Amy Tan's Mother Tongue

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Recommended: Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” video

Amy Tan's Mother Tongue

In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan talks about how language influenced her life while growing up. Through pathos she explains to her audience how her experiences with her mother and the Chinese language she came to realize who she wanted to be and how she wanted to write.

The author, Tan, has written the books The Joy Luck Club, and The Kitchen God's Wife. She is Asian-American, her parents are originally from China, but moved to Oakland, California. The audience in Tan's essay is people 20-35 years old who are culturally diverse. Tan focuses on this audience in order reach out to those who are in her past situation. In her house, there were two languages spoken: English and Chinese. Tan knew how to speak both well, but her mother did not. She constantly had to be the translator for her mother, which was embarrassing for Tan. She felt the world thought her mother was inferior because she could not speak English well, though her mother was an intelligent being. The language created a barrier. Tan did not do as well in English class as she did in math and science in school. All of the tests told her the same thing. Yet Tan was determined to write. She found her style through her mother by breaking through the barrier of language. Her message is to always believe in yourself and embrace your heritage no matter what anyone else believes.

Mother Tongue is written in order of importance. Tan introduces the audience to the fact that ...

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