Maria Avalos
Tanvi Patel
Writing 10 -30D
February 6, 2013
Amy Tan’s successful strategies
“Mother Tongue”, an essay by Amy Tan an American writer born to immigrant parents
from china, writes this essay after exploring the different forms of English she utilizes in her life.
Her mother plays a crucial role in her becoming aware of the power language gives an individual
and differences in the language she uses in different aspects of her life. The language that Amy
Tan talks about is English and how her form of English’s differs from that of her mother. The
event that was described in the beginning paragraphs of her essay with her mother helped her
acknowledge the importance and power of language and how people should be more aware of
the different types on “Englishes” that are in society today, not only should they be aware bur
accepting of it. Amy Tan uses a mixture of techniques to convey here point to the audience
which is those who still don’t understand the roles of the “different Englishes” other have. These
strategies are emotional appeal which she achieves by sharing personal stories and she shows
evidence that supports here realization. Amy Tan also uses a conversation technique to makes
herself more relatable. These techniques that are key components to understanding the claim that
Amy Tan is making, these techniques can be categorized in rhetorical strategies such as pathos,
logos and ethos, in using these rhetorical strategies well; Amy Tan makes her essay “Mother
Tongue” a successful essay capable of persuasion.
The essay has several personal stories of her and her mom integrated with in it to show
evidence to her claim. With real life examples, Tan is able to get her point across. This rhetorical
strategy is Logos. Amy Tan uses this rhetorical strategy to help the reader understand that the
certain language that is used in everyday situations such as talking to the doctor or a broker is
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important and powerful. It determines the power an individual has, because others will measure
an individual’s intelligence by how they speak. To show this she uses logos to describe the
difference between her mother’s English and others. She shows that the power of her mother’s
English was not as great as those who spoke it so fluently, therefore was treated differently. Amy
Tan described her mother’s English as “broken” but felt as if broken wasn’t a right way of
describing her mother’s English, we see this in her next line where she “winces” every time she
calls her mom’s English broken (Tan 764 ). When Tan completely quotes her mother talking
about herself when she was younger, she does this to give us a sense of the English her mother
uses. Her mother’s English is different than the one that she personally uses when she gives a
lengthy speech or talking to her friends. Amy Tan is describing a new English one that others
may call broken, but to her it’s her mother’s language that she understands to be vivid and full of
observations. She doesn’t think broken and limited describe her mother’s English, she is trying to
convey that it’s not a wrong way of English’s it’s her mother’s way which others can’t
understand as being whole because they are not familiar with.
Tan does not only use logos to show how her mother English is different but also how it
still is powerful and has meaning. . She states that her “mother’s expressive commands of
English belies how much she actually understands” (Tan 764). Amy Tan explains how her
mother is able to reads and understand Maclaine’s books something that she is not capable of
doing yet she can speak conventional English that everyone so admires. Tan tries to show how
society renders peoples powerless due to how they speak a language without even giving them a
chance. She states that the test they give in school could never capture her mother’s ability, due
to their one sided view of what language was. She began to write her books to capture her
mother’s “intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her
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thoughts” as she described it, she wrote her books for a certain audience which would be her
mother ( Tan 768). She used all the Englishes she grew up with which many others would call
water down, limited or broken. Knowing that the author’s success is on writing books that
include limited English really gets the reader to think about the power of these different
Englishes. These Englishes helped her write a successful New York best seller book known as
the Joy Luck Club. She talks about using these Englishes in her book to state that even though
she used limited and broken English as inspiration she was able to come up with a great book
that has been translated in many different languages. With her including that her mother’s
limited English inspired her to write books and the knowledge of the reader that she has a new
York best seller gives perfect evidence how these different Englishes do not measure the
capability of a person and thus society should be more accepting to them.
Amy Tan does not only include personal stories to give us sense of the different
Englishes but also for the reader to understand how language is critical to how society perceives
and treats that person. She uses emotional appeal to persuade people to try understanding the
different Englishes and how they affect people. This technique is better known as pathos. There
is an instance where Amy gives an example of the way her mother was treated because of the
way she spoke English, it was when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and the hospital told
her that they had lost her CAT scan results. Amy Tan’s mother knew that she could not do more
about it, because she knew that they saw her English as being limited she knew this by her past
experience with the stockbroker.. Tan then goes on describing how in her perfect English she is
explained to the doctors that her mother had a real concern and was bothered that her CAT scan
results were lost. After speaking with the doctor Amy Tan states that the attitude of the doctor
had changed he was apologetic and willing to make compromises. This example shows how her
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mother’s limited English limited the response of others towards her, also limited her possibilities.
Her mother was ignored in a time where she needed reassurance, which draws out compassion in
the reader, also opens up a gap of understanding for the reader to understand others that do not
speak the same English as they do. Getting the readers emotions involved when trying to
persuade them to believe a certain point is important because when these emotions are evoked
strongly people become more passionate or willing to understand where the other person is
coming from.
Tan also uses the Rhetorical strategy ethos; she does this by using a conversation feel to
make the reader feel as if she was talking to them personally. A way that she does this is by
speaking in first person. When she refers to herself as I in the essay she gives a vivid picture of
who the story is about. She also achieves the conversation feel by addressing the reader
personally in certain occasions. An example of when she does this is, in her essay is when she
says “So you'll have some idea of what this family talk I heard sounds like (Tan 763).” Amy Tan
directly address the reader to capture his attention and engage him in what she is trying to
convey. She does this from the beginning of her essay, specifically the second line where she
addresses the reader personally. This is important for Amy Tan because by doing this she has the
reader’s attention and makes it to where the reader is interested; the reader isn’t just reading an
article about being more accepting to those that speak different English, but having a
conversation about it. This why the conversational feel benefits Tan because she is able to have
more influence and persuade the readers into considering what she has to say.
In “Mother Tongue” Amy Tan uses different rhetorical strategies to persuade the reader
to believing that there are different Englishes and how people should be aware of them and their
power. She uses Logos, Pathos, and Ethos to do so; she does this very well by giving evidence,
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having emotional appeal and makes herself relatable. She was able to use her personal examples
to draw out emotion with in the reader which is an important strategy when trying to persuade a
certain stance on someone else. She was able to give evidence to her claim by stating specific
instances where her mother was given limited response and opportunities do to the lack of people
understanding the “different Englishes.” This was a smart move by Amy Tan because when
persuading a reader or an audience it is always in their favor if they have concrete examples as
evidence to back of the claim. Amy Tan also makes herself relatable and captures the reader’s
attention by addressing them personally and speaking in first person. With these tools she was
able to get her point across and capture the attention of the reader to consider her point, which in
turn make her essay a successful one.