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Analysis Of My Mother's Tongue

1067 Words5 Pages

“My Mother’s Tongue” written by Zavi Kang Engles is a personal essay about the importance of culture. The author brings the reader through stories of her life, all relating to who she is as a Korean American woman and her struggles to connect the life she had in Korea to the new one she found in America. One thing that would stay consistent throughout is her connection to the Korean language, taking us with her as it slips away when she grows older only to try to find it again in adulthood. Therefore, analyzing the essay through the lens of her connection to the Korean language makes it apparent that a person's culture is an important part of accepting and understanding their identity. In today's world, there is a lack of understanding of …show more content…

This is specifically a huge phenomenon in North America. Since the USA is made up of so many different cultures and peoples it could be assumed that it would be accepting and open to differences, but that is not the case. Many immigrants feel the need to compromise the cultures of their homeland to fit in with American society. Western society already has its hands in these countries but they don't disrupt their country's historical cultures until its citizens leave for the States. This effect is no different for the author, Zavi Kang Engles, who traveled to and from Korea every summer as her mother's family all lived there, while she then lived the rest of her time in America. Her father was American and when her parents divorced as she was young and her mother moved away, she lost touch with her Korean culture. Throughout the essay, the author uses flashbacks to help the reader engage with her culture in the same way she does now, through memories of a time long gone. She uses the literary device of imagery within the flashbacks, helping to put the reader in her shoes. “Humid days stretch long in my memory, listening to cicadas scream, growing fat on the many culinary expressions of love prepared for me by my aunts and my grandmother.” The description of the cicadas returns

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