Interruption In Amy Tan's Mother Tongue

he Interruption that Amy tan’s “Mother Tongue” Illustrates

Our identity is very important because they define who we are. It is in our human nature to want to control how other perceives us. However, we often become stressed trying to meet the standards set by other. This stress comes from Interruptions in our identity. In “Amy’s Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan was faced with a type of interruption called that forced her to have multiple identities. Stet wrote in his article, “Identities and Their Operations”, “Individuals continually adjust behavior to make and keep perceptions of self -relevant meaning congruent with their identity standards or references” (77). Tan’s culture caused her to act a certain way around her mother and family, and

She had high expectations for herself, but she viewed her mother’s English something that could hold her back. She makes this clear when she writes, “I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well (394).” Tan goes on to explain how she thinks It affected her results on IQ test and the SAT. The reader could understand that Amy has high standards for her grades, as she says a B plus is moderately well. Her standards affect her use of interruptions, and as Stet writes, “People who view themselves as “good” want to get feedback that they are “good” (Burke 76). Her standards lead to a change in her actions because she wants to excel in her English classes. Although throughout this story Amy demonstrated interruptions, at the end she embraces her all her identities. She decided to write a book that included her mother’s English and her peer’s English. Amy says, “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”. Amy seems to have pride being able to include both identities at the same time. She learned she did not have to, as stet says, “Turn it on and off” (Tan