Cheyanne Deopersaud 

October 14, 2020

English 

Profs. Mosher 

In Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue” she speaks about the English that she grew up with, and how this affected her own english and how she perceived the world.  Amy visits past experiences where she shows her mother speaking “broken english” and explains how others judged her mother’s intelligence simply on the way she spoke English. Throughout the narrative Tan uses Ethos, Pathos, and Logos brilliantly.  She also uses juxtaposition, imagery, and repetition to tie the narrative together and get her point across.

Ethos by definition is credibility, and ethical appeal or in other words how trustworthy the author is / makes the reader feel.  Amy Tan starts off “Mother Tongue” by realizing that she speaks differently when she is alone with her mother or husband rather than when she is speaking to strangers. She explains that she speaks many different versions of English, by saying this she means that she speaks a certain way when she speaks to professionals and she speaks a different way when she is talking to her mother – a way that is often classified as “broken.” 

Amy often shows that she thinks that she is the bridge between the two worlds of language that she knows – The one where her mother speaks a little bit differently than most Americans do but she can get her point across to her daughter who is clearly an English major.  Amy Tan uses Ethos to present the idea that social expectations should not influence how people see or think about things, her mother was judged and disrespected because of the way she spoke. 

Tan uses Ethos and we trust her because she is an Asian woman, who lived through all of these experiences that she has written about and we have almost lived through with her. She does this by using a conversation to make the reader feel as if she was talking to them personally. She often uses I in the narrative and gives a vivid picture of who the narrative is about.  On other occasions in the text she makes the text feel personal for example when she says “ “So you’ll have some idea of what this family talk I heard sounds like (Tan 763).” This gives the reader a feeling that Amy Tan is trustworthy because of the way she builds on certain factors in the narrative. 

Logos is the persuasion of reasoning that usually have to do with facts and data.  Amy Tan uses the rhetorical strategy logos to help the reader understand the certain languages that are used in everyday situations like speaking to a stockbroker is important and powerful.  Speaking is powerful – it’s the way that people get their point across, how they communicate, and even sometimes the way a person speaks is a measurement of how “intelligent”  they are.

To show this Amy Tan uses Logos to describe the difference between her mother’s English and the English of others.  She slabortates on the fact that her mother’s English was different and seen as incorrect or watered down, not as great as others who spoke it fluently and therefore she was treated differently. 

She describes a time when she saw her mother’s english as “broken” and was often ashamed of it.  She states that she winces everytimes called her mother’s English broken because she knew deep down that calling it broken wasn’t the right way to describe her mother’s English.  Amy states “ Like others, I have described it to people as ‘broken” or “fractured” English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness.” 

Amy is trying to say that from her perspective her mother’s native tongue isn’t broken, she sees it as a beautiful dialect, vivid even. She is trying to convey the idea that the way her mother speaks is not the wrong way of English, other people are just not familiar with this which is why they think it is incorrect but Amy thinks that it is just fine. Her words may be imperfect but her thoughts are nothing less than perfect. 

Finally, Tan uses Pathos to appeal to the readers emotions.  Amy uses pathos when she elaborates on the fact that the doctors did not give her her cat scan because she spoke in broken english rather than perfectly. This played on the readers emotions because it showed how harsh the world really can be and the reality of immigrants.  The hospital did not seem to have any sort of sympathy for Amy’s mother when she was anxious to know her diagnosis and was given little attention because of her broken english. 

Amy does a very good job at playing on the readers emotions, and having the reader feel for her mother and her english.  When at a very young age Amy had to call the stock broker and pretend to be her mother just to get the right treatment sent a very clear message that the mother knew her disadvantage and she knew that there was very little she could do about this. She states “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.” (Tan, p. 2) This shows that Amy knew her more – what would be described as refined English – would get the job done. 

Reading and analyzing Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” helps the reader get a better understanding of Ethos, Pathos and Logos but it also shows the reader an insider perspective of an immigrant’s perspective on language and language barriers.