“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan Essay

In Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, Tan explores the connection between sensations language and their identity, she examines not only how language affects the development of ones identity, but also the role it has in the track one is perceived by society. Tan shares a few anecdotes illustrating the role language played in shaping her own personal identity. I think my mothers face almost had an affect on limiting my possibilities in life as well. Tan goes on to explore the idea that the broken English she heard talk by her mother at home ultimately led to her doing poorly in English, at least when compared to her science and math scores. This led her teachers to steer her external from writing and more towards math and science. In Tans case her rebellious nature led her to become an English major her first course of college. Many other Asian-American students are not as headstrong as Tan and therefore are lots pushed into careers in math and science, this undoubtedly affects ones ident ity as careers are a major component of an individuals life.Another way language can be seen poignant Tans identity in mother tongue is in the way tan uses, interprets, and thinks about words. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of thoughtfulness and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world. Here Tan was refering to the language of her mother, which obviously played a immense role in how Tan herself interpreted and used words. The final connection between language and identity that can be ascertained from this piece is how often the assumptions about ones identity made based upon the way they speak are often false.This was very much the case for Tans mother, towards the beginning of the piece Tan makes it clear to the audience that while her mothers English may be limited this in no way reflects how much English she comprehends. Tan also discusses how, when she was growing up, her mothers limit ed English limited Tans scholarship of her, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. was the logic behind Tans view of her mother when she was growing up. This was the view most people seemed to have of Tans mother, which is an incorrect perception of her mothers actual intelligence and comprhension of the English language.