The Joy Luck Club in Tan's novel by the same name refers to a group of Chinese-born women who suffered in their native homeland before immigrating to America. One other thing that binds the women together is that each has an Americanized daughter who seems to have little or no understanding of Chinese culture or of what her mother has endured. This lack of understanding is essential to the story--it drives the novel's various subplots as a recurring conflict between mother and daughter.
As you read the last part of "Rules of the Game," try to understand the specific nature of the conflict between Waverly and her mother. What is the source of their misunderstanding? (Start with the sentence "During my first tournament, my mother sat with me . . . .")
Throughout this story, the narrator identifies many differences between how Waverly views things and how her mother sees them. What do these two perspectives mean and why does Tan point them out?
What "rule" has Waverly learned about interacting with her family?
When Waverly accompanies her mother to the market, her mother constantly draws attention to her daughter. What is Waverly's perspective on this habit, and what is the viewpoint of her mother?
Why do Waverly's family members ignore her at the end of the story, leaving her to retreat to her room alone? What does their behavior imply?
Why does Tan end the story in the way that she does, with Waverly imagining a chess game?
| Your Responses | Sample Answers |
|---|---|
| The author uses the conflict of perspective to point out the difference between the Chinese culture of the mother and the American culture of the daughter. This focus on their differences helps Tan show how difficult it sometimes is to combine two very different aspects of one's identity in a harmonious way. | |
| She has learned that she can use chess to get what she wants. She gets her own room, does not have to eat what she doesn't want, and gets out of chores. | |
| Waverly is embarrassed and annoyed by her mother's behavior. She feels that her mother is trying to share in her glory. Waverly has developed the more American perspective that success should only be enjoyed by the person who earned it. Her mother, on the other hand, believes that her daughter's success should be shared by the entire community--people who have supported Waverly--and especially by her parents, who have "made many concessions" for their daughter. | |
| Waverly's mother makes it clear that Waverly has behaved in a way that dishonors her family and her Chinese heritage. She tells the rest of the family to ignore Waverly, to shut her out, as her mother feels Waverly has shut her mother out of her life. | |
| Waverly imagines a game that she has lost, symbolically, to her mother. She recalls her mother's advice that "strongest wind cannot be seen," suggesting that she has retreated to her room to plan her counterattack against her mother. Tan may end the story with this scene to show how intense and persistent the emotional conflicts between Chinese mothers and their American daughters can be. | |
