A Rhetorical Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan

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"Mother Tongue" was written by Amy Tan, who is famous for her writings of her experiences as a Chinese immigrant growing up in American culture. Her primary purpose is to inform the reader about the prejudices her mother faced because her mother could not speak perfect English. In her essay, Tan shares stories of her mother's broken English and how people took advantage of her mother. Tan's intended audience are those who are unaware of people like her mother whose limited English is taken advantage of in everyday life. The experiences Tan shares with the readers is an emotion inducing strategy which Tan uses throughout her writing and it is proved to be very effective. One of Tan's most effective methods of conveying her purpose is her strong diction. "And sure enough, the following week..... was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English." (398) She uses "impeccable" and "broken" in the same sentence which is an antithesis. By emphasizing two antonyms impeccable and broken, Tan makes the point her mother's English is broken but yet filled with underlying meanings. The word choices Tan uses was an effective method to emphasize the idea of contrast by doing so Tan was able to draw the reader's attention, but also at the same time to make her argument more credible. As a result, she was able to portray to …show more content…

By applying anecdotes she was able to allow the audience in her shoes. By doing so ,Tan was able to connect with the audience and explain her stories of her struggles due to her mother's English. "I think my mother's English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life was well." (399) By engaging the reader in her personal experiences, she was able to allow the reader to experience how she felt and by doing so she was able to make people who spoke broken English more

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