Combining languages

Mother Tongue

I choose Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" as the personal essay for Friday's class. Her essay captures both the characterization of her mother and herself and their struggles with being Chinese-Americans. Tan writes fluidly in her essay as she captures the essential issues and difficulties she's had growing up and being her mother's translator. The essay captures all the way of writing creative non-fiction that we discussed on Wednesday: descriptive, dramatic, impressionistic, and historical/contextual. Tan vividly describes the situations and dialogue of her mother, capturing exactly the way her mother sounds. She impressionistically organizes certain situations and as a result fully describes the cultural tensions that she experiences. Above all, though, Tan effectively reflects on how much her mother has influenced her own language choices and her desire to write for her mother.

I've always been an admirer of Tan's work. I enjoy teaching the stories from The Joy Luck Club and read Saving Fish from Drowning over the summer. A few years ago, I heard her speak at Purdue University. Her "reading" wasn't a typical reading. Rather, she chatted on stage and told stories so fluidly that it's no wonder that she has so many great books. One of the most memorable stories she shared with us occurred when she was describing a different reading she gave in a bookstore. While she was waiting in the background, she noticed a stand of cliff notes, one of which was about The Joy Luck Club. She was hilarious recalling how the authors of the cliff notes pointed out all the symbolism and themes of her own book. This says a lot about the difference between studying books and enjoying books. One thing I want to make sure to get across to my students is that you can both study and enjoy books. After all, those of us that major in or study literature are drawn to the enjoyment of reading, of discovering the beautiful language, of relating to a character's thoughts or actions, or of learning about different cultures and experiences to show us the multiple experiences of our world.