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

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.

“Four Directions” is the story of Waverly Jong, the young prodigy chess player who lashes out at her mother because of her constant showing off of Waverly. After returning to chess, Waverly realizes that her skill and determination is gone, along with the support and love from her mother. She beings to understand that her winning was solely dependant on her mother’s boastful remarks about her daughter, the love the Lindo was so openly expressing.

“My mother would proudly walk with me, visiting many shops, buying very little. “ This my daughter Waverly Jong,” she said to whoever looked her way. One day after we left a shop I said under my breath, “ I wish you wouldn’t do that , telling everybody I’m your daughter.” My mother stopped walking..... “Aiii-ya. So shame be with mother?” She grasped my hand even tighter as she glared at me. I looked down. “It’s not that, just so obvious. It’s so embarrassing.”... If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess?” (Tan 41).

When Narrator Waverly Jong first introduces herself at the young age of seven. Waverly lives in China Town, San Francisco with her immigrant parents and two older brothers. She is a very smart, curious and obedient daughter. The author indirectly shows the reader during the first supermarket scene when Waverly is introduced to the “art of invisible strength”. Waverly first begged her mother for candy but after practicing this art form and silently ignoring the candies, her mother rewards her by purchasing them. This value of silence is a form of strength and dignity in the Chinese Culture. Waverly obeys her mother that day and soon learns that it can be used as a tool for success in the game of chess. According to David Kelly in ‘Critical Essay on "Rules of the Game” ‘, invisible strength “is presented as a magical equation that gives young Waverly the wisdom and grace to rise to national prominence in the chess world within a few short years of first taking up the game.” Waverly becomes quite good at the game. She states “By my ninth birthday, I was a national chess champion”, and was even featured in Life Magazine.

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.

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

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 the story “Two Kinds”, author Amy Tan, who is a Chinese-American, describes the conflicts in the relationship of a mother and daughter living in California. The protagonist in this story Jing-mei Woo’s mother is born and raised in China, and immigrates to the United States to escape from the Chinese Civil War. For many years she maintained complete Chinese traditional values, and has been abided by it deliberately. This kind of traditional Chinese culture has also affected her daughter profoundly. However, Jing-mei is born and raised in the United States. Despite she has a Chinese mother; she is unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Chinese

Waverly’s mother is creating rules for her daughter to become a better chess player. First, Waverly’s mother becomes possessive of her daughter’s chess tournament achievements. When Waverly wins her chess tournament, she says, ‘Ma, it’s not how many pieces you lose’, I said . ‘Sometimes you need to lose pieces to get ahead.’...but it was my mother who wore the triumphant grin” (Tan 4). Waverly disagrees with her mother’s thought as she believes that to win something, you have to lose something. This is significant to the title as Waverly’s mother is creating a rule for her daughter to follow so she can win every tournament she participates in. Second, Waverly’s mother wants to watch her daughter practice chess. While Waverly is practicing, she says, “ ‘Ma, I can’t practice when you stand there like that’, I said one day. She retreated to the kitchen and made

     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

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.

“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.”

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.

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.