After reading Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue”, I have come to several conclusions. Right away, I identified her audience as the general public, specifically those reading The Threepenny Reviews since this is where her paper was published. However, after further analysis, I see she could have been targeting specific groups. I also think that Tan could be explaining her story to people who read her works, since so much of her literature seems to be influenced by how she views language. Also, there are parts throughout the essay that give tidbits on how she overcame what was expected of her, since she did not do as well with English-related schooling as she did with the Sciences, for example. This leads me to believe that Tan is explaining how she came to be to fellow colleagues who are interested in her story, perhaps.
When reflecting on her piece, I find that Tan has a few purposes. I believe that one purpose is to show the influence of language on life experience. For example, when Tan made phone calls for her mother or communicated for her in any way, this showed that the mother’s life experiences were limited due to the language barrier. The converse of this statement can also be argued, because experience also has an influence on language. In saying this, I mean that what you go through in this life influences your interpretation of how you see language. Before reading this essay, I rarely thought about my language, but now I realize more about how I speak. Since Tan’s piece has made me take a more introspective look at my use of language, I see that one of her purposes is to have the audience analyze what speaking is to them. Another purpose that I found to be throughout the piece was to reveal the main intent of language. In the end, I think that Tan wanted to show that language is used to convey oneself. It should not be judged for lack of