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Comparisson of Mother Tounge and Everyday Use

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Submitted By thisisjuniorr
Words 1417
Pages 6
Edgar Hernandez
Professor Ali
ENC 1102
March 20, 2014 Amy Tan's, “Mother Tongue” and Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” both share similar traits in their writings of these two short stories. “Mother Tongue” revolves around the experiences Tan and her mother had due to her mother's English speaking limitations, she also revolves her story around the relationship of a mother and daughter. Alice walker on the other hand writes a story narrated by “Mama” the mother of two daughters Maggie and Dee and explains the conflicting relationship she has with Dee, both writers similarly emphasize on the relationships these mother and daughter characters had and they unravel both short stories based on these relationships. Although both short stories share this one similar characteristic it is clear that both writers have opposite point of views of their described mother daughter relationships. To begin comparing, both Tan and Walker use the characters of mother and daughter to evoke the importance the relationship plays in the telling of the story. There are similarities that both these characters share. One of these similarities are shown through the use of words that describe a similar feeling of shame or embarrassment both Dee and Tan have towards there mothers at some point in the stories. In one part of the story Tan describes feeling “ashamed” of her mother's broken English (Tan 345). Walker also shows the character Dee having some sense of shame of her mother and sister Maggie by saying “Its really a new day for us. But the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it” (Walker 276). On the other hand, both writers also oppose one another views on the relationship the characters share with their mothers in some ways. Dee is described in Walkers story as always having wanted better things in life, she talks about Dee almost as if she was a sort of enemy to her and

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