Graduation and Mother Tongue

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In “Mother Tongue”, the title of the essay itself is a pun: it describes both the nonstandard English that Tan's mother, a Chinese immigrant, uses and the native speaker's English, the "mother tongue," in which Tan herself is fluent. She opens the essay by considering her own public English, which tends to the formal and academic. She realizes this when her mother attends one of Tan's lectures. This leads to a discussion of the different "English’s" in Tan's life. One of the most prominent is her mother's "broken English." Tan describes this English as a "language of intimacy" within the family but also notes how it diminishes status in public encounters. She tells how her stockbrokers and doctors ignored her mother's imperfect English, but responded promptly when Tan herself made the same requests in Standard English. Tan then discusses how her mother's lack of English skills might have limited her in her early years, especially when it came to standardized English tests. However, the essay ends by celebrating the range of English’s in her life. Reading an early draft of a story, Tan realizes that the English she is using is far too academic. She resolves to write using the range of English that she has used in her life, creating a vibrant story that eventually became the bestselling novel

"The Joy Luck Club." Maya Angelou's autobiographical essay "Graduation", was about more than just moving on to another grade. Upon reading the story there is an initial feeling of excitement and hope which was quickly tarnished with the abrupt awareness of human prejudices. The author vividly illustrates a rainbow of significant mood changes she undergoes throughout the story. Throughout life we go through many stepping stones, Maya Angelou's autobiographical essay "Graduation", was about more than just moving on to another grade. The unexpected events that occurred during the ceremony enabled her to graduate from the views of a child to the more experienced and sometimes disenchanting views of an adult. Upon reading the story there is an initial feeling of excitement and hope which was quickly tarnished with the abrupt awareness of human prejudices. The author vividly illustrates a rainbow of significant mood changes she undergoes throughout the story. From the outset of the story there is an overwhelming sense of hope that has enveloped the entire community and school with the upcoming graduation. The communities’ involvement strengthens the author’s excitement in her rite of passage.

These writers used all these three in perfect sequence to engage their readers further into the experience that they themselves lived. In my opinion every good writer out there must learn to use these elements in order to properly use the ethos, pathos, and logos their message might not engage enough to get the message across, and I for one think that that would be a great shame.