Amother Tongue Amy Tan Analysis

Amy Tan's essay ¨Mother Tongue¨ is about language and the barriers it can create when people cannot speak with perfect accuracy or the way that is known as the norm. She uses examples of how language impacted her mother so that she could reach out to others who have had similar experiences and show them that they are not alone, that this happens to other people more often than they might think. Additionally, she uses these examples to show people who aren't affected by a language barrier what this discrimination can look like and how it impacts a person and the people close to them. She explains how the discrimination of her mother impacted herself because she wanted to convey a message that discrimination does not always only impact one person, …show more content…
One example is her use of irony when talking about her college path. She states, ¨And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.-I became an English major my first year in college, after being enrolled as premed.¨. in conjunction with, ¨I started writing nonfiction as a freelancer the week after I was told by my former boss that writing was my worst skill and I should hone my talents toward account management.¨ Both of these experiences show us that Amy Tan does not like when she is held to false stereotypes and when she is told she can´t. Both of these uses of irony add a little bit of a comical edge to the paragraphs they are in. She's been talking about how people tell her what's best for her and that she should just stick to the easy stuff and she goes and does the exact opposite. It's a funny circumstance but it's also inspiring to see someone who has been held to these false assumptions their whole life stick it to the man. She's basically going ´Oh, you're telling me that I can´t do this? Well then I guess you're just gonna watch me do it anyway and be really good at it´ and I really love