Read and Respond to: Amy Tan's Mother Tongue

J.G
Ms. D
English 301
10/2/13
Mother Approved

Amy Tan is a passionate writer of books such as “The Joy Luck Club” and other published works. Now that we have read her text read her text “Mother Tongue”, we learn new things about her as a writer. In my first response to Amy Tan’s passage I described her as a self-motivated author as I read what motivated her to write.
She introduced readers to her mother, a woman who enjoys reading Forbes and listening to the Wall Street Journal talks. This gave us as readers a clue that Amy’s mother was used to reading more advanced pieces. Amy tan tells us about her mother’s English and how it sounded “broken” or as if something was “missing” every time she talked. While at the same time, her mother’s way of speaking English sounded natural and real to Amy, and I think this could be a reason she chose “Mother Tongue” as her title.
While Amy described herself as a rebel by nature, she pursued her passion to become a great write for herself, and for her mother, while disproving all negative assumptions about her. A good example of this when she started writing fiction. She mentions in her article that most sentences although grammatically correct, had an in-authentic sound to her and unnatural. In other words she was probably writing something “mother wouldn’t approve”.
I go back to when Amy Tan mentions that she enjoyed disproving assumptions made about her while she was starting out. She was told that her English was not good enough to be a writer and still pursued her goal and worked hard to become a great writer. She gives off a sense of pride and accomplishment when she writes that about how she knew she had succeeded as a writer when her mother finished reading her book and said to Amy, “so easy to read”. Mother Approved.
As a personal opinion, I think most people are not like Amy Tan. In the sense of us sometimes not being passionate enough to truly follow what we want and work towards it regardless of what other may have to say. There are many influences out there and must learn to only pay attention to those that will help us get closer to our goal and ignore the rest. As a good friend of mine once told me; It’s not that don’t care about certain people, it’s just that at this very moment where our goals are constantly in our minds, we need to focus and let go and only stick to what will help us accomplish our goals.