44 pages • 1 hour read
Mother Tongue
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Themes
Perfect or Broken English
Forms of English are the central focus of this short essay. Tan alternates between describing her own challenges with formal English and articulating the beauty and importance of the English that her mother speaks. These conflicting strands are juxtaposed throughout the piece; rather than building an unresolvable tension, however, Tan successfully joins the two ideas together, arguing, to some extent, the importance of bringing all forms of English together to make successful writing.
While it seems clear that Tan is arguing that there is no “perfect” English, she does reference her own discomfort with identifying some forms of English, specifically that of her mother, as “‘broken’ or ‘fractured’” (7). This observation, which occurs a little before essay’s midpoint, is a critical aspect of Tan’s development of the tensions between different forms of English and how they are perceived by wider society. Tan wrestles with how she, a writer, can reconcile her own potential limitations due to her mother’s English with her belief that her mother’s language is “vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery” (7). One of the most powerful aspects of the essay, therefore, is not that Tan discusses the difference between perfect and broken English but her argument that no form of English is perfect or broken.
Sociological Limitations of Language
In the United States a person’s ability to manipulate language is intricately linked to their opportunities in terms of education and overall success. Tan comments on this relationship several times in “Mother Tongue.” Though one of the most blatant moments of this observation occurs during the conclusion, the more emotionally significant moment is in Tan’s description of her mother’s difficulty obtaining medical information from her own doctor about a “benign brain tumor” (7). After a back-and-forth between Tan’s mother and the doctor’s office, Tan finally got the doctor on the phone and, since she “spoke in perfect English” (7), was able to receive all kinds of “assurances” (7) and better care for her mother. This anecdote illustrates the drastic ways that one’s English can limit one’s ability to remain healthy in a society that values only certain forms of language. Again, while Tan later references the other sociological limitations of language, specifically in terms of the education system, this anecdote remains the more heightened emotional moment of the essay: Tan’s mother’s English distinctly jeopardized her well-being. Through this anecdote Tan challenges her reader to be more aware of our perceptions about what kinds of English are valuable and, therefore, what kinds of people are valued.
Responsibility to Family
An underlying thematic element of Tan’s essay is her assertion of the importance of responsibility to family, a value that is rooted in Tan’s Chinese heritage. In the middle of the essay, Tan gives examples of her role as the person in her family who spoke English deemed acceptable in most situations in the United States. Tan was “forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her [mother]” (7). From a relatively young age, Tan was placed in the position of responsibility for assisting her mother in navigating complex situations; this responsibility continued into her adult years, exemplified by the story about Tan helping her mother get an appointment with her doctor about a benign brain tumor. While Tan never explicitly states that this responsibility to family is a core value of her upbringing, it is an underlying theme of the essay. Without that responsibility, Tan might have assimilated more easily into US culture with less critique of the various ways that one’s English impacts social standing and potential for financial success.
Through Tan’s responsibility to family comes the essay’s major conclusion: Tan did not find authentic success by writing to the larger US audience but by writing to and for her mother. Despite Tan’s somewhat negative tone earlier in the essay regarding her role as her mother’s translator and advocate, Tan seems to find solace in writing stories that are “easy to read” (8) for her mother. Rather than needing to prove her “mastery over the English language” (8), arguably a more Western perspective and value, Tan finds happiness in moving past “what any critic had to say about [her] writing” (8). In other words, by moving closer to her family values and being willing to be accountable to her mother, Tan achieves a more fulfilling success than that provided by the academic realm that she also participates in.
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