Born from an Immigrant Parent: Rhetorical Analysis In Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”
Mother. English language. Discrimination. What happens when these words are incorporated together? An Asian-American writer, Amy Tan, produced a narrative titled, “Mother Tongue” in 1990 in The Threepenny Review, and she argues how people from different races are affected by their quality of language when speaking in society. Tan begins building her credibility with the use of anecdotes, citing significant situations from her life when it comes to her mother, and successfully utilizing emotional appeals.
Tan starts off introducing herself by claiming that she is not a scholar of English or literature. She is preparing her reader for her narrative with her thoughts. She wanted the audience to not expect anything from her. Tan introduces a character, her mother, who will serve as an important role throughout the story. Tan began to realize the standard of English being used because one, for the first time, she was giving a talk to a group of people and her mother was there to hear her perfect English since her mother, and two, her mother only spoke broken English and Tan only spoke broken English at home with her mother. Tan identifies problems that involve the quality of English from her mother and how it would affect her life such as her mother would have Tan make a phone call to her stock broker, her family environment affected her results in school, and the CAT scan situation her mother was in, in the hospital.
In the beginning of her story, Tan uses strong appeals to logos, with reasons and logic and examples. For instance, “That is, be- cause she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her”(Paragraph 8) and “My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she.In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her. One time it was a call to her stockbroker in New York”(Paragraph 9). Tan knew that her mother knew that her English was imperfect and needed Tan to help her manage her affairs. Tan had to take on the role of her Mother and was embarrassed by the whole situation. Tan’s intended audience are non-English speaking people who have broken English like her mother. Additionally, Tan shows how relatable the situation is for people like her.
Throughout her story, Tan effectively makes appeals to pathos in the middle section. Tan points out her frustration about her mother’s broken english being discriminated against: ““My mother had gone to the hospital for an appointment, to find out about a benign brain tumor a CAT scan had revealed a month ago. She said she had spoken very good English, her best English, no mistakes. Still, she said, the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing. She said they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis, since her husband and son had both died of brain tumors. She said they would not give her any more information until the next time and she would have to make an- other appointment for that. So she said she would not leave until the doctor called her daughter. She wouldn’t budge. And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect English-lo and behold-we had assurances the CAT scan would be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any suffering my mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake”(Paragraph 13). This goes to show that since her Mother was speaking broken English, the hospital staff ignored her words and showed no sympathy to her concerns. And when Tan spoke in perfect English, the hospital staff helped and apologized for their action. Nonetheless, Tan was ashamed and frustrated how something like this has happened to her mother. People with broken English are treated powerless and discriminated against.
Toward the end of her story, Tan uses strong sources that strengthen her credibility and trustworthiness and appeal to ethos. These sources include, “But I have noticed in surveys … that Asian students… always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English. And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “broken” or “limited.” And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me”(Paragraph 17) and “I was told by my former boss that writing was my worst skill”(Paragraph 18). These sources amplify Tan’s credibility and trustworthiness by showing that social norms should not influence one’s identity negatively. Tan believes that people can not be judged accurately because everyone is different. Additionally, Tan thinks that people’s background is being used to influence different results in society. In general, Tan wants to raise awareness that people who don’t speak perfect English should not be ignored by any means.
To conclude, Tan balanced her arguments by successfully persuading her readers the bad influence of limitation of the different standard of English language received from society. Readers can feel how Tan and her mother felt because of the limitation in her mother’s English. The reader picks up on this problem and realizes the existence of broken English and the effects it received from society. Tan seriously took this matter in a different perspective when her mother’s English language was being discriminated against.
