The Contribution of Physical and Social Settings in “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan

Studies in Short Fiction 21.4 (Fall 1984). Rpt. In Short Story Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec

How Waverly Conforms to The Hero’s Journey The story “Rules of The Game” is about an eight-year-old Chinese girl, Waverly, who teaches herself how to play chess and becomes a prodigy. Waverly has troubles throughout the story as her mom is very strict and takes credit for her success. Although Waverly is brilliant, she is initially treated as less until she reaches success. Waverly experiences Joseph Campbell’s “Hero Journey” when she encounters a meeting with the mentor, the ordeal, and the road back.

The short story “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan is describing a girl named Waverly Jong who is borned in San Francisco Chinatown. Her brother got a chess set for Christmas which is where the whole story started. Because of her questions about the rules of the chess, she start researching and researching. She signed up for the tournament which is where she keep winning and winning, higher and higher, getting more well known. Once, Waverly Jong went to a market with her mother, her mother start to show off about how her daughter is a national chess player which lead to the breaking up of the mother daughter relationship.

In Amy Tans “Rules of the Game” a first generation adolescent becomes fascinated with the game of chess and uses its rules as a strategy for life while growing up and away from her Chinese culture. This short story illustrates the struggle of growing up is especially difficult when in a culture different from ones parents.

In a familial hierarchy, it is transparent who is dominant and who is subordinate. The parents are at the top, while the children are at the bottom. Parents make the rules, while the children follow them. In the story “The Rules of the Game”, the author Amy Tan uses this model of familial hierarchy to demonstrate the power dynamic between the mother and the daughter. The main protagonist, Waverly Place Jong, is the youngest out of her two brothers and is the only daughter in the Jong household. Her mother uses Chinese torture on Waverly to enforce and regulate her power has the dominant. Throughout the story, the relationship between them is strained, as both compete to be in control. Through the analysis of metaphor, symbolism, and tone in “The Rules of the Game,” Amy Tan uses the power struggle between mother and daughter to demonstrate the existence of conformity in a familial hierarchy, which plays a crucial role to one’s pursuit role to gain independence.

Wanting in on the fun, Waverly begged her brothers all the time to let her try... and usually the answer was no. But when she offered Life Savors as replacements for the buttons that filled in for the missing pieces, they gave in. After learning the basic rules of the game from Vincent and playing a few easy games, Waverly started going to the Chinatown library and reading all the more specific rules, studying each chess piece to understand the power each one had in the game, good tactics to use, and looking up the big words she did not understand in the dictionary. Waverly also started playing chess with an old man who sits at the tables at her park. She lost a lot of games at first, but after learning even more useful tactics from the old man, Waverly started to win games.

“The Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan is about Waverly Jong mother taught her the art of invisible strength when she was six years old, saying that it is a strategy for winning arguments and respect. At Christmas Waverly and her brothers received gifts from donations of members from another church. Waverly convinced her brothers, Winston and Vincent, to let her play chess by offering two of her life savers to stand in for the missing pieces. Waverly began playing with Lau Po, an old man who played chess in the park. He taught her many new strategies. Waverly began to attract attention because of her young age, and she became a celebrity within the Chinatown community. Waverly's mother would force her to go to the market with her, presenting

“In the story, “Rules of the Games,” uses conflict that are very similar to the conflict used in the story “Hills Like White Elephant.” However, while the narrative in “Rules of the Games” uses confliction between mother and daughter. Waverly wants to break free from her mother and wants more independence. It can be internal as well as external, whereas the narrative in “Hills Like White Elephant” uses the confliction between the imagination and how to see the ability or inability of different thoughts.”

The tale “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luch Wang depicts the story of three characters, Monkey, Jin, and Danny. They all have the problem of fitting into their new environments. Jin Wang has to deal with Asian stereotypes. Danny has to deal with embarrassment of his cousin. Lastly, Monkey has to deal with the fact that there is no position for him in the heavenly ranks. However, over time, these characters have to come together to fit in. Yet the question remains: what exactly about fitting in is the problem? Although Jin Wang takes the form of Danny to reject his Chinese roots, the embarrassment of Chin-Knee shows he cannot hide behind a false American identity, thereby delineating that race is the source of his problem.

Henry Wright Mrs. Chadwick English 10H 13 September 2017 The Rules of Relationships     On a day to day basis, it is easy for one to not acknowledge or think about the complexities of relationships. It is often lost on the average person the introspective abilities necessary to address and objectively view how they interact with others on a relational basis. This is an ever present idea in the short story, “Rules of the Game” as a daughter struggles to prove herself to her mother and seeks validation as comfort for not understanding why a mother treats her child the way she does.

     The focus of our group project is on Chinese Americans. We studied various aspects of their lives and the preservation of their culture in America. The Chinese American population is continually growing. In fact, in 1990, they were the largest group of Asians in the United States (Min 58). But living in America and adjusting to a new way of life is not easy. Many Chinese Americans have faced and continue to face much conflict between their Chinese and American identities. But many times, as they adapt to this new life, they are also able to preserve their Chinese culture and identity through various ways. We studied these things through the viewing of a movie called Joy Luck Club,

Amy Tan’s Lindo Jong: Double Face is a personal reflection of cultural identity in which she utilizes fictional characters to intertwine true events from the perspective of Chinese Immigrants. At the beginning of the chapter, Jong’s daughter Waverly is preparing to go to China for her second honeymoon. Jong then comes out to say that Waverly won’t blend in as “only her skin and her hair are Chinese. Inside – she is all American-made” (Tan 75). This specific passage characterizes the ideals of identifying race as the Chinese are to look, speak, and act in a particular manner in order for them to belong. Jong goes on to establish what makes a person classify themselves as truly Chinese descent. She utilizes the examples of the Chinese needing

In life, each person has to follow rules at some point. The rules can relate to school, home, religion, etc. Our society follows rules everyday to make their life better. Throughout the short story, “Rule of the Game”, the author, Amy Tan describes the title using life experiences of the protagonist, Waverly Jong. This story is about a young girl, Waverly who lives in Chinatown, San Francisco and is passionate about chess. While exploring the world of chess, Waverly learns that in life she will have to follow rules made by others to achieve success. Waverly follows rules while playing chess and her mother creates rules for her to succeed.

Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds” describes a Chinese immigrant family who hope of finding success and an overall betterment of life in America. After losing everything in China, Jing-mei’s mother, Mrs. Woo, tries as a minority house maid in the 1960s to provide all the opportunities she can for her last daughter. This short story revolves around the interactions between the Jing-mei, who desires a ordinary life, and Mrs. Woo, who seeks only the best from her daughter. The values of these two characters are in constant conflict of which creates a lasting segregation between parent and child. Through Mrs. Woo’s death, Jing-mei questions her childhood upbringing and her mother’s true intentions that were masked by pure immigrant ambition.

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.