When reading the story "Mother Tongue", by Amy Tan, there is a harsh reality that is never directly presented to the reader.  However, while reading "This is Water", By David Foster Wallace, the truth about this harsh reality is revealed. Amy talks about the struggles that her mother went through because of the poor English that she spoke. The story "This is Water" describes this harsh reality that is presented in "Mother Tongue". When "Mother Tongue" presents this harsh reality, the story "This is Water" portrays the reason her mother is constantly ignored or overlooked.

Wallace speaks about remaining in your default setting for your entire adult life and never understanding that you are not the center of the universe. Wallace also speaks about people who have the ability to adjust their natural default setting and are known as "well adjusted" (Wallace XIII). Wallace's point was that these people who are known as "well adjusted" are adults, these people who have their first reaction to a situation based on the perspective that others could have of the situation and not based solely on the perspective they have of the situation. Being an adult cannot be described in a single sentence or even a single short story, Wallace describes adulthood as, "boredom, routine, and petty frustration (Wallace XIII). A true adult has become "well adjusted" and ignores their default setting when facing these difficulties of adulthood. The problem occurs because most people never take the steps necessary to becoming an adult early enough in life for results to occur. The results being success: education, wealth, family. All of these steps are learned through personal failure or through the careful observation of other's failures. Wallace speaks about suicide, and how most of adult suicides occur with shots to the head and that this is no subject of chance (Wallace XIII). Every step that must be taken on the path to becoming an adult each pose a different obstacle for different people. Each step must be taken one at a time and every time a step is taken a new truth is revealed, a truth that for some individuals is difficult to handle. Throughout each step of adulthood an individual's default settings must be analyzed or re-adjusted. During these steps many individuals fail to re-adjust properly. Only to soon find out the harsh reality of this world sweeps across the face of this earth in the form of a wave of punishment and death to re-adjust the lives of all individuals that have taken the steps into adulthood but have not re-adjusted their lifestyle properly. The harsh reality that is presented in this short story is simple: not every individual understands what it means to be an adult, in fact a majority of people don't adjust their default settings when they enter adulthood. If an individual is not truly an adult, the struggles of adulthood that Wallace speaks of, boredom, routine, and petty frustration would greatly affect the day to day attitude that individual would have. This routine of adulthood is what becomes boring and frustrating, when a routine is followed for an extended period of time the routine becomes a habit, and when this habit is disrupted by circumstance an individual has no control over, their initial reaction is to be bored or frustrated. If this occurs then your default settings are due to be re-adjusted. This is not something you can control, either you possess the ability to ignore your first reaction, re-adjust, or you are unable to block the first simple emotion that pops into your head.  Just like any other skill in life it must be practiced again and again for the skill to be mastered. However, Wallace speaks of people who have natural adjusted their default settings, this is a rare trait. One of these rare individuals can be seen as the author of the story "Mother Tongue, which tells a story of the difficulties her mother went through due to the fact that she was not well-adjusted, specifically her English speaking skills.

The author of, "Mother Tongue", Amy Tan describes herself as a writer and then defines a writer as, "someone who has always loved language" (Tan 328). Tan then talks about the obstacles her mother faced because of the poor English she spoke, like the call to her stockbroker or the hospital. In both of these cases the person that Mrs. Tan or the author was speaking to is an individual that remains on the default setting and never adjusted their lifestyle when they entered adulthood. As Wallace puts it, "a slave to your head and your natural default setting" (Wallace XIII). These people believe that they are the center of the universe and that no one else's perspective matters. The way her mother is treated at, "Department stores, at banks, and at restaurants"(Tan 330), illustrates situations where people ignore her or don't give her good service because she speaks poor English. These situations show us that the majority of people in America are stuck on the default setting. Someone who is "well adjusted" is never noticed unless they are frequently out and about, every child should have a teacher growing up that is not stuck on the default setting. In high school and middle schools in the wealth parts of this nation most of the teachers are not set of their default setting. However, in the poor parts of this nation there is a lack of knowledgeable and motivated teachers, essentially because the government paying their salary can't pay them enough or they are an individual that is stuck on their default setting. When Tan describes the way that people treat her mother she states that sometimes they don't even respond or pay attention to what she says (Tan 330). This is how the default setting is most easily detected within a person. Unless these people who ignored Tan's mother acquired the skill of being "Well Adjusted" then they would be adjusted by the harsh reality that comes with the changing season. Tan states that her mother's poor language effected how well she did in school and on certain standardized tests (Tan 331). The fact that Tan has now written multiple books shows that she is one of these rare individuals discussed in the final part of the previous paragraph. She is a person who adjusted her default setting and became known as "well adjusted", and has now written serval books and is very successful. She speaks about the questions she would face on the standardized test when she was younger, "Even though Tom was _____, Mary thought he was _____." This is a multiple choice question that had pairs of answers, I only know this because I remember taking a similar test. In order to answer a question like this it would help to know the definition of the words, and then you see which pair makes the most logical sense. The reason that Tan had difficulty with these types of questions is because of the way her mother talks, she doesn't use any logic while speaking. Phrases like, "Why he don't send me a check, already two weeks late", and "What he want", this language presents an explanation for why those previous questions were difficult for Tan as a child. However, Tan states that she understands her mother's language perfectly while many others can barely understand what she is saying. This is another example of how these people who can't understand what her mother is saying are stuck in default setting and Tan is an exception. Firstly, she was raised by her mother and secondly, she made the conscious decision to ignore her default setting.

The default setting is something that can trap any person if they are not prepared to adjust their lifestyle once steps of adult hood are taken. If a person does not adapt then they will experience the harsh reality of this world, something they never knew existed. People either learn when they face the harsh reality and adapt or they remain stuck in the default setting that they're accustomed to. Only to realize that they must become accustomed to this harsh reality, because it never leaves, never sleeps. Being accustomed to the harsh reality and the default setting, simultaneously, is brutally difficult. Amy Tan is a rare individual that has become known as "well adjusted" because of her serval successful novels. However, Tan's mother is not considered to be "well adjusted" simply because she does not speak very good English, in an English speaking country. The way people treated her when she tried to communicate is a sign of a person stuck on their default setting, and although Tan's mother is not "well adjusted" she is not on the default setting. Tan's mother possess a difference that many people notice, poor English, this difference can be used as an identifier for people who are adults but remain in default setting. If the person just ignores the difference and pays no attention to it, then the latter is true.

