Prejudice Theme Analysis

Throughout “Mother Tongue,” Tan considers ways that prejudice is internalized, leading people to place limits on themselves. Tan witnesses racially-motivated prejudice at a young age, observing how customer service workers and medical professionals treat her mother dismissively because of the way she speaks English. Calling these instances “empirical evidence” of her mother’s mistreatment as a result of her non-standardized English, Tan describes the effect these events had on her own perceptions of her mother; “I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” Because workers did not take her mother seriously, failed or refused to provide her the service she deserved, and ignored her, Tan believed her mother imperfect.

Tan’s relationship with her mother is further complicated by her own academic performance in school. Frustrated by her inability to “correctly” answer subjective word problems, which negatively affected how teachers perceived her, Tan became determined to “master” the English language. Memorizing and adopting the rules taught within her childhood classrooms and university lectures, Tan has come to favor the standard form of English, subconsciously internalizing linguistic prejudices against her “mother tongue” by oppressing the language that taught her how to engage with the world.

Though she does not explain how she began deconstructing this ingrained prejudice, Tan does note that she began to write with a hypothetical reader in mind—and that hypothetical reader was her mother. And this, in turn, changed the way she wrote, encouraging her to incorporate the English she heard while growing up instead of intentionally turning away from it. By highlighting this process, the essay illustrates the work Tan has done to reconcile with her “mother tongue.” By sharing her personal struggle with internalized prejudice and the way it came to shape her own feelings towards her mother, Tan shows just how powerful internalized prejudice can be while also showing that it is possible to break free of the limits it imposes.