Natalie Colony January 19th, 2012 Professor Kramer English 110 06 Rhetorical Analysis

As an audience, we expect certain things from certain essays; language, credibility, examples, etc. Depending on the essay and the author, all these things well lend themselves to the one of three appeals; pathos, ethos, or logos. Throughout Mother Tongue, Amy Tans uses pathos through these tools to relate to her audience in order show that there is no one English. At the beginning of the essay, we immediately see the informal language present itself. I am not a scholar of English or literature (337). Through this first sentence, Tan immediately starts to relate to the audience. The use of the informal I at the very beginning of the piece is used to establish a relationship with the audience because Tan wants the audience to relate themselves to her and what she is saying. This language is using pathos, which by its very definition evokes emotion through the deepest held beliefs or values. The deepest held belief of the audience, in this case, would be relations. People generally respond to personal language than they would to big words and formal phrases. As the essay progresses Tan continues to keep the essay in first person and starts to discuss things like personal mistakes and failures. One example of this is where she starts discussing the grades she got in school: I did moderately well, getting perhaps Bs, sometimes B-pluses (340). This shows that she is not a perfect being who does everything right making it even easier for the audience to see how

similar she is to them. As she starts to relate to the audience, she starts the bring her main point into play. At the very beginning of the essay she talks about the different Englishes (337) that she uses. As the essay continues she continues to use the word English and attempts to find a word to describe her mothers English. Tan compiles a list with words such as; broken, limited, simple, or fractured, none of truly conveyed what kind of English her mother really spoke. As much as Tan used language to make her point, by challenging her own credibility she also conveyed what she was arguing. Throughout the essay Tan continually says that she is not an expert on this subject. In the very first sentence she states I am not a scholar of English or literature (337). In saying this, she is not only relating the the audience, but she is also denying her authority on the matter she is about to speak about. She is showing the audience that she isnt an expert on this subject material. This makes the audience feel more comfortable with what they are reading, influencing them to not judge what Tan is saying as they would a professional writing. As she continues to write, we see more examples of Tan saying she isnt a credible source of information. Phrases like: I think (340) and I cant begin to answer (341), appear throughout her essay. These phrases show that even she doesnt have all the answers to what she is proposing. Tan doesnt even present a solution the phrase broken English (341). By challenging her own credibility, Tan is giving the audience the ability to judge what she is saying as an equal. This in turn gives her more credibility in the readers eyes because, as she doubts herself the audience in turn, trusts her more to present her argument that there are multiple Englishes.

As Tan uses her credibility to push the audience a specific way, she also uses an escalation of examples to steer the audience towards sympathy for her cause. The first example that Tan uses is that of her mother having Tan converse with their stockbroker because she wanted someone to speak perfect English in order to make the stockbroker listen. This example doesnt necessarily evoke sympathy, but it does allow the reader to see the extremes the mother would go to in order to be understood. The second example is significantly more drastic. Tans mother had to have a CAT scan for a brain tumor. When she went to see the scan at the hospital, she was told that it had been lost and to make another appointment. And yet when Tan called the hospital and spoke with perfect English (340), they apologized profusely and said they would immediately resolve the matter. This example does evoke sympathy within the reader because people are generally compassionate and when we see something bad happen when it comes to a life and death situation people are generally appalled and can be more easily swayed one way or another. This escalation culminates at this point, but earlier in the essay Tan talks about how her own view of her mother became limited. She thought that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say (339). This quote further lends itself to Tans point that there are many different types of English and they cannot be qualified by the standard presented to us in school. If we do live by one standard English, we start to discriminate against other and create situations similar to those of Tans mothers.

Through a series of sympathetic examples, thought evoking language, and the denying of her own authority, Tan uses pathos to argue that there are different types of English and to not base our lives off of a so called standard. Works Cited Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Back to the Lake: A Reader for Writers. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2009. 337-42. Print.