Amy Tan is a Chinese American writer whose Mother Tongue, a novel, was published in 1990. Mother Tongue has gained popularity and critical acclaim, winning the American Book Award for first fiction in 1991 and becoming a New York Times Bestseller shortly after its release. Mother Tongue was Amy Tan’s debut novel, but it is not her only work. Mother Tongue focuses on the struggles of a young Chinese immigrant, who can barely speak English, to fit into American society while trying to understand the mystery surrounding her mother’s death.
The story opens with three children about to graduate from college. Jing-Mei is the only one in her family who did not excel at school, especially when compared to her older brother, Bin. He graduated valedictorian and then went on to MIT while Jing-Mei struggled through community college. After graduating, she has worked for ten years as an assistant in a department store while dreaming of being a concert Pianist or perhaps even a writer.
One day her Mother drops dead of heart failure while buying groceries after sending two letters ten years apart to her Mother, but mysteriously not one word is written in the Mother Tongue. She dies with a brochure of an expensive hotel and four hundred dollars pinned inside her pocketbook. Later, Jing-Mei visits her Mother’s best friend, who tells Jing-Mei that she was sent to America as an infant by her Mother because the Mother Tongue was banned during the Cultural Revolution and “young girls caught speaking it were…
Related works: Mother Tongue’s success led Tan to receive many honors over the next ten years following its release, including being named to Oprah Winfrey’s book club. Amy Tan writes about Chinese American themes such as family conflicts and language barriers between generations in Mother Tongue and her other works. Mother Tongue has been adapted into a play and film called “The Joy Luck Club,” which was also adapted from Tan’s book of the same title. Mother Tongue is part of a three book series, along with The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses.
Mother Tongue by Amy Tan is a book about the struggles of an American-born Chinese girl growing up in San Francisco. The main character, Jing-mei’s mother had always wanted a girl and when Jing-mei was born she blamed her for being so ugly and having such a boring name. Her Mother would constantly say to her “You can’t go through life being so ugly and stupid” . Being the only daughter in her family, she grew up feeling disconnected from them all. Although they were close at some points, they also lived very different lives on opposite sides of America.
In the beginning of Mother Tongue, it starts with Jing-Mei going on vacation with her Mother from San Francisco to China for a month. This is the first time in her Mother’s life that she has ever been back to China and so Jing-Mei agrees to go…
When they arrive at their Mother’s home, it is very obvious that this Mother doesn’t like staying there and wants to get out as fast as possible. She even says “I can’t wait until we leave this place behind. I’m going to forget everything about it…” This shows how much she just wanted this vacation with her daughter over and done with. Once they return from the trip, Jing-mei starts to play piano and the Mother tries sticking up for herself by saying: “You can’t give up. Mother Tongue will jinx you” This Mother really wants her daughter to succeed, but she does not let her know that.
Jing-mei’s Mother became hooked on westerns after marrying Jing-mei’s Father and moved to America. She always had problems with connecting with the rest of the family because they were all Chinese, while she wasn’t. One time, she was talking about how much better San Francisco is over China, which made the Mother very upset . They started fighting until Jing-mei asked “What are you trying to do? Kill Mother or something?” This just shows how much distance there was between Mother and Daughter. At one point, her Mother even starts teaching lessons to little kids for money.
In Mother Tongue, Jing-mei’s Mother tries to give her daughter life lessons very often through confusing and weird sayings. At one point she even says “The beauty of a tree lies in its ability to bend” which is basically saying it doesn’t matter who you are as long as you’re the same person inside. This shows how troubled Mother’s past was.
Jing-mei also learns about her Mother after finding a letter that contained a secret that Mother had been hiding from everyone all these years. It said that Jing-mei wasn’t really her Mother’s Daughter at all! Her Mother had stolen Jing-mei away from another family when she was very small. This Mother who had used to be so cruel towards Jing-mei gave up her own Mother Tongue for her. Jing-Mei’s Mother finally let the Mother Tongue go after finding happiness with another man.
When Mother saw that Jing-mei was having trouble connecting with Auntie Lindo, she told her “We must work hard to break down the barriers between us” This shows how many mothers truly wanted life to be easier for everyone in the family. When Mother got sick and started dying, she said things like “You are my only daughter now! You must take care of yourself!” She even said “I want you to promise me two things. One, you will go to medical school and become a doctor, and two, you must promise that you will stay close to your sister.” Mother wanted her daughter to succeed in life and not end up like she did, alone and disconnected from everyone around her.