into My Life, an essay where she tells the reader her experience with how she learned how to speak, read and write even though she is blind and deaf. Amy Tan wrote Mother Tongue, an essay where she talks about the trouble of speaking English as an immigrant in a new country. Frederick Douglass wrote Learning to Read and Write, an essay where he talks about becoming literate during a time when slaves were not allowed to read and write. They all talk about literacy in their own ways, but at some point
remember how, something that for all of us was always part of our lives. Helen Keller with her need of language to give sense to life, Frederick Douglass with his ways of learning and Amy Tan with the importance of the “Mother Tongue” language, convey to us a totally different view of how language changes, develops and gives meaning to our lives. For Helen Keller, when she was around seven years old, language was a mystery. In a selection of her biography “The Story of my life”, she describes how, because
In the article "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan reveals the struggles of being the daughter of a Chinese American, and how language barriers proved to be a constant struggle. Throughout her article, she touches upon the disrespect her mother got because of her underdeveloped English, and how it affected her life as she grew up. Tan describes how she had to pose as her mother over the telephone to make sure her mother got the service she deserved. She empathizes with her mother and how her mother's intelligence