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Mother Tongue Amy Tan Analysis

862 Words4 Pages

The objective of this essay is to respond or react to the story, “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. From a bibliography perspective, Amy Tan is the daughter of immigrants fleeing China’ Cultural Revolution in the late 1940s (Hall & Emblem, 1996). The author of the story was born in Oakland, California in 1952. Amy Tan has a Chinese name, An-Mei, which is an illustration of the essence of being ‘blessing from America.’ In the development of her essay, Tan focuses on optimizing the platform to narrate her experience and reflect on the issue as a bilingual child with the ability to speak both English and Chinese. The essay is an original publication on 1990 in the Threepenny Review (Hall & Emblen, 1996)

Are Languages a Frontier to Find a Better …show more content…

The essay provides the platform for Tan to express her love for language. Additionally, she uses the essay as an indication of the fact that ‘broken English’ does not translate to lack of intelligence (Hall & Emblen, 1996). In the essay, Tan tends to focus on her mother because of the ability to learn through her experiences concerning the cruelty of people against individual they perceive to be less off in comparison to what they are within the society. In most cases, she believes that people aim at exploiting her mother based on her inability to speak clear English. The essay proves to be a narrative describing Tan’s life and experience with her …show more content…

Tan has been able to use her rebellious nature to do what she loves, which is writing about language. Notably, she has been able to use this urge to do what she wants to do rather than execute what the society would expect her to do with her life. Additionally, I believe that the essay offers more than just the description of Tan’s love for language. I believe that language is a significant tool, which society members can use to comprehend and conceptualize social and cultural issues, as well as diversities. In the essay, I was able to learn on the different uses of language highlighting the contextual importance of language as a tool for communication. For instance, in documenting science reports, engaging scholars, interacting with friends, and families, individuals tend to use different languages or mode of communication for effectiveness and efficiency in the presentation of the

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