Analysis Of Mother Tongue

Mother Tongue is about a first-person point-of-view about the different varieties of how the English language is spoken. This literary narrative talks about how Amy Tan, the author, became “keenly aware of the different Englishes” (Tan 633). Tan stance on this subject came off as a realization of how the English language was verbally expressed. She does this by giving out examples of how she spoke in public versus how she spoke to her mother and her husband. When she spoke to mother it was informal, “’Not waste money that way”’ (Tan 634). When Tan gave speeches out in public, it became apparent that it was formal, “’The intersection of memory upon imagination” (Tan 633). Amy Tan’s intended audience for her literary narrative was leaning more towards immigrants, specializing in Asian’s and Asian Americans. With personal experiences, Amy focused mainly upon the different types of how the English language was spoken. She hovered in upon the “’broken’ or ‘fractured’ English” (Tan 635). She shows this by using her mother’s English speaking as an example. For example, her mother was talking about a “political gangster in Shanghai” and this is some of what she spoken: “’Now important person, very hard to inviting him. Chinese way, came only to show respect, don’t stay for

This limitation that she had faced was that her mother was holding her back because of her limitations of the English language. For an example, Tan had to make countless phone calls for her mother because the business personal on the other end of the line could not take the broken English very seriously. This also applied in general public too. For example, “people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her” (Tan