3 1201 r171

Wrap-Up: Civil Rights & Protest Literature

The March Toward Equality
In 1963, psychology professor Dr. Kenneth Clark conducted a series
of interviews with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James
Baldwin. Aired during a time of intense racial conflict, these interviews
explored the differences in the ideals and world views of these three
leading activists and thinkers. In his introduction to the interviews,
Dr. Clark made this statement.

“We have now come to the point where there are only two
ways that America can avoid continued racial explosions.
One would be total oppression. The other, total equality.
There is no compromise. I believe, I hope, that we are on the
threshold of a truly democratic America. It is not going to be
easy to cross that threshold. But the achievement of the goals
of justice, equality, and democracy for all American citizens
involves the very destiny of our nation.”

Writing to Persuade
Consider the state of civil rights in America today, in light of
the goals and visions of the writers you have just read. In your
opinion, have we reached total equality? Or would you say
that we have arrived somewhere in between total equality and
total oppression? Review the literature in this section and write
a retrospective editorial in which you support a claim about
whether or not the goals and visions of these writers have
been realized.
Consider
• which ideas and details from the selections will help you
articulate the vision of the civil rights leaders

• what stories, examples, or other details will help you
support your view of civil rights in America today
• who your audience will be and what you want them to
think or do
• how to express your viewpoint clearly and respectfully

Extension Online
INQUIRY & RESEARCH Use
the Internet to research
contemporary topics in civil
rights. Look for news and
commentary in mainstream
and lesser-known publications,
including private weblogs.
Also look for Web sites of
organizations devoted to
advancing civil rights. Choose
three issues that seem the
most important or surprising
to you and share them with
your class.

wrap-up

1201


Literary
Analysis
Workshop

Voice in Contemporary Literature
If you go into a bookstore and browse the “New Fiction” section, what types of
books do you find? How are they different from literature of the past? Throughout
this textbook, you have witnessed the evolution of American literature. Each period
has been characterized by literary movements that determined the styles and
themes in writing. What do you think the trends have been in your generation?

From Modern to Contemporary
The era of contemporary literature began around
1946, immediately after World War II. War has a way of
changing a nation’s literature because of its effects on
an entire generation. Realism had risen from the ashes
of the Civil War, while modernism had defined its vision
through the ruins of World War I. After World War II, the
development of the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the
civil violence of the 1960s, American literature changed
again. Literature began to focus on personal experience
as seen in the context of society. Writers began to address
the emotional effects of wars, for example, as well as other
issues of social, political, and cultural relevance.
One of the most significant changes in American
literature has been its increasing diversity—not only in
forms and techniques, but in voices. With its history as the
great “melting pot,” the United States has been in a unique
position to cultivate a literary community of authors from
a wide variety of races, ethnicities, and religions. Increased
publishing opportunities have given a public voice to more
and more writers of African, Asian, Latino, and Native
American descent, who often provide a new perspective on

living in two cultures at once. Authors who have addressed
such issues include Amy Tan, Sandra Cisneros, Rita Dove,
Gwendolyn Brooks, Alice Walker, and N. Scott Momaday.

Amy Tan

Rita Dove

N. Scott Momaday

Diverse Works, Common Ground
Several defining features set contemporary literature apart from the previous
era of modernist literature.
Voice in literature is the expression of the writer’s or narrator’s personality.
With its emphasis on personal experience, contemporary literature is often
told from the first-person point of view, through a persona that represents the
writer or main character. This persona has a distinctive personality that shapes
a reader’s experience with the text.

1202

unit 6: contemporary literature


Tone is the attitude that a writer takes toward a subject. For the modernists,
the numbing effects of the early 20th century led to a detached, unemotional
tone. For example, Prufrock’s failure at the end of T. S. Eliot’s poem (page 930) is
conveyed in a matter-of-fact tone that is sympathetic but distant. Compare this
modernist aloofness to Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam story “Ambush” (page 1138). The
tone of this contemporary story is one of engagement rather than detachment.

I did not hate the young man; I did not see him as the enemy; I did not ponder
issues of morality or politics or military duty. I crouched and kept my head
low. I tried to swallow whatever was rising from my stomach, which tasted like
lemonade, something fruity and sour. I was terrified.
—Tim O’Brien, “Ambush”

Close Read
How would you characterize
the narrator of this passage?
Do you think he would
be personable? distant?
intimidating?

As a rule, modernist writers did not view the irony of life as humorous; instead,
they often expressed defeat in the face of life’s irony. Contemporary writers,
however, look at the absurdity of such situations as a cause for humor, which
may then be expressed through an ironic presentation of characters and events.
Modernist writers typically viewed the individual in isolation, whereas
contemporary writers present the individual in relation to the larger social
context. Often contemporary writers hint at social criticism. They present
a situation with only a suggestion of the social obstacles, and the reader
must infer the writer’s opinion. In her poem “Primer for Blacks” (page 1233),
Gwendolyn Brooks encourages African Americans to appreciate their heritage.
Note the unspoken message about social barriers for African Americans that
Brooks conveys in this passage.

Blackness
is a title,
is a preoccupation,

is a commitment Blacks
are to comprehend—
and in which you are
to perceive your Glory.

Close Read
What is the social barrier
for African Americans that
Brooks wants her reader
to infer?

—Gwendolyn Brooks, “Primer for Blacks”

Brooks is making an argument for self-respect and self-esteem among African
Americans. However, she does not state what she is arguing against; she leaves
it up to the reader to infer the social barriers she is addressing.

literary analysis workshop

1203


A Mosaic of American Voices

Mother Tongue
Essay by Amy Tan

notable quote

Although her mother had pushed her

to become a neurosurgeon, the rebellious
Tan defied her mother’s wishes and studied
literature and linguistics in college. In
1974, she enrolled in a doctoral program in
linguistics, but she abandoned her studies
after a close friend was murdered. Tan then
put her expertise to work as a language
development consultant for programs
serving disabled children. Five years later,
she adopted a new career as a freelance
technical writer.

“Memory feeds
imagination.”

fyi
Did you know that
Amy Tan . . .
• plays in a band called
the Rock Bottom
Remainders with
Stephen King and other
literary celebrities?
• has visited the White
House five times?
• has had her works
translated into more
than 20 languages?

In 1989, Amy Tan’s first book, The Joy

Luck Club, spent 40 weeks on the New
York Times bestseller list. Praised for its
authentic dialogue and its rich portrayal of
Chinese history, the book established Tan
as an insightful chronicler of the ChineseAmerican experience and of the fierce
and conflicted love between mothers and
daughters.

Confronting the Past Tan took up writing
fiction as a form of therapy, hoping to curb
her workaholic tendencies. Her first short
story, “End Game,” appeared in Seventeen
magazine, bringing her to the attention of
prominent literary agent Sandra Dijkstra.
With Dijkstra’s encouragement, Tan began
writing a series of stories that evolved
into The Joy Luck Club. For this tightly
woven collection of short stories, Tan
drew upon her personal story, exploring
the generational and cultural gap between
Chinese mothers and their American-born
daughters.

Troubled Times Born in Oakland, California
in 1952, Tan spent her early childhood in
the San Francisco Bay area. She enjoyed
her first literary success at the age of eight,
winning first prize in an elementary school
contest for her essay “What My Library
Means to Me.” Six years later, Tan’s life

took a tragic turn when both her father and
her brother died from brain tumors. Her
grief-stricken mother moved teenaged Amy
and her surviving brother to Europe, settling
in Montreux, Switzerland, where Tan
graduated from high school in 1969.

Two years later, Tan published her
second book, The Kitchen God’s Wife,
a novel inspired by her mother’s life in
China. Though she switched her focus from
mother-daughter love to sisterhood in her
third novel, The Hundred Secret Senses, she
once again drew on her mother’s life story
in her fourth, The Bonesetter’s Daughter. As
Tan explains, “My books have amounted to
taking her stories—a gift to me—and giving
them back to her. To me, it was the ultimate
thing I ever could have done for myself and
my mother.”

Amy Tan
born 1952

For more on Amy Tan,
visit the Literature
Center at ClassZone.com.

1204

literary analysis: personal essay
Amy Tan could have written a research paper to get across her
points about language and cultural identity. Instead, she chose
to write a personal essay, where she combines her insights on
the topic with details from her own life.
Just last week, as I was walking down the street with [my
mother], I again found myself conscious of the English I was
using, the English I do use with her.
Unlike a scholarly paper or a newspaper article, a personal
essay gives you a snapshot of the writer’s life or personality as
well as his or her thoughts on a specific topic. As you read this
essay, note how Tan connects her ideas about the power of
language with her own experiences.

reading skill: identify main ideas

languages

What
do you speak?

KEY IDEA Think about how you change
the way you speak based on where
you are and whom you’re with. You
might use slang when talking with
friends but polite, formal language
with adults. You might speak English at
school and another language at home.
In “Mother Tongue,” you will read one

writer’s thoughts on her own different
languages.

QUICKWRITE Make a list of places and
situations where you use a different
language or way of speaking. Then, for
each situation, write a brief quotation
that captures the sound of the language
you use in that context.

detail

M

ai

n

Ide

a

Amy Tan’s essay is organized into a series of paragraphs,
most of which develop one main idea, or central point. Facts,
descriptions, or examples that are related to the main idea
are called supporting details. When a main idea is not directly
stated, you can figure it out by asking yourself how these
supporting details fit together.
Amy Tan uses vivid supporting details to make her points.
As you read, use a diagram like the one shown to record the

main idea of each paragraph and list its supporting details.

Explore the Key Idea

“Mother Tong ue”

1205


Mother
Tongue
Amy Tan

10

20

I am not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you much more than
personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country
or others.
I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved
language. I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time
thinking about the power of language—the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual
image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And
I use them all—all the Englishes I grew up with. a
Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use. I was
giving a talk to a large group of people, the same talk I had already given to half
a dozen other groups. The talk was about my writing, my life, and my book,
The Joy Luck Club, and it was going along well enough, until I remembered one
major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the

room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech,
using the kind of English I have never used with her. I was saying things like “the
intersection of memory and imagination” and “There is an aspect of my fiction
that relates to thus-and-thus”—a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical
phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized1 forms, past
perfect tenses, conditional phrases, forms of standard English that I had learned
in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with
my mother.
1. nominalized (nJmPE-nEl-FzQd) forms: nouns formed from other parts of speech.

1206 unit 6: contemporary literature

ANALYZE VISUALS
In this painting, the
artist represents an
apple in three different
ways. What point about
language might the artist
be making?
a PERSONAL ESSAY

Reread lines 1–8.
What do you learn about
the author in these
opening lines?

Apple (1983), Andy Warhol.
Synthetic polymer paint and
silkscreen ink on canvas, 14˝ × 11˝.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation

for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York. © The
Andy Warhol Foundation, Inc./Art
Resource, New York.



30

40

50

60

Just last week, as I was walking down the street with her, I again found myself
conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were
talking about the price of new and used furniture, and I heard myself saying this:
“Not waste money that way.” My husband was with us as well, and he didn’t
notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It’s because over the
twenty years we’ve been together I’ve often used that same kind of English with
him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of
intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew
up with.
So that you’ll have some idea of what this family talk sounds like, I’ll
quote what my mother said during a conversation that I videotaped and then
transcribed. During this conversation, she was talking about a political gangster
in Shanghai who had the same last name as her family’s, Du, and how in his
early years the gangster wanted to be adopted by her family, who were rich
by comparison. Later, the gangster became more powerful, far richer than my

mother’s family, and he showed up at my mother’s wedding to pay his respects.
Here’s what she said in part: b
“Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Like off-the-street kind. He is Du
like Du Zong—but not Tsung-ming Island2 people. The local people call putong.
The river east side, he belong to that side local people. That man want to ask Du
Zong father take him in like become own family. Du Zong father wasn’t look
down on him, but didn’t take seriously, until that man big like become a mafia.
Now important person, very hard to inviting him. Chinese way, came only to
show respect, don’t stay for dinner. Respect for making big celebration, he shows
up. Mean gives lots of respect. Chinese custom. Chinese social life that way. If too
important won’t have to stay too long. He come to my wedding. I didn’t see, I
heard it. I gone to boy’s side, they have YMCA dinner. Chinese age I was nineteen.”
You should know that my mother’s expressive command of English belies how
much she actually understands. She reads the Forbes3 report, listens to Wall Street
Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads Shirley MacLaine’s books4 with
ease—all kinds of things I can’t begin to understand. Yet some of my friends
tell me they understand fifty percent of what my mother says. Some say they
understand eighty to ninety percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if
she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear,
perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct,
full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way
I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world. c
Lately I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks.
Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” English. But
I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to
describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if
2. Tsung-ming (tsMng-mGng) Island: an island near the mouth of the Yangtze River, near Shanghai, in eastern China.
3. Forbes: a financial magazine.
4. Shirley MacLaine’s books: works by the American actress Shirley MacLaine (born 1934), many of which
deal with reincarnation.

1208

unit 6: contemporary literature

b GRAMMAR AND STYLE

Reread lines 31–33. Note
how Tan addresses her
readers as you, as though
in conversation. This use
of informal language
helps her create a warm,
personal voice.

c

MAIN IDEAS
Reread lines 49–58.
What supporting details
does Tan include to
describe the way her
mother uses English?


70

80

90

100

it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. I’ve heard other terms used, “limited
English,” for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited,
including people’s perceptions of the limited-English speaker.
I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited”
English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed
that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she
expressed them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of
empirical evidence5 to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at
banks, and in restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service,
pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her. d
My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was a
teenager, she used to have me call people on the phone and pretend I was she. In this
guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who
had been rude to her. One time it was a call to her stockbroker in New York. She had
cashed out her small portfolio, and it just so happened we were going to New York
the next week, our first trip outside California. I had to get on the phone and say in
an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, “This is Mrs. Tan.”
My mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, “Why he don’t send me
check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.”
And then I said in perfect English on the phone, “Yes, I’m getting rather
concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.”
Then she began to talk more loudly. “What he want, I come to New York tell
him front of his boss, you cheating me?” And I was trying to calm her down,
make her be quiet, while telling the stockbroker, “I can’t tolerate any more excuses.
If I don’t receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your
manager when I’m in New York next week.” And sure enough, the following
week, there we were in front of this astonished stockbroker, and I was sitting there

red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting at his boss in
her impeccable broken English.
We used a similar routine more recently, for a situation that was far less
humorous. My mother had gone to the hospital for an appointment to find out
about a CAT scan6 she had had a month earlier. She said she had spoken very
good English, her best English, no mistakes. Still, she said, the hospital did not
apologize when they informed her they had lost the CAT scan and she had come
for nothing. She said they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them
she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis, since her husband and her son had
died of brain tumors. She said they would not give her any more information
until the next time and she would have to make another appointment for that.
So she said she would not leave until the doctor called her daughter. She wouldn’t
budge. And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect
English—lo and behold—we had assurances the CAT scan would be found,
promises that a conference call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any
suffering my mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake.

d PERSONAL ESSAY

Reread lines 59–72.
Explain Tan’s point
about the term “broken
English.” What personal
experiences does she
draw on to make her
point?

5. empirical evidence: evidence derived from observation.
6. CAT scan: a three-dimensional image of structures inside the human body.

mother tongue

1209


110

120

130

140

I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities
in life as well. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person’s
developing language skills are more influenced by peers than by family. But I do
think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families
which are more insular,7 plays a large role in shaping the language of the child.
And I believe that it affected my results on achievement tests, IQ tests, and the SAT.
While my English skills were never judged poor, compared with math, English
could not be considered my strong suit. In grade school I did moderately well,
getting perhaps B’s, sometimes B-pluses, in English and scoring perhaps in the
sixtieth or seventieth percentile on achievement tests. But those scores were not
good enough to override the opinion that my true abilities lay in math and science,
because in those areas I achieved A’s and scored in the ninetieth percentile or higher.
This was understandable. Math is precise; there is only one correct answer.
Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call,
a matter of opinion and personal experience. Those tests were constructed around
items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as, “Even though Tom was
________, Mary thought he was _______.” And the correct answer always

seemed to be the most bland combinations, for example, “Even though Tom
was shy, Mary thought he was charming,” with the grammatical structure “even
though” limiting the correct answer to some sort of semantic opposites,8 so you
wouldn’t get answers like, “Even though Tom was foolish, Mary thought he was
ridiculous.” Well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to
what Tom could have been and what Mary might have thought of him. So I never
did well on tests like that. e
The same was true with word analogies, pairs of words for which you were
supposed to find some sort of logical semantic relationship, for instance, “Sunset
is to nightfall as _______ is to_______ .” And here you would be presented with
a list of four possible pairs, one of which showed the same kind of relationship:
red is to stoplight, bus is to arrival, chills is to fever, yawn is to boring. Well, I could
never think that way. I knew what the tests were asking, but I could not block out
of my mind the images already created by the first pair, sunset is to nightfall—and
I would see a burst of colors against a darkening sky, the moon rising, the lowering
of a curtain of stars. And all the other pairs of words—red, bus, stoplight, boring—
just threw up a mass of confusing images, making it impossible for me to see
that saying “A sunset precedes nightfall” was as logical as saying “A chill precedes
a fever.” The only way I would have gotten that answer right was to imagine an
associative situation,9 such as my being disobedient and staying out past sunset,
catching a chill at night, which turned into feverish pneumonia as punishment—
which indeed did happen to me.
I have been thinking about all this lately, about my mother’s English,
about achievement tests. Because lately I’ve been asked, as a writer, why there
are not more Asian-Americans represented in American literature. Why are
7. insular: isolated.
8. semantic opposites: words opposite in meaning.
9. associative situation: a circumstance or story based on mental connections.

1210

unit 6: contemporary literature

e

PERSONAL ESSAY
Reread lines 107–129.
According to Tan, in what
ways did her mother’s
use of English influence
her own performance on
standardized tests?


150

160

170

180

there few Asian-Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so
many Chinese students go into engineering? Well, these are broad sociological
questions I can’t begin to answer. But I have noticed in surveys—in fact, just last
week—that Asian-American students, as a whole, do significantly better on math
achievement tests than on English tests. And this makes me think that there are
other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also
be described as “broken” or “limited.” And perhaps they also have teachers who
are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what

happened to me.
Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious and enjoy the challenge of disproving
assumptions made about me. I became an English major my first year in college,
after being enrolled as pre-med. I started writing nonfiction as a freelancer the
week after I was told by my boss at the time that writing was my worst skill and
I should hone my talents toward account management. f
But it wasn’t until 1985 that I began to write fiction. At first I wrote using what
I thought to be wittily crafted sentences, sentences that would finally prove I had
mastery over the English language. Here’s an example from the first draft of a
story that later made its way into The Joy Luck Club, but without this line: “That
was my mental quandary in its nascent state.”10 A terrible line, which I can barely
pronounce.
Fortunately, for reasons I won’t get into here, I later decided I should envision
a reader for the stories I would write. And the reader I decided on was my mother,
because these were stories about mothers. So with this reader in mind—and in
fact she did read my early drafts—I began to write stories using all the Englishes
I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term
might be described as “simple”; the English she used with me, which for lack
of a better term might be described as “broken”; my translation of her Chinese,
which could certainly be described as “watered down”; and what I imagined to be
her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal
language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English
nor a Chinese structure. 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.
Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had
succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave
me her verdict: “So easy to read.”

f

MAIN IDEAS
Identify the main idea
of lines 157–161. What
details support this
main idea?

10. my mental quandary . . . state: my mental predicament in its earliest form.

mother tongue

1211


After Reading

Comprehension
1. Recall What words does Tan typically use to describe her mother’s English?
2. Summarize In general, how did people react to Mrs. Tan’s use of English?
3. Recall According to Tan, what aspects of language do achievement tests fail
to reveal?

Literary Analysis
4. Identify the Main Idea Review the diagram you created as you read. Based
on your notes, what is the main idea of the entire essay? Explain your answer.
5. Compare Roles Tan describes situations in which she was forced to act as
a go-between for her mother, as in the anecdote in lines 80–91. Describe
the roles of Tan and her mother in these situations. In what ways do these
interactions differ from the typical mother-daughter relationship? Be specific
in your answer.

6. Make Judgments Tan describes her mother’s English as “vivid, direct, full of
observation and imagery.” Reread the story Tan’s mother tells in lines 39–48.
Do you agree with Tan’s opinion of her mother’s speech? Why or why not?
7. Analyze a Personal Essay Describe Tan’s changing perceptions of her
mother’s use of English. In what way did her changing views toward her
mother influence her observations about the power of language? Include
details from the essay in your answer.
8. Interpret Title Tan uses the expression “mother tongue” as the title of her
essay. State the usual meaning of this expression. Then, use each of the
following examples to develop a different or expanded meaning for this term:
• the idea of family talk (lines 28–30)
• Tan’s description of her mother’s speech (lines 55–58)
• Tan’s thoughts on language development (lines 107–110)
9. Evaluate Author’s Position Tan claims that the language spoken within the
family does more to shape the way a child speaks than the language spoken
by his or her peers. Recall your answers to the opening activity on page 1205.
Do you agree with Tan’s opinion? Why or why not?

Literary Criticism
10. Different Perspectives Look at the essay again through the eyes of the
following individuals. What important lessons about life and the uses of
language might each draw from this essay?

1212

• an immigrant

• the child of an immigrant

• a doctor

• a teacher

unit 6: contemporary literature


Reading-Writing Connection
writing prompt

self-check

WRITE AN ESSAY Choose a topic that lets you draw on
your personal experiences—a longtime hobby, a trip
you took, your family history. Write an one-page essay
that communicates your unique perspective on this
subject. Be sure to include relevant details from your
own experiences in the essay.

A successful essay will . . .
• open in a way that captures
the reader’s attention
• include appropriate and effective personal details
• create a compelling voice that
conveys your personality

grammar and style
USE APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE Review the Grammar and Style note on page 1208.
For this essay, Tan chooses a casual, conversational style that lets her establish
a strong connection with her readers. One strategy that helps Tan create this
distinctive style is her use of informal language that contains contractions and

idiosyncratic terms like Englishes. She also addresses her readers in a personal
voice, using the pronoun you, as in the following excerpt:
You should know that my mother’s expressive command of English belies how
much she actually understands. She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall
Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads Shirley MacLaine’s
books with ease—all kinds of things I can’t begin to understand. (lines 49–52)
Whenever you write, consider the audience you are addressing and choose the
appropriate level of formality.
PRACTICE Rewrite each of the following sentences using the kind of informal
language Tan might have used.
example

It is often difficult to make sense of the rules of effective language.
Sometimes it’s hard to understand what makes language work well.
1. A lack of education caused my mother to speak a damaged, limited kind
of English.
2. To demonstrate my use of these techniques, I have included some excerpts
from my recent work.
3. A substantial portion of my fiction relates to my background and personal
experiences.

writing
tools
For prewriting, revision,
and editing tools, visit
the Writing Center at
ClassZone.com.

mother tongue

1213


A Mosaic of American Voices
from

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens

Essay by Alice Walker

notable quote

and won a scholarship to Spelman
College, a historically black women’s
college in Atlanta, Georgia. When she
left for college, her mother gave her three
gifts: a typewriter, a sewing machine,
and a suitcase. For Walker, these gifts
represented creativity, domesticity, and
freedom—a legacy of hopes, dreams, and
unfulfilled longings passed from mother
to daughter.

“It’s a very human need,
to make things, to create.”

fyi
Did you know that Alice
Walker . . .
• became the first black

woman to win the
Pulitzer Prize for fiction?
• helped rediscover
the writer Zora Neale
Hurston?

Fighting for Equality In 1965, after

• is an active
environmentalist?

Alice Walker
born 1944
For more on Alice Walker,
visit the Literature
Center at ClassZone.com.

Best known for her novels, author and
activist Alice Walker also writes poems,
short stories, and essays. Often inspired by
her personal experiences, Walker portrays
the struggles of African-American women
to transcend the limits imposed on their
lives by racism and sexism. Though her
characters typically face violence and great
hardships, Walker emphasizes the power
of hope and the strength of the human will
to survive.
Early Influences The daughter of a

sharecropper, Walker grew up poor in
Eatonton, Georgia. When she was eight,
an accident left her permanently blind
in her right eye. A shy and self-conscious
Walker withdrew from the world and
turned to poetry to soothe her feelings
of isolation.
Although uneducated herself, Walker’s
mother supported her daughter’s creative
ambitions. Walker was an exceptional
student who became class valedictorian

1214

graduating from college, Walker received
a travel fellowship to Senegal. Instead,
she went to Mississippi to help fight for
racial justice. “That summer,” explains
Walker, “marked the beginning of a
realization that I could never live happily
in Africa—or anywhere else—until I could
live freely in Mississippi.” In 1967, she
defied state law to marry white civil rights
lawyer Melvyn Leventhal. In retaliation for
their interracial marriage, the couple was
subjected to constant harassment and even
death threats.
Speaking for the Oppressed During the
1970s, Walker published two novels and
volumes of poetry and short stories. Her

breakthrough came with the publication
of her third novel, The Color Purple
(1982), which was later made into a
successful film. Many critics attacked
this novel for its unflattering portrayals
of African-American men. In response,
Walker insisted her work reflected the
painful realities of many black women’s
lives: “The black woman,” she explained,
“is one of America’s greatest heroes. . . .
Not enough credit has been given to the
black woman who has been oppressed
beyond recognition.”


literary analysis: author’s message
Authors write for a reason: they have a point to get across.
In most nonfiction, you can find direct statements that reveal
the author’s message, as in this example:
And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than
not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the
flower they themselves never hoped to see. . . .
Statements like these, and the examples used to support them,
will help you identify the lesson Walker wants to teach.
Walker also includes one of her poems in the essay. In the
poem, her message is expressed indirectly, through elements
such as mood, imagery, and figurative language. As you read
the essay, notice the different techniques Walker uses to reveal
her message.

reading skill: understand cultural context
When you analyze the cultural context of a literary work, you
consider the social and cultural conditions that influenced
how and why the work was written. Alice Walker’s work
reflects two key influences: her childhood experiences as a
poor African-American female in the South and her adult
commitment to feminist ideals. To fully appreciate Walker’s
points, use the following strategies:

Explore the Key Idea

life

When does
become art?

KEY IDEA Some people have an
irresistible urge to create. Maybe they
express it by sewing stylish clothes or
cooking elaborate meals, by singing as
they work, or by telling hilarious stories.
For these people, even everyday chores
can provide the creative outlet they
need to release their artistic impulses.

DISCUSS In a small group, think of
several ways that people express their
creativity in everyday life. What do
you think drives people to be creative?
Record your responses and compare

them with those of other groups.

• Before reading, study the details about cultural context
provided in the background information on page 1216.
• Consult the footnotes as you read to clarify Walker’s
references to cultural details.
• Apply what you know about the social conditions that
shaped the lives of African Americans in the South.
As you read, note details that reveal how Walker’s social and
cultural influences have shaped her views.

1215


Inof Search
Our
Mothers’
Gardens
Alice Walker

background Alice Walker wrote this essay in 1974, after decades of civil rights
activism had broken down many barriers for African Americans. At the same time, the
women’s movement had begun to raise awareness of the social constraints imposed
on women’s lives. Women of Walker’s generation were poised to claim personal and
social freedoms that earlier generations of women could never have dreamed of. As
these women looked back into history to find role models for their own lives, they
began to appreciate the extraordinary sacrifices these earlier generations had made.
In this essay, Walker examines her mother’s life to uncover a hidden legacy of resilience,
strength, and overlooked talent passed on to the women of her own time.

10

In the late 1920s my mother ran away from home to marry my father. Marriage,
if not running away, was expected of seventeen-year-old girls. By the time she was
twenty, she had two children and was pregnant with a third. Five children later,
I was born. And this is how I came to know my mother: she seemed a large, soft,
loving-eyed woman who was rarely impatient in our home. Her quick, violent
temper was on view only a few times a year, when she battled with the white
landlord who had the misfortune to suggest to her that her children did not need
to go to school.
She made all the clothes we wore, even my brothers’ overalls. She made all the
towels and sheets we used. She spent the summers canning vegetables and fruits.
She spent the winter evenings making quilts enough to cover all our beds. a
During the “working” day, she labored beside—not behind—my father in the
fields. Her day began before sunup, and did not end until late at night. There
was never a moment for her to sit down, undisturbed, to unravel her own private
thoughts; never a time free from interruption—by work or the noisy inquiries of
her many children. And yet, it is to my mother—and all our mothers who were
not famous—that I went in search of the secret of what has fed that muzzled and
often mutilated,1 but vibrant, creative spirit that the black woman has inherited,
and that pops out in wild and unlikely places to this day.
1. mutilated (myLtPl-A’tGd): irreparably damaged.

1216

unit 6: contemporary literature

ANALYZE VISUALS
Describe the style of this
painting. In what ways

does the artist’s use of
color, line, and texture
contrast with the activity
depicted?

a CULTURAL CONTEXT

What details in lines
1–11 convey the social
conditions of AfricanAmerican women in the
early 20th century?

Washerwoman, James Amos Porter. Oil
on canvas, 18˝ × 13˝. Private collection.
Reproduction rights given by the Dorothy
Porter Wesley Research Center, Fort
Lauderdale, Florida.



20

30

But when, you will ask, did my overworked mother have time to know or care
about feeding the creative spirit?
The answer is so simple that many of us have spent years discovering it. We
have constantly looked high, when we should have looked high—and low.
For example: in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., there hangs
a quilt unlike any other in the world. In fanciful, inspired, and yet simple and

identifiable figures, it portrays the story of the Crucifixion.2 It is considered rare,
beyond price. Though it follows no known pattern of quilt-making, and though it
is made of bits and pieces of worthless rags, it is obviously the work of a person of
powerful imagination and deep spiritual feeling. Below this quilt I saw a note that
says it was made by “an anonymous Black woman in Alabama, a hundred years ago.”
If we could locate this “anonymous” black woman from Alabama, she would
turn out to be one of our grandmothers—an artist who left her mark in the only
materials she could afford, and in the only medium her position in society allowed
her to use. b
As Virginia Woolf 3 wrote further, in A Room of One’s Own:
Yet genius of a sort must have existed among women as it must have existed
among the working class. [Change this to “slaves” and “the wives and daughters of
sharecroppers.”] Now and again an Emily Brontë or a Robert Burns [change this
to “a Zora Hurston or a Richard Wright” 4] blazes out and proves its presence. But
certainly it never got itself on to paper. When, however, one reads of a witch being
ducked, of a woman possessed by devils [or “Sainthood” 5], of a wise woman selling
herbs [our root workers], or even a very remarkable man who had a mother, then
I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet, of some mute and
inglorious Jane Austen6. . . . Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote
so many poems without signing them, was often a woman. . . . c

40

50

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously,
handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped
to see: or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.
And so it is, certainly, with my own mother. Unlike “Ma” Rainey’s songs,
which retained their creator’s name even while blasting forth from Bessie Smith’s7

mouth, no song or poem will bear my mother’s name. Yet so many of the stories
that I write, that we all write, are my mother’s stories. Only recently did I fully
2. Crucifixion: the death of Jesus Christ, who was nailed to a cross.
3. Virginia Woolf: English novelist, critic, and pioneering feminist (1882–1941). Her works frequently explore
the inner lives of women living under severe social constraints.
4. Emily Brontë . . . Richard Wright: Brontë (1818–1848) was an English novelist and poet, and Burns (1759–
1796) was a Scottish poet. Hurston (1891–1960) and Wright (1908–1960) were African-American writers.
5. “Sainthood”: a reference to certain black women in the South called Saints. They were intensely spiritual
women who were driven to madness by their unfulfilled creativity.
6. Jane Austen: British novelist (1775–1817), best known for Pride and Prejudice.
7. “Ma” Rainey’s . . . Bessie Smith’s: Ma Rainey was the nickname of Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey
(1886–1939), a blues singer considered to be the mother of the blues. Bessie Smith (1894–1937), another
blues singer, was mentored by Ma Rainey.

1218

unit 6: contemporary literature

b AUTHOR’S MESSAGE

Reread Walker’s
description of the quilt
in lines 24–34. Which
sentence best states the
message behind Walker’s
observations?

c

CULTURAL CONTEXT

Reread lines 36–45.
Consulting the footnotes
as needed, explain
how Walker adapts the
Virginia Woolf quotation
to her own cultural
context. Why might
Walker have chosen to
quote this particular
author?


60

70

80

90

realize this: that through years of listening to my mother’s stories of her life, I
have absorbed not only the stories themselves, but something of the manner in
which she spoke, something of the urgency that involves the knowledge that her
stories—like her life—must be recorded. It is probably for this reason that so
much of what I have written is about characters whose counterparts in real life are
so much older than I am.
But the telling of these stories, which came from my mother’s lips as naturally
as breathing, was not the only way my mother showed herself as an artist. For
stories, too, were subject to being distracted, to dying without conclusion.
Dinners must be started, and cotton must be gathered before the big rains. The

artist that was and is my mother showed itself to me only after many years. This
is what I finally noticed:
Like Mem, a character in The Third Life of Grange Copeland,8 my mother
adorned with flowers whatever shabby house we were forced to live in. And not
just your typical straggly country stand of zinnias, either. She planted ambitious
gardens—and still does—with over fifty different varieties of plants that bloom
profusely from early March until late November. Before she left home for the
fields, she watered her flowers, chopped up the grass, and laid out new beds.
When she returned from the fields she might divide clumps of bulbs, dig a cold
pit,9 uproot and replant roses, or prune branches from her taller bushes or trees—
until night came and it was too dark to see.
Whatever she planted grew as if by magic, and her fame as a grower of flowers
spread over three counties. Because of her creativity with her flowers, even my
memories of poverty are seen through a screen of blooms—sunflowers, petunias,
roses, dahlias, forsythia, spirea, delphiniums, verbena . . . and on and on.
And I remember people coming to my mother’s yard to be given cuttings
from her flowers; I hear again the praise showered on her because whatever rocky
soil she landed on, she turned into a garden. A garden so brilliant with colors,
so original in its design, so magnificent with life and creativity, that to this day
people drive by our house in Georgia—perfect strangers and imperfect strangers—
and ask to stand or walk among my mother’s art.
I notice that it is only when my mother is working in her flowers that she is
radiant, almost to the point of being invisible—except as Creator: hand and eye.
She is involved in work her soul must have. Ordering the universe in the image
of her personal conception of Beauty.
Her face, as she prepares the Art that is her gift, is a legacy of respect she leaves
to me, for all that illuminates and cherishes life. She has handed down respect for
the possibilities—and the will to grasp them.
For her, so hindered and intruded upon in so many ways, being an artist has
still been a daily part of her life. This ability to hold on, even in very simple ways,

is work black women have done for a very long time. d

d AUTHOR’S MESSAGE

Reread lines 88–93. What
lessons does Walker take
from her mother’s life?

8. The Third Life of Grange Copeland: Alice Walker’s first novel, published in 1970.
9. cold pit: shallow pit, usually covered with glass, used for rooting or sheltering young plants from
temperature variations in the spring.

in search of our mothers’ gardens

1219


This poem is not enough, but it is something, for the woman who literally
covered the holes in our walls with sunflowers:
They were women then
My mama’s generation
Husky of voice—Stout of
Step
With fists as well as
Hands
How they battered down
Doors
And ironed
Starched white
Shirts

How they led
Armies
Headragged Generals
Across mined
Fields
Booby-trapped
Kitchens
To discover books
Desks
A place for us
How they knew what we
Must know
Without knowing a page
Of it
Themselves. e

100

110

120

130

Guided by my heritage of a love of beauty and a respect for strength—in search
of my mother’s garden, I found my own.
And perhaps in Africa over two hundred years ago, there was just such a
mother; perhaps she painted vivid and daring decorations in oranges and yellows
and greens on the walls of her hut; perhaps she sang—in a voice like Roberta
Flack’s10—sweetly over the compounds of her village; perhaps she wove the most

stunning mats or told the most ingenious stories of all the village storytellers.
Perhaps she was herself a poet—though only her daughter’s name is signed to the
poems that we know.
Perhaps Phillis Wheatley’s mother was also an artist.
Perhaps in more than Phillis Wheatley’s11 biological life is her mother’s
signature made clear.
10. Roberta Flack’s: Flack is a popular African-American singer-songwriter.
11. Phillis Wheatley’s: American poet Phillis Wheatley (1753?–1783), was born in Africa and brought to
America in slavery. She is often referred to as the first African-American poet.

1220

unit 6: contemporary literature

e

AUTHOR’S MESSAGE
Reread the poem in lines
96–121. Identify images
Walker uses to describe
these women. What
qualities are emphasized
by these images?


After Reading

Comprehension
1. Recall On what occasions did Walker’s mother lose her temper?
2. Summarize What did Walker’s mother do in a typical day?

3. Recall According to Walker, what change occurred in her mother as she
worked in her garden?

Literary Analysis
4. Make Inferences Recall that a paradox is a statement that may appear
contradictory but in fact communicates an important truth. Identify the
paradox in Walker’s poem in lines 117–121. What point is Walker making?
5. Analyze Author’s Message Reread the conclusion of Walker’s essay in lines
124–133. Explain what Walker means by her reference to Phillis Wheatley’s
mother. In what way does this passage express the message of Walker’s
essay?
6. Examine Cultural Context Consider the conditions that constrained Walker’s
mother’s life. Within this context, what is so remarkable about what she
achieved? Support your answer with details.
7. Make Generalizations Consider Walker’s descriptions of the following works
of art by African-American women. What does each of these examples tell
you about this artistic tradition?
• the description of the quilt (lines 24–34)
• Walker’s comments on her mother’s stories (lines 49–56)
• the garden Walker’s mother plants (lines 65–77)
8. Draw Conclusions Think back to your discussion about the creative outlets
people use to express their artistic impulses. Consider the creative outlets
described in question 7. In your opinion, what inspires these women to make
art despite the obstacles they face?

Literary Criticism
9. Critical Interpretations “Walker’s optimism,” writes critic Donna Haisty
Winchell, “is ultimately born of her belief that something of the divine exists
in every human and nonhuman participant in the universe. The inhabitants
of her fictional world search . . . for that divine spark that makes them

uniquely who they are.” In what ways might this quote also apply to the
women in this nonfiction essay? Cite evidence from the text to support
your conclusions.

in search of our mothers’ gardens

1221


A Mosaic of American Voices

Straw into Gold: The Metamorphosis
of the Everyday
Essay by Sandra Cisneros

notable quote

Cisneros. “And she always told me, ‘Make
sure you can take care of yourself.’”

“If you’re bilingual you’re
doubly rich. You have
two ways of looking at
the world.”

Growing Up Lonely Cisneros formed

fyi
Did you know that Sandra
Cisneros . . .

• wrote in secret as
a child because she
knew her family would
disapprove?
• won a MacArthur
“genius grant,” a large
monetary award given
to honor “exceptional
creativity and
originality”?
• has had poems on
display on Chicago
subways and buses?

For more on Sandra
Cisneros, visit the
Literature Center at
ClassZone.com.

Sandra Cisneros
born 1954

“I’m trying to write the stories that
haven’t been written,” Sandra Cisneros
has proclaimed. With her rich, intimate
portraits of Mexicans and Mexican
Americans, Cisneros hopes to make readers
of all races aware of the complexities
of straddling two cultures. As a female
minority writer, she sees herself as a voice

for the voiceless. “I’m determined,” she
explains, “to fill a literary void.”
Fighting Tradition Born to a Mexican

father and a Mexican-American mother,
Cisneros grew up on Chicago’s South Side.
The only girl among seven children, she
felt as if she had “seven fathers” because
her brothers tried to control her behavior.
Like their father, they thought Sandra
should adopt a quiet, traditional lifestyle.
Fortunately, she was blessed with a mother
“brave enough to raise her daughter in a
nontraditional way.” “My mother didn’t
force me to learn how to cook,” says

1222

few lasting friendships in early childhood,
because her family moved frequently
between Chicago and Mexico. “The
moving back and forth, the new school,
were very upsetting to me as a child,”
she once said. Retreating into herself,
Cisneros became a keen observer of others
and a secret writer of poetry. After years of
clandestine composition, she encountered
a teacher in high school who appreciated
her experiences and her writing. With the
teacher’s encouragement, Cisneros began

to share her work with her classmates.
The Value of Heritage In 1976, Cisneros
entered the University of Iowa’s prestigious
Writers’ Workshop. Surrounded by
people from more privileged backgrounds,
Cisneros felt intimidated. Soon, however,
she came to realize that she could write
about something her classmates could not.
“It was not until this moment,” Cisneros
recalls, “when I separated myself, when
I considered myself truly distinct, that
my writing acquired a voice.” Cisneros’s
realization gave rise to the acclaimed The
House on Mango Street (1984), a series of
interlocking prose poems about a poor
Mexican-American family. Her reputation
was cemented with the publication
in 1991 of Woman Hollering Creek, a
collection of stories. “In everything I’ve
done in my life,” she maintains, “including
all the choices I’ve made as a writer, I’ve
followed my gut and my heart. It’s taken
me where I’ve needed to go so far.”


Explore the Key Idea

literary analysis: voice
A writer’s voice is his or her unique style of expression. This
unique use of language is what allows you to “hear” a human

personality behind the words you read. In “Straw into Gold,”
Sandra Cisneros writes:
I’d never seen anybody make corn tortillas. Ever.
The informal tone, the use of a contraction, the everyday
words, the short sentence followed by a fragment, and
the pauses before and after the word ever—all help create
Cisneros’s voice in this essay—one that is personal, relaxed,
and almost conversational in its natural sound. As you read,
look for instances when you “hear” Cisneros behind her words.
Note the stylistic elements that help create this unique effect.

reading skill: analyze structure
The structure of a literary work, or how its different parts are
organized, is directly tied to the author’s purpose. Cisneros’s
purpose in this personal essay is twofold. She shares with
readers some of her formative experiences—moments that
helped shape her life as a writer. She also aims to convey a
message about life.
Personal essays are often loosely structured, and “Straw
into Gold” is no exception. Cisneros begins the essay with an
anecdote—a brief story that makes a point. After you read it,
summarize it in a chart like the one shown. As you continue
to read, summarize Cisneros’s other recollections.
Anecdote or Recollection

Where do writers get their

material?

KEY IDEA Writers harvest ideas for

their work in a variety of places. Some
writers find inspiration in controversies
ripped from the headlines. Others are
intrigued by a particular moment in
history. Literature can be inspired by
a writer’s travels around the world,
but just as often, powerful stories
start closer to home. In “Straw into
Gold,” you will meet a writer who has
unearthed a wealth of ideas in her own
experiences and heritage.

QUICKWRITE Think of a work of
literature you’re familiar with. Where
do you think the writer came by his or
her ideas? Whether it’s a lyric poem
about lost love or a novel about a
historical event, try to imagine the
writer’s source of material. Explain
your thoughts in a short paragraph.

Summary

introductory anecdote (lines 1–30)

1223


Straw into Gold:
The Metamorphosis of the Everyday

Sandra Cisneros

background Cisneros originally delivered the text of “Straw into Gold” as a speech.
The essay still retains some characteristics of an oral work—for example, the voice
has a distinctly conversational character. The phrase “Straw into Gold” refers to the
challenge faced by the heroine in “Rumplestiltskin.” In this fairy tale, as you may recall,
a miller’s daughter will be put to death unless she can do the seemingly impossible—
namely, spin gold out of mere straw. The word metamorphosis in the subtitle means
“transformation.”

10

When I was living in an artists’ colony in the south of France, some fellow LatinAmericans who taught at the university in Aix-en-Provence1 invited me to share
a homecooked meal with them. I had been living abroad almost a year then on
an NEA2 grant, subsisting mainly on French bread and lentils so that my money
could last longer. So when the invitation to dinner arrived, I accepted without
hesitation. Especially since they had promised Mexican food.
What I didn’t realize when they made this invitation was that I was supposed
to be involved in preparing the meal. I guess they assumed I knew how to cook
Mexican food because I am Mexican. They wanted specifically tortillas, though
I’d never made a tortilla in my life. a

ANALYZE VISUALS
What does the image
on page 1225 suggest
about women’s roles
in traditional Mexican
culture? Read the essay,
then revisit your answer,
citing details from

the text.

a VOICE

Reread lines 1–10.
What stylistic elements
allow Cisneros’s informal,
conversational voice to
emerge? Cite specific
examples.

1. Aix-en-Provence (AkQsäN-prI-väNsP): French city about ten miles north of the Mediterranean Sea.
2. NEA: the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency that funds artistic projects of organizations
and individuals.

1224

unit 6: contemporary literature

Making Tortillas (1926), Diego
Rivera. University of California, San
Francisco. © Bridgeman Art Library.