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Yuridiana Morales Professor Altman September 17, 2013 Progression Three Everyone in life is branded whether they like it or not. In the stories Mother Tongue by Amy Tan and If You Are What You Eat Then What Am I by Geeta Kothari. We get to see how their journeys, views, and ideas are different and similar. Amy Tans Mother Tongue talks about how there are different styles of communication and how those styles can affect how a person is seen and treated. She explains to us how her personal experience made her change her thoughts on her mother and the concept of identity. In If You Are What You Eat Then What Am I Geeta Kothari speaks about how she is torn between two cultures and how that affects her in identifying who she is. She talks about how her mother is supposed to be the guidance to fitting in into a new a culture and how she is doing the opposite. In contrast to Amy Tan, Geeta Kothari comes to a different realization in what she is. Both Amy Tans and Geeta Kotharis story deal with their moms. However, Geeta differs from Tans story because she is depending on her culture to define who she is while Tan is doing the opposite. Amy Tan and Geeta Kothari had some kind of connection with their mothers in their stories. In If You Are What You Eat Then What Am I, Kothari holds her mother responsible for not being able to fit in. Kothari states, They are supposed to help us negotiate the outside world outside, teach us the signsand they fail (Kothari 923).She is mad at her mother, but in reality she is mad at herself because she feels outcast. Similarly, Amy Tan also blames her mother. She says, My mothers English had an effectI believe that it affected my results on achievement tests, IQ tests, and the SAT (Tan 636).Her mother wasnt able to help her since she

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wasnt familiar with the new cultural surroundings. She considers her mom liable for not doing as well in school as she wanted to. In both stories their mothers limitations also put a limitation on them. Apart from sharing some similarities both stories also contrast. Amy Tan discusses about how her mothers culture influenced the way she speaks and how it shouldnt define who she is. For example she says, 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 (Tan 638). This implies that her mothers language or as she says, broken English will never be able to portray what she truly means. The inability of a person, in this case language and culture, should not be used as a form to distinguish what kind of person someone is. In other words we should look beyond that and read between the lines. In the contrary, Geeta Kothari explains how she depends on her cultures foods to define who she is. For Instance she states, somehow I am not my parents daughter, not Indian, and because I cannot bear the touch and smell of raw meat though I can eat it cooked, I am not American (Kothari 926). She eats in a half American and Indian style. She is torn between two different cultures and feels as if she cannot fit anywhere. One story is about how culture shouldnt have a say on identifying a person while the other is trying to identify herself by looking at her cultures. Both Mother Tongue and If You Are What You Eat Then What Am I talk about how their mothers restraints had some kind of effect in their life. These stories also expressed different views on identity. Both authors brought similar ideas but interpreted them differently.