Amy Tan Mother Tongue Thesis

In the story “Mother Tongue” Amy Tan tells the story of her mother and how her use of English within the family affected her early in life. She describes how that limited use of English had the potential to affect Tan’s choice of careers and her influence on literature. She begins by describing how she assumed the role of translator for her Asian born mother, who spoke with “broken English.” She describes situations where she assumed the role of translator for her mother. She was thrown into adult situations where she often told people on the other end of the phone that she was, in fact, her mother. She believes that growing up with an immigrant family affected her scores on the SAT and I.Q tests because standardized tests are geared towards those who grew up in households who were accustomed to a more proper use of the English language. As she matured, Tan observed that more Asian Americans specialized in the fields of engineering and science. She also noticed that there were not many Asian Americans writing literature. Tan writes that this is because of the type of English many Asian Americans are speaking within their own families which the mainstream
“Mother Tongue” is a narrative of Tan’s life, it is written in the genre of a literacy narrative. Within her story, Tan wrote about how she chose the audience for her writing. She carefully selected those like her mother for her audience, she even stated that she had her mother read early drafts of her writing to “test” how it would be received. She knew that if her mother understood what she was reading then others within her target audience would too. I then made the connection to the literacy narrative we are writing in class. I did this because I will be sharing this with the class and I want to make sure that I am writing and speaking in tones and vocabulary that those within a college classroom could relate