review, vol. 43, no. 7, 1990, pp. 470-474.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Amy Tan — Analysis of Rhetorical Strategies in Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

Analysis of Rhetorical Strategies in Mother Tongue by Amy Tan

• Categories: Amy Tan Rhetoric

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Words: 612 |

Published: Sep 1, 2020

Words: 612 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Works Cited

• Tan, A. (1990). Mother tongue. In A. Tan (Ed.), The opposite of fate: Memories of a writing life (pp. 20-29). Penguin Books.
• Block, D. (2012). Mother tongue education and sustainable development: The West African experience. Routledge.
• Canagarajah, S. (2005). Mother tongue as a local knowledge. Routledge.
• Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Multilingual Matters.
• Kachru, B. B. (1986). The alchemy of English: The spread, functions, and models of non-native Englishes. University of Illinois Press.
• Martin-Jones, M., & Saxena, M. (2009). Multilingualism, second language learning, and gender. Multilingual Matters.
• Pennycook, A. (2007). Global Englishes and transcultural flows. Routledge.
• Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford University Press.
• Romaine, S. (1995). Bilingualism. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Skutnabb-Kangas, T., & Cummins, J. (Eds.). (1988). Minority education: From shame to struggle. Multilingual Matters.

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