Amy Tan Mother Tongue Thesis

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan aims to reveal the cultural bias on types of language by appealing to her reader throughout the argument. Throughout the essay, she states that all forms of English are valid, proves that people with so-called broken English are treated poorly, and uses both personal experience as well as broad examples to prove her point, all the while utilizing both ethos and logos to appeal to her audience.
Tan begins the essay by stating her belief that all types of English, labelled broken or not, should hold validity in American culture. She states this early in the first portion of the argument: “all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother.” Tan’s word choice is the first feature that shows what she

is trying to say.

With the phrase “all the forms of English,” she implies that there is, in fact more than one English, not only the one spoken in schools. She also appeals, through pathos, to any reader who may have had a similar upbringing, using one language with their family and another at school. This emotional allure is effective, as it bonds Tan with the reader and therefore creates a sort of trust between the two. She further proves her point while informing her reader that her “mother's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands. (Her mother) reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with ease.” The activities in which Tan’s mother engages are generally known to be fairly difficult to comprehend, and Tan herself admits to having a hard time understanding them, despite

her perfect English. Due to this statement, she effectively shows her reader that her mother is capable through the use of ethos, building trust with the reader since as gives a real life example rather than simply stating that her mom’s expressive commands don’t do her intelligence justice. In the first portion of her essay, Tan primarily builds trust between herself and the reader, which enables her to execute the argument.
Tan goes on to prove that people with limited English are treated poorly through her utilization of logos. She says, on the topic of her mother’s lost CAT scan, “the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing”... “When the doctor finally called (her), who spoke in perfect English, (they) had assurances the CAT scan would be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any suffering my mother had gone through.” Tan’s citation of this specific example shows the direct clash between the treatment of people with limited English versus proper English, and therefore her argument immediately grows stronger, as the pertinence of the instance is highlighted. In addition, the suffering of her mother brings the audience to feel compassion towards those suffering from the issue. She later broadens her focus from personal happenings to a plethora of people who likely face the same challenge. After explaining her own issues with English in school, Tan infers that “there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as "broken" or "limited” ... perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.” This demonstrates that it is not only a personal issue, but rather a topic that affects a broader group of people, specifically Asian Americans, stressing the exigence of the issue.
In the essay, Tan’s motive is to illustrate the poor treatment of Asian Americans primarily through the appeals of pathos and logos.