Rules of the Game Amy

Rules of the Game

Amy Tan's "The Rules of the Game" and the Metaphor of the Chessboard

Amy Tan's "Rules of the Game" is both a story of the American dream and the American nightmare. Told from the perspective of an eight-year-old American-Born-Chinese girl, Tan's short story is no ordinary coming-of-age tale, in which a young person in dire circumstances finds away to excel beyond those circumstances. Instead, Tan's story offers readers the metaphor of a chessboard, a metaphor in which black -- the opposition -- stands for the old world of Waverly's mother and White, the offense -- the offensive team -- stands for the progressive ways of America. Through developing this metaphor, however, Tan causes the reader to question whether or not Waverly's ideas of what is driving her and what is opposing her are positive.

From the first opening paragraphs of Tan's "Rules of the Game" it is clear that that the conflicting Chinese and American cultures of an Urban, San Francisco Chinatown are of great importance to the Jong family. The Jong family children live in a world where they have the comforts of their culture in Chinatown -- the traditional cooking and friendship of their contemporaries, the traditional shops and medicines, and the pervasive belief in luck. Despite this, it is clear that their lives are constantly infiltrated with American-ness: they are Baptists, go to schools where they year Chinese stereotypes such as "Chinese torture," and believe in Western traditions, such as Santa Clause. Although it may not seem so at first, the conflict between Chinese and American culture is a driving force in Waverly's life. While she exhibits a respect for her Chinese ways, she seems to see her culture as something that holds her back. Indeed the "sly thought" to ask her mother about Chinese torture, assumption that younger children did not know Santa Clause was not Chinese, and frustration with her mother's honor and pride are examples of this. However, when Waverly calls the chess tournament she has yet to play in "too American," while secretly wanting to go, she makes clear for the first time that on her chess board, the American pieces are her white, offensive pieces, while the Chinese pieces are the black opposition. She must defeat the Chinese customs in order to proceed. This becomes clearest at the end of the story, when Waverly sees "a chessboard with sixty-four black and white squares. Opposite [her] was [her] opponent, two angry black slits" (Tan 9). Waverly is imagining her mothers "black men advanc[ing] across the plane, slowly marching to each successive level as a single unit," as she "[ponders her] next move" (Tan 9). Thus, through this incident it is clear that Waverly sees her Chinese and American cultures in conflict like the conflict on a chess board, and she tends to side with her American side, the side her mother is not on.

Through Tan's stunning use of character, however, readers are left to question Waverly's metaphor and her conclusion that her mother is her opposition. One reason for this is Waverly's mother's stunning wisdom. Although she speaks in Asian-flavored broken English, Waverly states that her "mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers and me rise above our circumstances" (Tan 1). Furthermore, it is clear that Waverly's mother's words were often filled with wisdom. Indeed, Waverly credits the women with imparting to her the rules of chess, the secret for winning chess when her mother taught her "the art of invisible strength," what was "a strategy for winning arguments, respect from others, and eventually…chess games" (Tan 1).

Like the ying and the yang, however, Waverly's mother's positive characteristic of wisdom is balanced by a negative characteristic of pride. The woman is fiercely prideful, demanding that her sons give back the charity, second-hand chess set, introducing everyone to her daughter, the chess champion, and demanding that her daughter not loose pieces in addition to winning. Told in the first person in the style of a fictitious memoir, however, Tan's short story emphasizes both the positive characteristics of Waverly's mother -- the wisdom -- and her negative ones -- the pride -- in harmony with one another. Neither stands out as more prominent. She is both fiercely wise and fiercely prideful, as can be assessed from the first incident with her in the store -- she does not want her daughter to create a scene, but is mindful of the important lesson she can teach Waverly. Thus, readers are apt to question Waverly's metaphor of her mother and Chinese culture as her opponent because the tone that the piece takes. While this may have been how Waverly felt as a young girl, it is clear that the Waverly who is telling the story has a different idea, and the fact that she presents her mother's shortcomings and positive characteristics in equality is testimony to that.