MOTHER TONGUE

- AMY TAN

III Semester

Common Course : Literature and/as Identity

II B.A. / B.Sc / B.Com

Aquinas College, Edacochin

AMY TAN

• Chinese American Author

• Born : 1952, Oakland , California

• Parents : John and Daisy Tan (First Generation Chinese Settlers)

• Major Works :

The Joy Luck Club (Global Acclaimed)

Rules of the Game

The Kitchen God's Wife

The Hundred Secret Senses

The Bonesetter's Wife

2 Roshny Elizabeth, Asst.Prof. , Dept. of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin.

Mother Tongue

• Recounts her own experiences :Cultural & Linguistic Clashes

• She uses Broken English at Home & Standard English in Public

• Reflects : The life of a young woman struggling with the different identities bestowed upon her.

• A brilliant Essay

• Originally Published as Under Western Eyes in The Threepenny

Rview, 1990

• Discusses the linguistic issues of first and second generation Chinese settlers in America.

3 Roshny Elizabeth, Asst.Prof. , Dept. of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin.

Main Points :

• Language is the tool of my trade : Writer , always loved language, fascinated by language in daily life, power of language –the way it evoke an emotion, a visual image , a complex idea, or a simple truth.

• Uses all the Englishes she grew up with.

• Made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use : a talk to a large group of people on her writing, life and book 'The Joy Luck Club'. One major difference that made the whole talk wrong - presnces of her mother in the room. The first time her mother listened to her speaking Standard English(grammatical phrases - nominalised forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases) which she never uses with her mother at home.

4 Roshny Elizabeth, Asst.Prof. , Dept. of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin.

• Another Incident : Walking down the street with her mother and husband. They were talking about the price of new and old furniture , "Not waste money that way."

• Broken English had become their language of intimacy , related to family talk, the language she grew up with. Eg. Mother's narration of Du Yusong, a political gangster in Shanghai.

• Mother's English : is perfectly clear, perfectly natural.It's my mother tongue.Her language is vivd,direct, full of observation and imagery. A language that helped Tan to shape the way she saw things,expressed things made sense of the world.

• Mother's English : Broken / Fractured / Limited English.

• Mother's "Limited English" limited people's perception of her( including Amy Tan): Mother's English reflected the quality of what she had to say - as he expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect.

5 Roshny Elizabeth, Asst.Prof. , Dept. of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin.

• Due to Mother's Limited English people did not take her seriously :

department stores, at banks, at restaurants – did not give her good service,

pretended not to understand her , or even acted as if they did not hear her.

• Mother had also realised the limitations of her English : " When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she. In this guise , I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her." Eg. Call to her stockbroker in New York.

• CAT Scan : Hospital officials neither showed any sympathy nor

appologised to her for the missing report , and merely asked her to

take another appointment untill Amy Tan spoke to them in her Perfect

English.

6 Roshny Elizabeth, Asst.Prof. , Dept. of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin.

• Amy Tan's Mother's English limit her possibilties in life.

• The language spoken in the family, especially in the immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child.

• It affected Amy Tan's results – Acheivemnet tests, IQ tests, SAT , etc

• In Maths and Science she scored 'A' Grade but in English , it was

always 'B'.

• Maths is precise - only one correct answer but that of English for her, were always a

judgement call, a matter of opinion and personal experience.

• Most of the Asian Americans / Chinese Students prefer Science subjects for

higher studies over English Language or Creative Writing Programmes.

Same is the case of Asian American representations in American Literature.

7 Roshny Elizabeth, Asst.Prof. , Dept. of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin.

• The English spoken in the home of Asian American Students might also be

described as 'broken' or 'limited'. And also the influence of teachers who

steer them away from writing into Maths and Science.

• Amy Tan joined English major after being enrolled as premed. Started

wtritng Nonfiction. After one week of working as a Freelancer, Tan's Boss

told her that writing was her worst skill and must try her talents in account

management.

• 1985, began to write fiction.

• Tan first wrote using wittily crafted sentences, sentences to prove her

mastery over the English Language. " That was my menatl quandary in its nascent state" (The Joy Luck Club)

8 Roshny Elizabeth, Asst.Prof. , Dept. of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin.

• Envision a reader for her Stories- the reader was her MOTHER as the

stories were about her mother.

• With her mother as a reader, Amy Tan began to write her stories using

all thew Englishes she grew up with: " The English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as 'simple': the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as 'broken'.."

• Amy Tan in her writings , tried to preserve the essence of her mother's passion, intent, imagery , the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her toughts .

• Tan suscceeded in the process of writing when her mother finished reading her book gave her the verdict : "So easy to read."

9 Roshny Elizabeth, Asst.Prof. , Dept. of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin.

Thank You.......

Roshy Elizabeth

Assistant Professor

Dept. of English,

Aquinas College,

Edacochin

10 Roshny Elizabeth, Asst.Prof. , Dept. of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin.