Mother Tongue By Demetria Martinez

He illustrates the suffering people experience at the hands of the desert, the loss that shatters the families of those who lose their lives during the journey, and the desire for the American Dream that motivates the border crossers to risk their lives. The emotional tales in the book give a face to a group of people who are nothing more than a statistic to many Americans. The vast majority of people seem to have no comprehension of the impact that different policies will have, regardless of their support for or rejection of our current immigration policy. Big picture information about illegal immigration is intangible and incomprehensible to most. The emotional arguments provide readers with information that the average person can work with, such as the story of Memo and Lucho crossing the border and eking out a life in the US afterwards (De León 167-201). The stories provided by the book can also connect the effects of immigration policy on the individual to the impact it can have on large groups of people who had no intention of crossing the border. For example, the testimony about Maricela’s life and death provided in Chapter 10 connects the suffering Maricela experienced to the pain her family and friends feel after they learn of her death (De León 243-264). These stories aid in the creation of better arguments about illegal immigration.

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

The poem “Mothers and Daughters” is written by Pat Mora. Pat Mora is a contemporary award winning writer, who writes for children, youngsters and adults. She was born in El Paso, TX in the year 1942. She attains a title of a Hispanic writer; however, the most of her poems are in English. In her literary work, one can observe the different aspects of the immigrants’ lives such as language issues, family relationships, immigrants’ experiences and cultural differences (1187).

“Outlaw: My Life In America As An Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas from the New York Times, is a narrative essay that focuses on telling a story of past events. Vargas proposes that since he grew up in America that this is considered his home. Vargas believed he would be granted citizenship if he worked harder and achieved more. His motivation of sharing his childhood journey would be the relief of him coming forward about his legal status to those who were not aware and to those who he truly cares about but could not risk sharing his story with. Vargas tone and stance attracts people who are or have already been through the same path and for those that come to America to live the “American Dream” like Vargas intended to. Vargas concludes he is trapped in duplicity and being dishonest about his legal status is destroying his character. Even though, Vargas convinces me about his difficult journey as an undocumented immigrant, his belief that coming forward with the truth of his legal status will allow him to regain his values or the trust of those who he has already lied to is unconvincing because after all those years it has become a part of his selfhood.

Throughout life, every individual must face obstacles; some more difficult than others. In the story “The Trip” by Laila Lalami, poem “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, and article “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas, there is a main character who has to face many challenges because of the fact that they’re immigrants. In all three texts, it is evident that being an immigrant has many affects on their lives. However, this label and the obstacles that come with it didn’t stop each character from pushing forward.

Each year, thousands of Central American immigrants embark on a dangerous journey from Mexico to the United States. Many of these migrants include young children searching for their mothers who abandoned them. In Enrique’s Journey, former Los Angeles Times reporter, Sonia Nazario, recounts the compelling story of Enrique, a young Honduran boy desperate to reunite with his mother. Thanks to her thorough reporting, Nazario gives readers a vivid and detailed account of the hardships faced by these migrant children.

English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize

After reading “How to Tame a wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, I can definitely feel the social and cultural difficulties immigrants experienced while being raised in the United State in a profound way. So it brings up a question I have as an immigrant for a long time: Would we get treated differently if we act the same way they act, speak the same kind of language they speak, eat the same type of food they eat? If we accomplish all of those things, would they consider us like them? Or would they still see us as outsiders and always keep a distance away from us? Will we have better interactions with them? Or will we still have to hang out with those people who are same races as us? By reading “Do We Really Want Immigrants to Assimilate?”, Nathan Glazer posed the question: “Is Assimilation Dead?” three years ago and his answer was yes to this concern. Though he stressed the fact that assimilation still making the progress toward society, on the one side I agree with his notion that assimilation insists a social reality but on the other side, I strongly disagree with the idea that assimilation is dead as nation ideal. So should immigrant assimilate? There are many benefits of being multicultural and one should try their best to accommodate majority’s needs.

Identity as the “condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is; the qualities, beliefs, etc., that distinguish or identify a person or thing” (Dictionary.com). This could refer to name, gender, sexual orientation, one’s profession, race, ethnicity, and the list stretches beyond. Is it birth, by choice, or by evolution of events? In Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Teach Yourself Italian”, and Zadie Smith’s “Speaking in Tongues”, each author writes about their experiences with languages and all have lived through different events which has led them to their definitions of identity. What they all have in common is that they define identity not as something defined by birth, by determined by

For undocumented individuals fear is embedded at every level, they are forced to comply with the rules, yet are not allowed to complain. Nonetheless, in “Dreams Deported” Blanca Alcántara provides us with the story of Erika Andiola, and how she was able to stop her mother’s deportation, by refusing to stay shadows.

For countless generations, immigrants have flocked to America in pursuit of the famed American dream, the ostensible fantasy of belonging to such a land in which equal opportunity, success, and prosperity are attainable for the hard-working, determined inhabitants of this nation. Unarguably, America was built primarily upon the foundations of immigration. However, immigration is presently one of the most controversial topics in the United States, largely due to the accumulating numbers of unauthorized immigrants illegally crossing America’s southern border. Too often, the nation loses itself in the politics of the immigrant situation and fails to truly consider why exactly these masses are choosing to immigrate illegally rather than take part in the legal immigration process.

What does it mean to be human? Being human is when you live and learn from things, when you can make mistakes and instead of feline like you should give up, you learn from your silly, puny mistake. Being human has a lot more factors that contribute as well like being part of a culture, searching for beauty, and connecting through things that make you feel like you are part of a group or belong. Throughout this essay I will be discussing many attributions that go with being human as well as giving some supporting factors.

Throughout The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson construes the origins and the history of English and the language's countless quirks.

Despite growing up amidst a language deemed as “broken” and “fractured”, Amy Tan’s love for language allowed her to embrace the variations of English that surrounded her. In her short essay “Mother Tongue”, Tan discusses the internal conflict she had with the English learned from her mother to that of the English in her education. Sharing her experiences as an adolescent posing to be her mother for respect, Tan develops a frustration at the difficulty of not being taken seriously due to one’s inability to speak the way society expects. Disallowing others to prove their misconceptions of her, Tan exerted herself in excelling at English throughout school. She felt a need to rebel against the proverbial view that writing is not a strong

In the personal essay “My Mothers Tongue” (1990), Amy Tan, widely known author explains her insights on language and culture identity using details and memories from her own life experiences. Tan conceals that the language in which her mother used with her “was the language that helped shape the way [she] saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world” (1208) and in the process it made her who she is today as an author. Tan illuminates the euro centricity of the Master Narrative by retelling stories of her mother being treated poorly because of her “broken” or “limited” English. She recalls many past experiences where her mother suffered from bad service and treatment from restaurants, stockbrokers, and even hospitals. Using examples from her personal life Tan gets her point across about language and culture characteristics in order to show how Chinese culture is affected by the master narrative and also encourages others to include a variety of cultures in order to overcome bias opinions. Tan’s apparent audience can be ranged from the child of an immigrant to a doctor and offers an authentic and rich portrayal of Chinese history through her conflicting experience of her Chinese and American cultures.