(The picture link: http://2centsynopsis.blogspot.com/2012/08/amy-tans-mother-tongue-reading-response.html)
These days, I found an article called "Mother Tongue" written by Amy Tan,
she clearly defined how her language is used and affected by her mother. As we
can see from the introduction, she was born in California, the United States,
and later on years, she and her mother settled in several places. Besides, Tan
attended five colleges during seven years, and this is the turning point in
which she decided to challenge herself to take English literature as major.
In the main body paragraphs, Tan wrote several stories to
show how her mother uses broken English, and how it made changes in her life.
On the other side, because of her mother’s “fractured” English, people usually
treat her mother differently and did not take her seriously. Thus, when Tan was
fifteen, she started pretend her mother talk on phone calls and kept handle
several business errands. Besides, “Some say they understand none of it (the
way her mother speaks English)…. to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear,
perfectly natural.”(Para 7) Therefore, the way her mother speaks had some
effects on her writing style. In another words, Tan decided to envision her
mother as a reader through her writing, in order to capture the passion and
imagination through her words.
Consequently, Tan succeed on her writing career, and one
most representative work she wrote is The
Joy Luck Club, and now I have start reading one of her another book called The Bonesetter's daughter.Through her words, she complaint about her mother’s broken
English, but still, it is her mother, impressed her and gives passion on her
writing.
After reading this blog, I think the book "Mother tongue" is really interesting. Children like to imitate their parents, and especially the way their parents talk. I am suprised that Tan had attended 5 colleges and major in English literature. It's a hard decision for an Asian girl. There is no doubt that one's mother has huge influence on her daughter, I think Tan's success has a lot to do with her mother.
ReplyDeleteI feel like her mother was so brave to took her to American and living. Like most international students first came to American, they are afraid to talk to people. However, the good thing is Tan get inspire for her mother's broken-English. I think there always something could combine the different culture together. when tan grown she can speaking the native English since she grown up in American but she also could find some clues from her mother left by culture, this is interesting.
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