Amy Tan Outlining Argument Analysis

Once Tan realizes and corrects her skewed perception of her mother's English, she appreciates the fact that it was an English that shaped her into who she is

Furthermore, Tan's mother teaches her to think in a different manner than the other children in her school. Tan states that her developing language skills were influenced by her family and in this case her mother, hence it affected her

C. She would confuse much younger family members as being her parents or a friend she had not seen since grade school.

Tan grew up helping her mother by being her voice when she conducted business calls or even when needed for medical issues. She states “When I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. This is, because she expressed them imperfectly

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

5. One of the effects that her mother’s limited English has had on Tan’s life is the fact that, that was the language that helped shape the way she saw things, expressed things, and

c. These situations made me feel confident that confidential information would not be shared and only he relevant people would know. Also made me feel good to see the young people having contact with their families. The young person feels happy to be seeing their families and also

In order to tighten her persuasion, Tan shows the consequence of people judging her mother’s English through the rhetorical device-cause and effect. In her early years of writing, Tan uses great English and plethora of vocabularies to prove that she possesses the ability of a scholar writer. “And at first I wrote using what I thought to be wittily crafted sentences, sentences that would finally prove I had mastery over the English language” (637). Tan said she was trying to disprove people’s assumption about her writing talent. However, Tan, herself, was

a. People thought of Anita Hill as a liar but she hasn’t been the only one being assaulted and commented like this.

b. “We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty.”

b) Later in the story, her attitude finds a balance between self-preservation and her mother’s teachings to her own belief system when she begins to get closer with her neighbours. Adapting to the

B. She gets too lonely and depressed to walk alone in the county and meets other men

A: She has a hard time trusting people, partially because she moved so often during her childhood, due to her father being in the military and partially because of her natural personality.

In Amy Tan’s, “Mother Tongue”, Amy has to take all of her mother’s calls because she speaks “…perfect English…”, on the contrary, to her mother speaking “…’broken’ or ‘fractured’ English” (Tan 453). Amy Tan’s mother is the perfect example of an immigrant expected to speak English, and unable to speak it eloquently, or at least to the caliber of being understood. The necessity of the language would cause difficulties in the approach of everyday life as the expectation for impeccably spoken English leads to the judgement of a particular person or group of people, as it is “…believed that [someone’s] English reflected the quality of what [they] had to say” (Tan 453). Amy’s mother was often judged about the incapability to speak English fluently. She could not schedule any needed appointments, or pay taxes, so she had her daughter carry on the tasks, which even made her look down upon her mom. The pent-up frustration on both sides of the parties of not being able to comprehend one another, does nothing more than belittle the acceptance of diverse

D. The angry woman who had claimed her husband treated her like dirt changed her ways rather than changing her husband ways.