An Analysis Of Amy Tan's 'Mother Tongue'

Amy Tan “Mother Tongue”: exploring how an author’s life experiences may have inspired or affected his or her written work
Like her previous novels, Amy Tan 's short story titled, "Mother Tongue," reflects her life as an individual. As a matter of fact, it is believed that the novel that looks at the substance of language as a communication tool was inspired by Amy Tan’s her own background, particularly, Chinese language that her mum grew up speaking, and later learnt to use English as a second language. She perceives her mother’s English as having been broken. In the novel, she notes her mother spoke English in a manner that contrasted “American English." This is however not reflected in her mother’s spoken English. Notably, her mother reads …show more content…
If raised in Italy, it is Italian; in France, it is French. This is not to say that people of other countries do not learn English as well, but generally there is a language specific to the place where they were born: this is their mother tongue. However, in Amy Tan 's story, I believe she is making a statement about her mother 's form of English, her mother 's tongue. While it may be difficult for some people to understand it, it is part of who she is, and it does not reflect negatively on her mother because it is "different." She is just as special a person, despite what language she uses or how she uses it. …show more content…
Using her mother as a case study, she highlights the plight of persons with language limitations while emphasizing the importance of language in communication. She highlights how people with limited language abilities have their opportunities in life limited and segregated against. The examples cited such as incidences when her mother was treated different from language proficient persons in hospital and in restaurants highlights just how bad the society can use people’s language skills noting that the good services she received in life could be partly attributed to her good language command. She also portrays the stereotypes associated with various cultures citing the Asian case where they are always associated with success in mathematics. She notes that her Asian decent was an obstacle to her success in English. Ultimately, using her family’s case, Amy ties language to culture. The entire novel can therefore be said to be influenced Amy’s mother’s life and bi-extension, Amy’s own life with regard to challenges and opportunities experiences as a results of their language