Amy Tan Mother Tongue Rhetorical Devices

Overall, Amy Tan does a great job using rhetorical devices to reveal her ideas. Through the use of rhetorical questions, similes, and parallelism, she established her idea and leaves a powerful message with her audience. Although the women in the book struggled, with each women who breaks away from low expectations, they prove that they are to be taken seriously. An-Mei may have lived a life with much pain, but she would have wished that one day the ladder of pain would end leaving women at the top having health and

Tan shows that she is embarrassed in her family for their lacking of proper American manners. Although at the time she felt ashamed, the words spoken by her mother, “Inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame” became better understood later in life. In Amy Tan's work, the strong use of description of both the event that are occurring and Amy’s feelings about them, draws the reader in and makes them feel as if they are part of the action. Tan's Chinese-American culture and life stories are imprinted in her writing which gives the reader an opportunity to gain knowledge about the way of life in her family, friends, and even the Chinese culture. Tan's main purpose of writing is to inform and educate people about growing up as a minority in the American society.

Tan’s attitude towards her mother throughout the essay can be described as understanding yet embarrassed. Tan is understanding of her mother throughout the essay because she constantly says that her English differs when talking to her mom versus when talking to others. She does this because she knows her mom is not as well-spoken as others, but Tan still wants her mom to be comfortable speaking English with everyone. Tan even changes many things in later writings because she envisions her mother reading it, and wants to know that her mother will understand everything she puts into the writing even though she speaks “broken English.” Tan was also embarrassed of her mother in the essay because she speaks of times when Tan blamed her own mother

Tan develops her relationship with the audience by allowing us inside of her head and her private conversation that she had with her mom after Robert left. This helps to appeal to the emotions of the audience

On one side, Amy Tan “Mother Tongue” shows how Amy Opens doors for her mother. One example of this is when Amy says “Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this: "Not waste money that way." My husband was with us as well, and he didn't notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It's because over the twenty years we've been together, I've often used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with ” (Tan 363). This opens a door for her mother by being in and understand a conversation that she is not normally involved in. This is as simple as Amy talking to her mom in her mother’s language. This is similar to an adult explaining something to a child in the in

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan an American writer, shares her experience growing up with the family where no one speaks perfect English, and how it affected her education and her life. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan faces more problems than her peers do. Her mother, who speaks limited English needs Tan to be her “Translator” to communicate with the native English speakers. Tan states, “I was ashamed of her English” (2). Her mother is like a burden to her, at least in Tan’s early years. But the cultural conflict she becomes the theme of her writing and it is under this situation she wrote many novels and essays including “Mother Tongue.”

Amy Tan’s literacy narrative “Mother Tongue” is about the different dialects of English, she is familiar with. She explains that her intelligence is judged by the way she speaks. Amy Tan, explains memories from her life where she encounters many forms of English. Her mother, a Chinese immigrant spoke “broken English.” She describes her mother as someone who was able to understand English, well the mother claims that she understands everything, but when it came to speaking, she spoke without the correct grammar. Due to her mothers broken English, Amy Tan has adapted to the type of English her mother speaks, their own type of English language. Tan feels as if the English she is speaking with it outside world is more complex than the English she

On the other hand the main focus on Tan’s story is to show the beautiful and passionate side of her mother that people can't see. Tan describes how all of the English’s that she grew up with, normal English and "mother tongue" English, has shaped her first outlook of life. She writes, "But to me, my mother's

Mother Tongue is a story that describes how Amy Tan’s mother was treated unfairly because of her “broken English”. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan faces more problems than her peers do. Her mom, who speaks “limited” English, needs Tan to be her “translator” in order to communicate with the native English speakers. Tan has felt ashamed of her mother “broken” language at first. She then contemplates her background affected her life and her study. However, she changes her thought at the end since she realizes things behind language might be more valuable than language itself sometimes. Through the various different literary devices and rhetorical strategies such as the ethos, pathos, and logos appeals, as well as a

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.

By having words the reader’s imagination is forced to be limited and they interpret the image on the surface rather than letting the image have more conceptual space around it. Also, by not using words, Tan demonstrates the confusion an immigrant might feel upon arrival in a new country where the language is unknown.

As an adult, Tan understands that her mother’s English is the language of intimacy. She now understands that her “mother’s expressive command belies how much she actually understands” Her mother reads “The Wall street Journal” and converses with their stockbroker on matters Tan doesn’t comprehend. It becomes evident that her initial

As a Chinese woman, Amy Tan, whose culture based on respect and veneration of parents, supports and helps her mother on a long way to tide over her “broken” English. (Tan 119) The connection between a daughter and a mother allows Amy to understand her mother’s “limited” language just by a heart. (Tan 119) Language is a very powerful and strong instrument, but the related blood between the two main characters is capable to express everything without the words. Amy loved her mother so much and did not want to hurt her feelings by calling her English “broken” or “fractured”, “as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness”. (Tan 119) Despite the global misunderstanding of society and her mother, Amy thinks that her mother’s language “is vivid, direct full of observation and imagery.” (Tan 119) It is her “mother tongue” and she is ready to protect and support her in any situations.

Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is Tan sharing her experiences and opinions on how her mother’s way of speaking English lead her to improving her own English, on and off paper. In the first two sentences, “I’m not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you more than personal opinions on the English langue and its variations in this country or others.” Tan makes herself someone approachable and relatable. She holds this belief true by explaining and giving an example of her mother’s in “broken English”. This especially made me identify with her because, while my mother speaks perfect English, her extended family speaks with an extremely thick Caribbean accent, that if you didn’t grow up around, you would think it was a different language

Amy Tan is an English major and an author. In “Mother Tongue” from The Threepenny Review, Amy Tan (1989) Tan examines the different versions of English that she finds herself using in different situations as well as the English her mother uses and how her mother’s version of English has a major impact on the way her mother is treated by strangers.