Mother Tongue by Amy Tan Rhetorical Analysis 

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan explores how language shapes identity through stories, vivid descriptions, feelings, and an introspective tone. Instead of limiting the conversation to language in general, she shares firsthand accounts of her mother’s difficulties speaking English. These narratives give the problem a genuine, approachable feel. Tan effectively illustrates the contrast between her mother’s plain English which is considered unprofessional and broken versus the more formal English spoken at work, and in the classroom. She illustrates how language may create obstacles and can perpetuate bias against people but how that should not define a person or hold them back.

Tan creates sympathy from readers for her mother, and other people in comparable circumstances. Appealing especially to immigrant children such as herself. She allows us to see things from her mother’s point of view by sharing her frustrations, and misunderstandings. Through these stories that most people from immigrant households can mirror, she pushes the reader to reconsider how we perceive people’s values based on language and expresses the power and beauty in other perspectives that immigrants and foreign people bring.

Tan’s tone uses, and appeals to ethos, and pathos as we see her facing her own bias; she feeds us these experiences while she self-reflects about her own biases; we do so alongside her. Throughout the story, we are prompted to consider our own experiences and run-ins with language. She challenges us to think about how language affects our identities and how we perceive the world. Culture also plays a hidden role. Every culture views the world from a completely different perspective and their language comes about to express that perspective by attempting to change that language to fit into English we find people creating these sentences with beautiful nuance that people might find ridiculous. It’s interesting to give a brief example. A song in Spanish sounds horrible in English but in Spanish, these words hold so much passion. She encourages us to accept variety in language, keeping an open mind by sharing her personal experiences and her experience of coming to terms with her mother’s tongue. English is renowned around the world and placed atop a pedestal but English can’t scratch the surface of the passion, and meaning some words in other languages hold, and for people who live, and are affected by the bubble that feeds the idea that proper English is number one and English is the best, I believe this story is for you to show you to not judge but listen and if you are open to changing your perspective you can be embraced with a beauty that’s hard to find.