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A Thematic Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

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The story I chose for my thematic analysis is Mother Tongue by Amy Tan. In the story we see Amy explore the idea of identity and language and how they are combined with one another. She discusses broken English and how her mother being straight from China and Amy being a first generation Asian-American here in the United States. Within the story, she discusses the factors of this broken English and is aware of the discrimination that comes with it in comparison to standard English. Tan would describe her mother's English as “broken” due to her lack of English, which she was also ashamed of she states how “I believed her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” When Tan just saw it that way because she thought others would see …show more content…

Tan wrote Mother Tongue to get her audience to realize they should have an open mind and to be more accepting of all forms of language. Tan informs her audience from all backgrounds on how prejudices might arise due to the English language in paragraph 10 she introduces her mom’s perspective so we as readers can understand the struggles that come with speaking broken English. By showing the readers this, it makes them sympathize with the author by including these real-life examples. Establishing the fact that her mother is aware of the downfall of not knowing how to perfectly speak the language in paragraphs 11 and 12 she quotes both herself and her mother, when dealing with the stockbroker on the phone tans mother states, “why he don’t send me a check already two weeks late, so mad he lied to me losing me money” Tan’s response is different from her mom’s “yes I'm getting rather concerned you had agreed to send me the check two weeks ago but it hasn't arrived” it shows the reader that it is not hard to try and understand someone's imperfect language that people just choose to act dumb and ignorant also shows how they try to take advantage and they to silence those like Tan’s

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