Summary Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

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In her essay "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan writes about the impact of her mother's limited English on her own writing and sense of self. She describes how envisioning her mother as a reader of her work encouraged her to write more authentically, because it forced her to consider the perspective of someone who was not a native English speaker. Tan writes that she began to see the value in using "simple, direct" language that would be accessible to her mother, rather than trying to impress readers and critics with flowery or complex prose. Tan appreciates the beauty of her mother's broken English and tries to preserve the unique qualities of her mom's speech like “her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her

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