Amy Tan Summary Essay - Free Essay Example

AlhaddadA Essay Submitted by  AL HADDAD, AHMED MOHAMED (AL HADDAD)  on  9/10/2010 6:14:16 PM Amy Tan is a daughter of a Chinese emigrant, who had a dream of going to America, to escape poverty and provide a better quality of life and education for her daughter. This dream is accomplished, providing her daughter with the right tools to become a successful writer, and she then goes and discusses her relation with her roots and heritage, through the language she is speaking now, English. She mentions her passion for language and how it is the tool of her trade. She is basically sharing with us her views and opinions, about language, and how it affected or limited her possibilities in life. Moreover, I believe the story is very deep and conceives an important message. Its not just about the language itself, but also defines relationships with parents, the cultural background and heritage. It views life through an international individuals perspective, and is about leaving your home country and living abroad. It is about fighting for your future, demanding a better quality of life, survival of the fittest. It is also about the generation gap, how our opinions and language differs, about being ashamed, at some point, of your parents, because they portray a negative image which could affect your reputation, indirectly. In the end, it is about coming home, in a way, after a long absence, and being proud again of what you are and what your heritage is. Initially, Amy Tan experiences a feeling of shame because her friends, sometimes, could not understand what her mother was saying. Furthermore, she is also upset because they said her English is â€Å"broken†, â€Å"as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed†. She also stated that this limited her perception of her mother and that â€Å"her English reflected the quality of what she had to say†. Because, to express something in a wrong or imperfect way, you must be imperfect or limited in your thoughts. Amy Tan, unfortunately, did not perform well on her achievement tests, simply because her mother taught her to think in a different manner than other students. She was lead to believe, due to the strong influence from her teachers, that Asian students would be much better into engineering, accounting or anything else than an English. However, she eventually discovers the benefits of her mothers teachings and advice. Fortunately, she happens to be rebellious in nature and enjoys the challenge of disproving assumptions, she decides to major in English and write fiction. To conclude, Amy ultimately realized how important and meaningful her mothers broken English and started to appreciate her mother and respect her culture and heritage. In the final paragraph she explains her motives for writing about her mother â€Å"I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech, and the nature of her thoughts†. I perceive that our culture plays a big part in our lives and helps us to better understand ourselves, even though causing complications at times, it fundamentally leads to alternative opportunities. Grade: B 1. This is a generally well-organized summary essay. 2. For a summary essay, you are supposed to provide information found in the article, without adding additional ideas and making personal comments. 3. Reference should be put after your quotation, including author’s name, year of publication and page number.