She spoke excellent English, but her mother did not. When her mother would speak in the English language, Tan would be ashamed of her mother’s strong accent. She was ashamed of her mother’s tongue because her English language was broken as Tan described it, bringing attention to herself. She did not like speaking to customer service to interpret for her mother all the time. Tan wanted her own independence from her family, and having to speak for her mother made her feel like her mother was weighing her down.…
The dynamics of any family can be complicated. A family that is in a strange country will have even more stress than the average family, especially if that family does not speak the language of the land, and is unfamiliar with the customs. This is the situation for Richard Rodriguez 's family as explained in his autobiography Hungar of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez. In his memoir, Rodriguez explains the transfermation he makes during his education.…
Assignment 3 Comparison Although Richard Rodriguez and Amy Tan both had a distinct perception of the importance of their intimate family language, they both had the same similarities of facing the struggles they perceived society required of them which was learning the English language. Both Tan and Rodriguez faced these struggles at different points of their lives and had to manage whether they would let the English language conflict with their family’s language. They are fighting to identify whom they want to be in society and whether they want to maintain their roots and language of their culture or adapt to where they now reside. Aside from their differences the similarities they both shared with each other was significant due to them being in the same position and deciding whether they wanted to…
In the interview with Hector A. Torres, Richard Rodriguez builds an interesting personality that is similar to his essays in Hunger of Memory. In the interview, it became clear that Rodriguez wanted to be known for his cultural politics. The conflicting views on bilingualism seems, in the interview, to be something that Rodriguez openly oppose as he identified Bilingual education as “ ended” and “gone” (Torres 16). Similar implications occurs in the first chapter Arya when Rodriguez shares his childhood assimilation from a primary Spanish speaking child to an English speaking social citizen (Rodriguez). Language, Rodriguez reveals, is something that has had a fundamental structure in his life, hence his opposition to bilingualism.…
The concepts of genre, audience, and rhetorical situation are alike in their significance to the process of writing. They can be distinguished not only by their definitive meanings, but by a series of questions considered in the early stages of writing; what do I want to say, how do I want to say it, and who do I want to say it to? To these questions there are no clear-cut answers, empowering the writer to explore a variety of topics. It is important to understand that genre, audience, and rhetorical situation are not considered in a sequential order, nor are they exclusive to planning. In fact, the development of new ideas can occur in any stage of writing.…
It gave her uncomfortable feelings and forced her to blush if her mother was speaking. Only when she got older she realized her own mistake – judging by the way the person talks, instead of the way he or she thinks. It made Amy Tan perceive that her own “perfect English”, which she used to implement in her early writing, does not stand a chance and that it is boring and useless. She decided to write in the simple, the “most full” language, so people like her mother would understand it. Her mother and her “broken English” created the writer with a unique style of presentation.…
His attitude shifts from happy and hopeful to instantly sad and very disappointed once he realizes that his efforts will have no impact on the way she feels . It is this change in behavior that helps develop the writing’s theme of disappointment because the drastic change seen within the character makes it obvious to the audience that his wishes to be with this girl were not…
In Mexico during the early 1980’s, a group of young siblings living in poverty tell an important story of the immigrant experience and the drives behind migration. Reyna Grande’s, The Distance Between Us, is a memoir written with the recurring appeal to the reader’s pathos. Grande uses the rhetorical strategy to keep the reader’s interest and to help them make personal connections to the story. Grande’s use of pathos helps to show not only the importance of understanding the immigrant experience, but also the importance of following your dreams. For example, the first chapters of the memoir are predominately about Grande and her siblings’ experience living with their Abuelita Evila in Mexico.…
Thus, she creates a new persona and written self and soon, “this impersonal self, this cultural negative capability, becomes the truest thing about [her]” (121). When she writes about her new experiences in English, she is creating a new Eva who is completely different from the old Ewa all because the language is different. There are no longer “sentimental effusions of rejected love, eruptions of familial anger, or consoling broodings about death” in her writing because “English is not the language of such emotions” (121). Hoffman has lost the ability to express herself in the way she is familiar with in Polish and the emotions that she wants to write cannot be fully expressed in…
As the essay progresses, Tan learns to accept her mother’s broken english and uses it as inspiration for her writings.…
Rhetorical Arrangement of "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan Amy Tan, in her narrative novel - "Mother Tongue", recounts her thoughts of her mother 's "broken English". Tan 's purpose is to explicitly express the influences on her life exerted by "Mother Tongue", in order to attract readers with similar feelings and experience. She employs delicate rhetorical arrangements such as classification order, narrative anecdotes, and comparison. These delicate rhetorical arrangements are effectively beneficial to Tan 's purpose of writing this short novel.…
Richard Rodriguez believes that the Americanization of a bilingual child will result in their public gain. “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez is a heart-wrenching piece of writing about the full Americanization of Rodriguez resulting in his native language of Spanish being forgotten and the full submersion into the English language. Many of the events Rodriguez faced in his life are present to many other bilingual students’ today. These events that bilingual students’ are facing will strongly influence their decision on struggling to learn two languages at a young age, stalling the development of one of their languages, or being forced to choose one language or the other in a full assimilation. Rodriguez’s viewpoint is that if you want to make a full…
“I remember how I’d smile listening to my little ones, understanding every word they’d say” (972). She is happy while she is reminiscing about the past, but the memories quickly fade and she’s back to the daily challenges she’s facing. She said, “Now my children go to American high schools, they speak English” (972). Moving to American was to better her family, she wanted more for them, even if it meant she was taking a big risk for herself. She felt “dumb and alone,” (972) because her children knew how to speak English.…
In the autobiography “An American Childhood” written by Annie Dillard, Dillard wrote about one of her unforgettable memories that left her disillusioned because of her misconception about an adult’s view of life. On the other hand, Saira Shah, in her article, “Longing to Belong”, she wrote about how her dreams of being part of her “original culture” crashed by a single incident that make her realize that the reality is not the same as what she expected. Therefore, it is clear that both of the writers in these two essays together experienced and portrays disappointment in their essays. To be specific, both of them felt disappointed after what they want the most in their life is not like what they think it should be. In other words, they learnt…
Grounded by Language In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan begins her short story by giving the audience prior knowledge that Tan is not a scholar of English and she is not able to give much more than her past knowledge on the English language. She then proceeds to give the readers an idea of how much she is fascinated by language itself and gives it a grading scale from complex english to simple English. Tan presents her short story by giving the readers a recent experience that made her rethink the past, present, and future.…