Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis

Li Chen
Prof. Kantor
English 116
15th Oct 2014 Comparison of “Mother Tongue” and “How to Tame a wild Tongue” I have read through two articles and I have my own thought about them. The two articles author, Amy Tan (Mother Tongue) and Gloria Anzaldua (How to Tame…) both discussed the topic about the language and life. They have many common points such as they all born in a bilingual family, and it brought a great change in their lives. The difference is two articles have different focus. “Mother Tongue” Focus more on the change what the bilingual family culture has brought to her, in other words, how this change her life. Amy Tan uses a neutral tongue in the article simply just to how the change take place. “How to Tame a Wild
Tongue” focus more on the impact of his bilingual family culture on her, which most of them are troubles. Looks like Gloria Anzadua want to claim one thing, it’s unfair to judge people by his/her tongue, no matter it is traditional or not. One way “Mother Tongue ” express that the difference that bilingual culture has brought to her family distinguishing other traditional American family is her mother’s words.
As described on the text, “That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.” (Tan 419). That’s Amy’s comment for her mother’s English while others think her mother’s English is fragments and not understandable. The reason why she think her mother’s tongue is perfect, there are two, one is she loves her mother, she grew up in such environment and she got used to it. Also as author mentioned, “I am a writer. And by definition, I am someone who has always loved language.” We know here, Amy is expressing her love for her
culture. But in the “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Gloria is trying to communicate an opposite idea, that she felt bad about her culture, whose family speaking non-traditional language/tongue, also Chicana background.
She remember that “caught speaking Spanish at recess- that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler” “go back to your Mexico where you belong”(Anzaldua 34). She got punished a lot just like this during her period of growing up. I believe she was suffered in this miserable in a long time, but when she grew up she realized she should value her own tongue and respect to it. She blamed the culture, the culture, which scolds the minority tongue. She described this kind of behavior as “Linguistic Terrorism”. She finally can trust herself, “Chicano Spanish is not incorrect, it is a living language.” (Anzaldua 35). She thinks every object existing in the world has their own magnificence; we should show our respect to all. Two articles discussed about the language, discussed what their bilingual family affect on them. But their tongue/ attitude is different, Tan’s essay also mentioned about her bad English may bring some trouble to her life (just the B English grade), Tan express more love to her culture, and appreciation. Anzaldua’s essay is like contradiction, to the people who is judging by the
language. The different attitudes formed are partly because of there totally opposite childhood experience. Anzaldua’s childhood seemed more bumpy and rough; she sustained what she should not received in her early age. For instance, she began working in the fields and then on her family’s land after the death of her father when she was eleven. As we can see, she was too young to endure the pressure. In consequence, her attitude in “How to Tame a Wild tongue” is feeling more resistant. While Amy’s childhood was more like a childhood. She attended schools, got moderately well grades. That was why her attitude is more optimistic.