Mother Tongue by Amy Tan - Book Report/Review Example

“Mother Tongue” The of the story Mother Tongue, Amy Tan, critically uses this idealistic story to vividly explainhow the power of language has affected many people in the overall society. Tan also clearly tries to point out how cultural discrimination has affected the services or attention that people are given. However, Tan does not specifically point out racism, neither does she show any anger when she tries to show how language can affect the services offered to someone. More importantly, Tan brings the reader into attention on how being an immigrant in the United States can affect someone’s decisions or how it could affect how well they can handle daily or routine circumstances. More importantly, immigration had a significant impact on cultural identity for the Chinese family struggling to make a living in an American culture. Therefore, since this engaging story was systematically written by an immigrant, Tan, who uses her experiences and that of her mother to explain real life situations, makes this story a magnificent piece of writing. Globalization has merged the world into one small global village eliciting the need for accommodating cultural diversity. The case of Tan moving from a Chinese cultural background to an American culture provides a good example of cultural integration. Cultural background determines the language we speak, how we speak it as well as expectations from others. More importantly, cultural beliefs are best reflected through language as people communicate. For instance, whereas Tan may shake hands and bow down as a show of respect, an American might not understand the meaning. Moving into a new cultural territory, like Tan’s family did when they moved to America, presents a myriad of challenges not only cultural difference but in communication as well. In this story, Tan places an emphasis on the theme of alienation and discrimination, through focusing on the various prejudices that she and her mother went through as a result of language imperfection. For instance, Tan shows how her mother has for long been looked down due to the fact that she spoke “limited” or “simple” English, most of which quite ironically could be understood by most people (Tan 59). Moreover, Tan also shows how her mother is a victim of prejudice by explaining how doctors had presumably said that her CAT scan results could not be found. But later, when Tan arrives and talks in perfect English, the doctors admit that the scan results would be found and offers apologies for any sufferings that her mother had gone through. Therefore through using this contrast, the author has managed to bring out how many people can be mistreated due to the fact that they cannot purely communicate in a certain language. Equally important, at the beginning of the story, Tan describes herself as not being an English or Literature teacher, but rather a lover of languages and for this reason, she would write the story in the various “Englishes” that she had learnt. Through this, the author succeeds to point out and illustrate how people can be able to communicate or express their ideas and issues without necessarily having to master the language purely. In fact, this comes to pass during the course of the story when she uses her life experiences and that of her mother to illustrate the numerous ways that individuals, depending on who they are with, can express themselves and understand each other effectively. To illustrate, Tan succeeds to show how people could change their languages depending on the situation or the people around them. For instance, while addressing the audience, Tan uses grammatically correct sentences and vocabularies, unlike when she is speaking to her mother where she uses simple English. In addition, Tan has a motive to reach a group of people that are usually despiteful and ignorant of the obvious that people who struggle with foreign languages or speak “limited” English are aware that they are taken advantage of. For example, Tan, through her mother’s experiences, tries to illustrate how the people who speak “broken” or “limited” English struggle more with cultural and social interactions. This point of focus is brought out clearly when the stockholder refuses to hand over the check even after it is two weeks late. It takes the aid and the personification of Tan to be able to tell the stockholder to send the check. However, it is worth noting that Tam’s mother still did not manage to get the check in time. Comparatively, Tam has managed to use her relationship with her mother to try and show the immigrants how they should relate and take care of their family members when they are experiencing language barrier and discrimination. Notably important, Tam identifies that she uses the “language of intimacy” when she speaks with her family to show that she appreciates other people’s level of language articulation and fluency. Similarly, Tam shows other immigrants how they should treat their parents when she pretends to be her mother and speaks proper English with both the doctors and stockholder. To achieve this, Tam shows how the “limited” English can be understood and refined to “pure English.” For example, her mother told her told her to ask the stockholder “why he don’t send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money,” of which Tan refined the statement and said to the stockholder, “Yes, I am getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived” (Tan 60). Through this the author not only shows how immigrants can help each other to overcome the aspect of language barrier but she also brings out the fact that the broken English can be clearly comprehended. Contrary to my expectation, Tan clearly states that she believed that her mother’s “limited” English limited her perception, and that her English reflected what she had to say (Tan 59). In addition, Tan points out that she was ashamed of her mother’s English and she blames it for her average performance in school. I however feel that Tam’s resultant “pure English” has hugely been achieved due to her mother’s inability to fluently express herself in English. For instance, by having to cover for her mum’s inadequate level of English, Tam was forced to consistently carry out extensive practice on the “new language” while at school. To illustrate, since Tan clearly understood that her mother had language issues, Tan strived to eliminate this barrier through engaging herself in excessive grammar and vocabulary practices. Therefore, in my opinion, it is the inadequacy of her mother’s English that Enabled Tan to work hard and develop her language. Hence, it is quite inappropriate when she points out that her mother’s “limited” English affected her school performance. It is however worth noting that Tan acknowledges that her mother’s language was clear, vivid, direct, and full of observation and imagery. Moreover, in this story, Tam aims at informing the immigrants all over the world that language, just like other disciplines can be learnt and perfected. Even though she is born of Chinese parents, Tam is able to clearly communicate in English with her husband and other people. In fact she is so confident in her articulation and fluency to the extent that she has given more than a dozen talks on the subject of writing. Relatively, she switches her language easily depending on the people that she is associating with. For instance, the “broken” English that her mother uses enables her to establish a close connection with her, and through that connection, her mother’s language is arguably seen to be improving. In fact at the very end of the story, Tam gives her mother her book to read and quite surprisingly, after she has read, the mother comments that it was “so easy to read” (Tam 62). This therefore implies that language can be easily understood and adopted by immigrants and that it only takes consistent practice to master the art of language. In the story Mother Tongue, Tam really does an excellent effort and work at trying to illustrate how many immigrants suffer due to their lack of inadequate ability to communicate well in foreign languages. She uses her personal experiences as well as her mother’s to show her first hand struggles and experiences and how people can overcome them. It is through her connection with her mother that made her even more determined to perfect her English and therefore even though immigrants can face routine language barrier and discrimination, they should not give up, rather they should use the criticism as motivation to learn the language. Hopefully, this novel will act as an encouragement to all other immigrants all over the world to learn foreign languages. Equally, I hope it will also help the “hosts” not to discriminate the immigrants but rather work with them in order to accelerate their learning process. Works Cited Tan, Amy. “The Mother Tongue.” In B. Alvarado and B. Cully (Eds.), Writing as Revision (pp. 58-62). Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2011. Print. Read More