Liars Don T Qualify Summary

Both “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan and “Liars Don’t Qualify” by Junius Edwards utilize literary elements to convey the struggles people of color face in America.

The short stories, “Mother Tongue” and "Liars Don’t Qualify” differ in perspectives supporting its message. “Mother Tongue” displays a 1st person perspective to support its message of the underminement of immigrants in America. The story is told from the perspective of a young girl, who grew up in America alongside her mother, a Chinese immigrant. She grew up switching between traditional English and a more shattered version of English when speaking to her mother. Her mother’s intellect is often underestimated because of her broken English and accent. This is depicted when the author

Both stories use person v. person and person v. society to convey present conflicts. Person v. Society conflicts within “Mother Tongue" are shown through the discrimination the author’s mother faced due to her broken english. Many people looked down on her due to the language barriers. The story shares her experiences with discrimination, for example, “ I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say…And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores… and at restaurants did not take her seriously … pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her'' (Tan, 2). She was perceived as less intelligent and treated poorly solely because of her limitations with the English language. She was blatantly discriminated against and ignored for not only her poor English, but her race as well. “Mother Tongue” is a person v. society conflict because it portrays the struggle of an individual against societal norms. A bigger issue at play, not simply the ignorance of others but the prejudice engraved in society. This type of conflict also appeared in “Liars Don't Qualify” which also uses person vs. person and person vs. society. Will faced conflict with society due to his race. He sets out for voter registration, Sam and Charlie ask him many questions in an attempt to deny Will from voter registration. Will was put in a position where he had to hide his persona and blindly agree with everything they were saying. Calling himself stupid and less than a white man, forced to conform for his basic right of voting. This was apparent when Sam accused Will of lying about being “with the Army