Rhetorical Analysis: “Mother Tongue”

“Mother Tongue” is a personal essay written by author Amy Tan. In this essay, Tan is explaining to the readers that people who speak “broken” English are often looked down up, even if what they are saying makes perfect sense, regardless of any grammatical mistakes the make while speaking. Tan makes her point by using personal anecdotes pertaining to her mother—who speaks broken english— and the appeal of pathos. By inserting stories of her mother being disregarded at the hospital because of her improper speech and emphasizing, “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 her”(Tan), Tan is putting the readers into her mother’s  shoes. This helps readers get a better understanding of the unfair treatment broken English speakers face. Tan also uses pathos while describing the events that occurred in these anecdotes. Pathos work to elicit the readers emotion. When Tan describes her helpless mother not being given the attention of medical professionals, readers feel empathetic towards her. So, by using pathos, Tan is able to use emotions in order to convince readers that what she is trying to say is true: broken english speakers are treated unfairly in an English dominated country.