Bailey Thomas
Mr. Seel
Lit classic and composition
10/24/2014
The rules of the game During the time of ancient china honor in a family was everything, if your family had great honor you were highly respected. So naturally parents would want their children to succeed in life and bring great honor to their family. These customs carried over into America with the Chinese immigrants. In the story the “Rules of the game” by Amy Tan we see a Chinese family where the parents were most likely born in china with the ancient Chinese customs, and their children who were born in America with new and different beliefs that are similar of an American child.
The story is mainly a relationship between the main character “Waverley Jong” a chess prodigy and her over protective mother. Waverley and her mother are both manipulative of each other as well as other people surrounding them. Waverly manipulates her family, mainly her mother and her 2 brothers by taking advantage of her recent success in chess, she gets out of her chores and even gets her own room by telling her mother that she needs to practice for chess. “my parents made many concessions to allow me to practice. One time I complained that the bedroom was too noisy so my brothers had to sleep in a single bed in the living room.”(pg. 1245).
Waverley’s mother uses manipulation as well but much more ferociously, Mrs. Jong is a strong willed woman who has an almost “my way or the highway:” mentality. Waverly’s mother is very manipulative, she tries to run Waverley’s life “as she wiped each piece