It was then published in FM magazine and reprinted in Seventeen magazine. Giles sent the story to Sandra Dijkstra, a literary agent in San Francisco, who thought that it was very well written. When Tan learned that an Italian magazine had reprinted "Endgame" without her permission, she asked Dijkstra to be her agent. Dijkstra agreed. She urged Tan to submit other short stories and to turn the series into a book.
That book became The Joy Luck Club. On the surface, "Rules of the Game" applies to the rules of chess, which Waverly masters with astonishing skill. Her success is even more admirable when we realize that she is only eight years old and almost entirely self-taught. Aside from some sessions with old Lau Po in the park, Waverly has taught herself everything that she needs to know about chess in order to become a national champion. She understands the rules of chess.
She knows how the game is played, and she knows how to psych-out her opponents. Look, however, at the title from another perspective.
In addition to the game of chess, the title alludes to the "game" of life — knowing the "rules" in order to get what you want. Jong calls these rules "the art of invisible strength. Waverly and her mother struggle for control. Waverly thinks of her mother as an adversary: "I could see the yellow lights shining from our flat like two tiger's eyes in the night," she says.
To Waverly, her mother is like a tiger, waiting to pounce. Predatory, the older woman can destroy with one swipe of her powerful claws. Waverly clearly imagines herself the victim in their struggle. When she reenters the apartment, she sees the "remains of a large fish, its fleshy head still connected to bones swimming upstream in vain escape.
Waverly, however, is young; she has not realized that as her mother teaches her the "art of invisible strength," Mrs. Jong is equipping Waverly with the very tools she needs to win the battles of life that she will encounter when she grows up. The "art of invisible strength" is self-control.
Waverly likens it to the wind, invisible yet powerful beyond belief. The wind can whip up fierce storms and flatten entire communities, yet leave no trace of its presence. In its power and invisibility, it is the strongest of opponents. The "strongest wind cannot be seen," Waverly's chess opponent tells her. Like the human will, it cannot be seen or traced.
In another sense, the "art of invisible strength" represents female power. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. We don't actually learn Waverly's mom's name in this story, but if you read the rest of The Joy Luck Club, you'll be properly introduced. Plus you'll hear a whole bunch of details about what happened to her when she was a girl in China.
For the purposes of "Rules of the Game," though, she's just Mom, and her traits are limited to what we read here. Mom's basically a well-meaning control freak. In the interest of preparing them for the big world, she manipulates her children into doing what she thinks is best. Her daughter, Waverly, tries to give Mom the benefit of the doubt:. My mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers and me rise above our circumstances.
That's right—Mom's dropping truth bombs "daily," which means she doesn't exactly have a light touch. Generally, Mom spends a lot of time putting down her children, like when "She sat proudly on the bench, telling my admirers with proper Chinese humility, 'Is luck'" Even when Waverly wins, her mom tells her, "Next time win more, lose less" 41 —winning alone isn't good enough.
Mom even begins to treat Waverly's accomplishments as something that reflects on her own value, like when they go out shopping and she introduces her daughter to total strangers.
The miscommunication that follows creates a schism between Mom and her daughter, one that drives Waverly into the loving arms of the nearby trash-strewn alleyway. Let's face it—Mom's micromanaging pretty much drives the story forward. Her actions give Waverly's life some conflict, as well as both causing her to gain and lose some very important things. One example was she used the game of chess as more than just a game. She illustrated it as a game of life and a way of her adaptation into her new American culture.
This quote demonstrated the culture gap in the family, because the mother grew up with Chinese beliefs. Symbolically, when they received the American game of chess for Christmas they were excited and …show more content… The major themes related directly to the entire context of the story.
The formidable mother-daughter conflict going on throughout the story exposed the clash of their cultural roots. The conflict showed the theme where the mother does not understand the game of chess and does not accept Waverly playing it.
Also, it showed it when Waverly felt embarrassed by her mother using her as a trophy metaphorically. Another theme is the symbolic games of chess that Waverly played. Without the use of symbolism the story would have lost a major impact on the plotline. Also, Amy Tan used setting to her advantage to fully show the tone of the story and created a scene of emotion.
Its major theme of mother-daughter relationship made it possible for young children to relate the short story to their own. Get Access. Satisfactory Essays. Read More. Good Essays. Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club. Better Essays. The Joy Luck Club Analysis. Wild Swans Analysis Words 3 Pages. Wild Swans Analysis. Waverly vs. Montresor Words 2 Pages 1 Works Cited.
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