Rhetorical Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

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In Amy Tan article “Mother tongue”, Amy Tan was talking about her love and fascination of language in daily life. Amy Tan explores the various forms of English that people from around the world use as they immigrate to the U.S. and how they are classified by the way they speak. Her mother plays a big role in telling of how her perspective on language has been changed. The author’s analyze the purpose and evaluate the effectiveness in her writing using persuasive devices to influence her audience. Through the article Amy use the various different rhetorical strategies such as the pathos and logos.
Amy tan was raised by her Asian mother that she did not speak proper English “broken English”. The strategies that Amy Tan used in the story made her realized different English that she uses in her life. She was giving many speeches to a lot of people and along with her speeches she realized the different English that she never uses with her mother, when she was talking about her book The Joy Luck Club. She noticed her different English when she was walking with her mother and husband; she said “not waste money that way” her mom or her husband did not realized her different English.
The Amy tan story focused on her mother and how she looked down because of her limited English language and how people disrespected her mother or ignored her. In fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her mother seriously, they did not give her good service and they pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her. She uses Logos, Pathos, and Ethos she does this well by giving examples and having emotional appeal and makes herself relevant. She was able to use her personal example...

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...fferent culture. At their home, they are only talking their own language to make their family feel comfortable in their conversations. As they go alone they learn the English language. Sometimes the parents have to tell their children to be the spokesperson and pretend to be any family members. Most of the people or the families have their own way of speaking and understanding the English language, it does not mean that their parents are not intelligent.
Amy did a really good job at explaining her mother struggles as well as her and how she was treated badly because of her limited English “broken English”. Amy tan felt bad for her mother because she couldn’t express her ideas or feelings because her language skill was limited. Tan also showed that predispositions can be overcome, when she chose English as a major when it seemed difficult for her in that field.

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