I think that her mother has been labeled or stereotyped. Also I believe that stereotyping is wrong. For instance, when Tan states, “It is the sort of English that is our language of Intimacy, the English that relates to family talk, and the English that I grew up with”. Amy Tan speaks in a “variation of languages like academic, a language she does not use at home, but uses when conversing with others outside her family or in her books”. Tan also uses“different English with her family (mother /husband) that she grew up with”.
Kingston’s story “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe” employs numerous fantasy elements in depicting her separation from the restrictiveness of China and further, her discovery of harmony between her ancient family’s culture and her new American one. Navigating through confusion and anger, Kingston is ultimately able to remove herself her Chinese bindings and find a sense of accord between her past and her future. Kingston’s rhetoric conveys her struggle with the complexities of her Chinese culture and her inability to come to a core truth. Furthermore, she gravitates toward American culture for its simplicity. Kingston is having difficulties sorting fact from fiction in her mother’s story about Moon Orchid’s encounter with her husband.
Even her daughter as well as society later refers her mothers English as broken. And because of that in her younger years, Amy felt somewhat embarrassed by her mothers English. And felt that her view of her mother was legit because of instances as such in (3rd paragraph 507). “I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear
Unlke Yunior, she did not grow up in another country. Her struggle deals with finding an identity as a Chinese- American. Unlike the Domincan culture, which seems to be outspoken and open, the Chinese seem to encourage silence and secrets. The novel begins with Kingston’s mother saying, “You must not tell anyone,” before sharing the story with her daughter. - Silence is encouraged in their culture, allowing Kingston to develop into a shy, awkward girl with trouble adjusting.
The poem begins with the perspective of the sister in China as she describes the tradition of her people and the adaptations they have made. After some brief background into the Chinese culture, Song moves to focus on the relationship between the speaker and her sister. “And the daughters were grateful: They never left home. To move freely was a luxury stolen from them at birth” (Song); Song uses these lines to describe the realities that come with living in China and the idea that one may never actually leave to discover America. In the first part of the poem Song conveys that the life lived in China is not a glorious one.
Miss Bingley Miss Bingley is a foolish and scheming character. She is shown in such a light that she is the complete opposite to that of Elizabeth Bennett; she is desperate for Darcy’s attention. "'Eliza Bennett,' said Miss Bingley, when the door was closed on her, 'is one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other sex, by undervaluing their own...but, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art.'" Miss Bingley immediately shows the reader her distaste to Elizabeth by trying to show Darcy what she believes is Elizabeth’s scheming character when in fact it is her that is the one trying to fool Darcy and the reader into thinking lowly of Elizabeth. Miss Bingley uses lots of pauses in her sentence possibly to show the reader that she may be pausing to see the effect her words may have on who she is speaking to.
She also described her learning Chinese like the most boring thing in the word by using some words as: “kowtow”, “chant”, “sing-san-ho” and ideographs letters. When she became ten years old, Wong “had better things to learn”, she started to study American culture, learn science subjects and read American literature. Her regard that was better than Chinese culture. She considered Chinese was “source of embarrassment”, that sounds “pedestrian”, “chaotic” and “frenzied” and that’s the reason she tried to separate herself from the family members when she “nearby American super marker outside the Chinatown”. Moreover, her brother exasperated her Chinese learning by mocking it with a pidgin speech.
Mother’s Tongue vs. Public Language Richard Rodriguez and Amy Tan, both writers, talk about their experiences with non-American backgrounds living in America. In both of their essays "Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" by Rodriguez, and "Mother Tongue" by Tan, are very similar in that they both emphasize the importance of language and describes how it affected their lives. Both Rodriguez and Tan stress the importance of their family's language. Tan expresses two major issues; how language has impacted both her and her mother's lives and the different English's she uses towards her mother and others. Similarly, Rodriguez explains how language has affected him and his family's lives and the transition from Spanish to English.
Language After reading several meaningful essays on the topic of language, including “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan and “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” by: James Baldwin, and its ramifications and the parts that contribute to one’s language or form of English, I have come to the realization that although culture, power, and identity impact a persons language, culture, power, and identity are impacted by the language you speak. Much of Amy Tan’s argument defending her mother’s language, which she describes, with lack of a better word, as “Broken” English, has to do with her culture. Tan is California born, from parents who are immigrants from china. She speaks of how she once tried to distance herself from her Chinese culture when she thought that it gave her a bad reputation. But while writing her first novel she realized that Her culture and her background made her the writer and gave her the language she speaks today.
The novel traces the psychological development of the American daughter and her final acceptance of the Chinese mother and what the Chinese mother stands for. It is interesting to note that when Jing-mei Woo is asked by her three “aunts” to go to China in order to fulfill her mother’s long-cherished wish to meet her lost twin babies, Jing-mei shocks and upsets