Amy Tan Mother Tongue Thesis

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Recommended: Amy tan's mother tongue essay

Hikmat Towobade

English 12

Professor V. Jean

16 January 2016

Assignment: Essay #1 based on “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

Draft: First

Do you know language defines our identity? Language defines the type of person we are and it has an effect on the choice we have made as well as our way of living. According to Amin Malouf, “What makes me myself rather than anyone else is the very fact that I am between two countries, three languages, and several cultures. It is precisely this that defines my identity. Would I more authentically if I cut one part of myself.” this quote explains a lot about Tan and me. The power of language in Amy Tan’s life has both similarities and differences to my life experience.

“Mother Tongue” is an essay that show the power of language and how Amy Tan uses the many forms of English and the different ways in which the language she knew impacted her life. I feel connected to Tan’s essay because I also come from a multilingual home. I have smart emigrant parents who are educated, but even though they are educated they still need my help with communicating with people occasionally. I believe the most important idea in Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is the limitation that an imperfect English can cause in a society and the richness that such English can bring to …show more content…

In the beginning of the essay, she discusses the power of language. Tan write, "the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth"(1). Tan gives a lot of examples of how her mother was treated: "the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her"(3). Do you know why her mother was treated like that? Because spoke the simple English she knew described has "broken" or "fractured" English. Tan's mother express her English the way she actually

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