Literary Analysis Of Amother Tongue By Amy Tan

Amy Tan's essay ¨Mother Tongue¨ is about language and the barriers it can create when people cannot speak with perfect accuracy or the way that is known as the norm. She uses examples of how language impacted her mother so that she could reach out to others who have had similar experiences and show them that they are not alone, that this happens to other people more often than they might think. Additionally, she uses these examples to show people who aren't affected by a language barrier what this discrimination can look like and how it impacts a person and the people close to them. She explains how the discrimination of her mother impacted herself because she wanted to convey a message that discrimination does not always only impact one person, it can impact everyone around them as well and change how their lives are run.

Throughout the text, Tan explains the different types of English she uses and why she uses them. She focuses mainly on the English she uses when with her mother, the ¨broken English¨ or her ¨Mother´s tongue¨. She explains that she can go from speaking perfect English to saying a sentence such as ¨Not waste money that way¨ and not even realize she is doing it because both

She is constantly explaining a fault in something and after she explains it you feel irritated. She makes you question why things like discrimination against language is a thing that happens because it's so stupid. When she talks about tests in English you also feel a little irritated that some questions are basically open-ended, but there is only a certain type of right answer. When she talks about the struggle of learning English as a second language you start to feel sympathy towards people who do because we know how challenging learning English is when learning it as a first language, but knowing how hard it would be to learn as a second language is something that we can't do and she shines a light on