Amy Tan Mother Tongue Sparknotes

Literary Analysis on “Mother Tongue” “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan is a unique story about Tan and her mother and the challenges they both face with English. In the story when Tan was younger, she was embarrassed by her mother’s limited English. She believed that her mother “English reflected the quality of what she had to say That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.” On the other hand, Tan dealt with speaking “proper” English to be accepted into American society and “simple” English to bond with her mother. Tan’s mother’s English symbolizes the discrimination and challenges of immigrants in America. Tan’s English symbolizes the challenges she had to face with speaking different forms of English. As a child

They deal with challenges of trying not to feel ashamed of the lack of English that they know how to speak in the beginning. Tan recall giving answers for an English test and how complicated the answer choices were, she said, “English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience.” Tan did not have a great personal experience with English either, because her mother spoke broken English. So that “almost had an effect on limiting her possibilities in life as well.” Many immigrants whether they are young or old can relate to Tan’s when she had a difficult time with English and trying to fit into American society. With the challenges of learning English, it can be intimidating. The writer of “Mother Tongue by Amy Tan Thoughts” said, “I remember sitting in my fourth-grade class and being behind all my other classmates because I read so much slower than many of them did.” The writer of “Mother Tongue by Amy Tan Thoughts,” is an immigrant from Mexico who moved to America with her family. She shows how English symbolizes her challenges in school as a young immigrant girl. By her reading slow it “demean” her to the point that she was afraid of pronouncing a word