Rules of the Game

My Greatest Opponent

Focusing on: Rules of the Game

As I read about Waverly Jong's mother, Lindo Jong, in this chapter, I grew extremely annoyed towards her "proper Chinese humility." Her "humility" was in a sense merely "painted" onto her solid figure of pride. An example of this was shown when Waverly's brother received an old, piece-missing chess set, and Lindo Jong, said, " 'Cost too much,' " 'Too good,' " in front of the elderly chess set owner, when in reality she really meant," 'She not want it. We not want it,' " and demanded that her children throw it away. Through analyzing Lindo, I came to realize that politeness was similar to the flattering and boosting of another person's self-confidence, in that both are done for one's own good . Apart from annoyance, I was also slightly offended by the scene in which an old man automatically thought that Waverly wanted to play dolls with him because she was a girl. Though it may seem like nothing serious, this scene affected me because I was exposed to the fact that these type of thoughts, or in other words sexism, is injected into peoples' brains through society and not through their own ideals.

One phrase to describe the relationship between Lindo and Waverly is "coach and athlete." I chose to use this description instead of "mother and daughter" because I believed that their relationship was based on a give-and-take or in other words it was as if Waverly's role in the relationship was to obey her mother, and her mother's role was to set out a plan for Waverly to follow and to push her to follow it. Just like an athlete, if Waverly did not follow her mother's plans, in other words her coach, there was most likely to be conflict and possibly a break in the relationship. Just like this, Waverly and Lindo's relationship was constantly on the edge once Waverly became a chess player and Lindo became her "mentor" or "supporter." One scene that represents this is situation is when Lindo goes to Waverly's first game. Though she may have not been interested in chess before, once Lindo sees her daughter play, she becomes obsessed with chess, her daughter's playing and starts to criticize Waverly's playing techniques. Though some may see this relationship as a common mother daughter scenario, I think that it's a type of relationship that would be most commonly seen between a coach and an athlete.

A writing technique that Amy Tan uses in this chapter is personification. An example of this is: " I remember that his sweaty brow seemed to weep at my every move" (100). Tan was really just trying to say that the man was sweating very heavily every time Waverly made a move on the chess board. Her choice of connecting the action "weep" with the noun "sweaty brow" not only helped put an image of a man sweating very heavily, but also let me imagine an exaggerated image of a clump of hair crying its eyes out.

I believe that the life lesson of this chapter is basically, "Speak up when its necessary." Lindo Jong teaches Waverly that the "art of invisible strength" is "biting your tongue" or in other words not speaking out about your own desires. Even though Waverly becomes very skilled at this, she is unable to contain her anger and frustration after her mother's continuous overbearing, prideful remarks about her chess playing. Even though Waverly knows that her mom will get pissed off, she still chooses to speaks out and literally runs away from her mother. Though the outcome is not all that great, Waverly admits feeling, "light" and basically "free" suggesting that she does not regret having expressed her feelings to Lindo.