Critical Summary: 'The Tongue, from Childhood to Dotage' Analysis

This essay provides a summary of Madeleine Thien's "The Tongue, from Childhood to Dotage," highlighting the tongue's multifaceted roles throughout life. From a baby's cries to the complex flavors savored in youth and the fading tastes of old age, the tongue is portrayed as a vital organ for communication, pleasure, and memory. The essay explores the author's personal experiences with language, family secrets, and cultural identity, emphasizing the tongue's significance in shaping these aspects. It also touches upon the impact of aging on taste and the enduring power of the tongue to remember past experiences, both bitter and sweet, concluding that the tongue retains a lasting knowledge of life's journey.

Running Head: SUMMARY OF “THE TONGUE, FROM CHILDHOOD TO DOTAGE”
Summary of “The Tongue, from Childhood to Dotage”

SUMMARY OF “THE TONGUE, FROM CHILDHOOD TO DOTAGE 1
Summary of “The Tongue, from Childhood to Dotage”
Madeleine Thien, in the article “The Tongue, from Childhood to Dotage” highlights the fact that
the tongue is the mother of all body parts. Tongue is involved in a number of functions such as
speaking, eating, imbibing, pleasuring, singing, lubricating, etc.
In the childhood, a baby alerts the parents regarding different problems by crying. The author’s
father spoke Hakka while her mother spoke Cantonese which is the language of rickshaw
drivers. The author was raised in English and also performed the job of speaking to the
authorities and writing letters and official documents with a perfect English grammar. During the
childhood of the author, her parents used to leave her along with her sister at home for their jobs
at night. They used to suffer from the fear of getting caught by the authorities. The quote “We
kept all of our family secrets this way, lodged in the mind, hidden from the tongue” described the
role of tongue in her life.
In the middle years, the author tried to figure out something about this tasteful organ from her
friends. The tongue is considered to be as provocative as any organ when called up for duty. The
use of tongue has been greatly practiced by the great lovers of the world. Tongue plays an
important role in giving pleasure and “it is minutely sensitive to the feel of things and to the
rising temperatures”. The author often quoted, “The tongue is the Swiss Army knife of the
human body, full of purpose, ever dangerous.” However, the cries of our sisters and windows
who do not have drums or weapons are often ignored.
Dotage is the third stage of life when the teeth falls but the tongue still remains. After the death
of author’s mother, she travelled to Hong Kong for finding the facts about the childhood days of
her mother. There she found a lady named Pinky but the author suffered from certain difficulties
due to her poor command over Cantonese. They went to a café and had spicy food which made
their tongue burn. In the old age, the taste buds starts to degenerate due to which the food does
not provide the same pleasure as it used to provide in the youth. The author knows that when she
will be old, she will survive with the help of slices of cucumber, bowls of rice and steamed green
beans. Her quote,” But the tongue still remembers, doesn’t it?” provides that the tongue does not
forget the decades of swallowing the bitterness and goodness of life (Luven & Page, 2012).

SUMMARY OF “THE TONGUE, FROM CHILDHOOD TO DOTAGE 2
Therefore, it can be concluded that tongue is the mother of all body parts. It performs different
functions from childhood to dotage, and at the end it is left with a taste, a fleeting sensation and a
lasting knowledge.

SUMMARY OF “THE TONGUE, FROM CHILDHOOD TO DOTAGE 3
Reference
Luven, L. V. & Page, K. (2012). In the Flesh: Twenty Writers Explore the Body. Brindle and
Glass.