Rhetorical Arrangement of "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan
Amy Tan, in her narrative novel - "Mother Tongue", recounts her thoughts of her mother 's "broken English". Tan 's purpose is to explicitly express the influences on her life exerted by "Mother Tongue", in order to attract readers with similar feelings and experience. She employs delicate rhetorical arrangements such as classification order, narrative anecdotes, and comparison. These delicate rhetorical arrangements are effectively beneficial to Tan 's purpose of writing this short novel. This paper will analyze how Tan 's purpose is achieved by her delicate rhetorical arrangements. In the first place, Tan adopts classification order to present progressive thinking of her mother 's English …show more content…
Firstly, Tan chooses three anecdotes to express her first thinking of "Mother Tongue": speaking standard English in a talk to a large group; saying the same kind of English as her mother; and videotaping her mother 's talking. Tan finds that she has been accustomed to her mother 's "broken English". This language "relates to family talk". Then, she depicts several anecdotes when she was teenager for further thinking her mother 's English. For example, she pretended to be her mother in order to complain to stockbroker because her mother 's limited English was not respected. Another illustration was that she could not do well in English test due to the effects of "Mother Tongue" on "limiting" her "possibilities". Tan realizes that her mother 's English affected her growth and "possibilities in life". Lastly, Tan thought about all about her mother 's English by recalling anecdotes of "few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing", the early writing experience when envisioning her mother as a reader, and integrated competence of all the English she grew up with. All in all, these anecdotes provide credibility of the influences of her mother 's English on Tan 's growth, writing, thinking, and perception, evoking the greatest emotional connection with audience. In addition, they can be easily memorized because of fascinating
Amy Tan, in her narrative novel - "Mother Tongue", recounts her thoughts of her mother 's "broken English". Tan 's purpose is to explicitly express the influences on her life exerted by "Mother Tongue", in order to attract readers with similar feelings and experience. She employs delicate rhetorical arrangements such as classification order, narrative anecdotes, and comparison. These delicate rhetorical arrangements are effectively beneficial to Tan 's purpose of writing this short novel. This paper will analyze how Tan 's purpose is achieved by her delicate rhetorical arrangements. In the first place, Tan adopts classification order to present progressive thinking of her mother 's English …show more content…
Firstly, Tan chooses three anecdotes to express her first thinking of "Mother Tongue": speaking standard English in a talk to a large group; saying the same kind of English as her mother; and videotaping her mother 's talking. Tan finds that she has been accustomed to her mother 's "broken English". This language "relates to family talk". Then, she depicts several anecdotes when she was teenager for further thinking her mother 's English. For example, she pretended to be her mother in order to complain to stockbroker because her mother 's limited English was not respected. Another illustration was that she could not do well in English test due to the effects of "Mother Tongue" on "limiting" her "possibilities". Tan realizes that her mother 's English affected her growth and "possibilities in life". Lastly, Tan thought about all about her mother 's English by recalling anecdotes of "few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing", the early writing experience when envisioning her mother as a reader, and integrated competence of all the English she grew up with. All in all, these anecdotes provide credibility of the influences of her mother 's English on Tan 's growth, writing, thinking, and perception, evoking the greatest emotional connection with audience. In addition, they can be easily memorized because of fascinating