Waverly Jong discovers she has a talent for chess. At first, her mother dismisses Waverly's victories as luck but begins encouraging her as she continues to win tournaments. However, Waverly's mother becomes overbearing and controlling as she seeks to show off her daughter's success. Waverly grows resentful of her mother's manipulation and loses her passion for the game. In the end, Waverly imagines herself playing a fantasy match to regain a sense of freedom and independence from her mother's smothering actions.

1. Amy Tan

2. Amy Tan
 Her stories often explore familial relationships.

3. Literary Terms
 Motivation – refers to the underlying reasons for a
character’s behavior.
 A writer can reveal motivation directly by telling us
what makes a character tick. More often, however, a
writer describes characters through their speech and
actions, without telling us exactly why they behave as
they do.

4. Previewing the Vocabulary
ancestral adj.: inherited.
intricate adj.: complicated; detailed.
obscured v.: concealed; hidden.
retort n.: quick, sharp answer.
touted v.: highly praised.
prodigy n.: extremely gifted person.
malodorous adj.: bad-smelling.
Rules of the Game
Vocabulary

5. Previewing the Vocabulary
concessions n. pl.: acts of giving in.
careened v.: lurched sideways.
successive adj.: consecutive.
Rules of the Game
Vocabulary

6. ancestral
intricate
retort
malodorous
successive
Vocabulary Activity
Select a Word Bank word to replace
the underlined word or words.
1. The pattern of this lace is very
detailed.
2. How could anyone like such bad-smelling
cheese?
3. Two consecutive storms flooded the area.
4. Her father loved their inherited home.
5. Mark’s sharp answer surprised his sister.
intricate
malodorous
successive
ancestral
retort
Rules of the Game
Vocabulary

7. Quickwrite
 How does someone learn the rules of the game?
Explain.

8. “Rules of the Game”
1. What skill does Waverly learn from her mother?
2. How does Waverly use this skill against her mother?
3. What gifts do Waverly and her brothers receive from
the Santa man?
4. How is playing chess with Lau Po beneficial for
Waverly?
5. Describe the incident at the market between
Waverly and her mother.

9. “Rules of the Game”
6. What motivates Mrs. Jong to show off her daughter?
7. Why does Waverly resent her mother’s showing her
off?
8. The story ends with Waverly playing a fantasy chess
match. Explain the significance of the match.

10. Activity
 Writing – Rules of Your Game
 Have you ever had an experience like Waverly had in
this story? Think back to a time when you learned
about the rules of life. What happened? Whose rules
did you break? In a few paragraphs, write a narrative
about this incident.
 Your narrative will be graded for the following items:
 Set out a problem or situation
 Use of dialogue (Remember new speaker means new
paragraph)
 Follow sequence of events
 Use of precise words, phrases, details, and sensory
language
 Conclusion that reflects on the lesson you learned

11. Rules of the Game Introduction
Everyone has mommy issues. It's pretty much a fact of
life. And in "Rules of the Game"—one of the short
vignettes in Amy Tan's 1989 debut novel, The Joy Luck
Club—Tan says everything we've ever secretly thought
about our biggest fan and harshest critic.
In the story, we get a slice of Waverly Jong's life in
Chinatown with her mother. Waverly's mom is an
immigrant who wants a better life for her children. It's a
great motive, but her mother's execution leaves a lot to
be desired. Her idea of helping her daughter leans
toward obsessively controlling her, so instead of
preparing Waverly to succeed in the world, Waverly's
mom gives her crippling complexes.

12. When Waverly discovers chess, her mom isn't thrilled
with the idea… until her daughter starts winning. Her
mom quietly encourages Waverly at first, but the better
she becomes, the more freedoms Mom takes away, until
all Waverly does is play chess. And guess what? Waverly
isn't thrilled. Not in the least.
The Joy Luck Club (and "Rules of the Game") hit the big
leagues, in part because it focuses on Asian and Asian-
American women, people often not included in
mainstream lit. But while Tan's stories definitely fill a
much-needed niche, they also managed to land her in
hot water.

13. Some people accused Tan of playing into Asian
stereotypes—with all the broken English, exotic
descriptions, and boiled-down fortune-cookie sayings, we
see how "Rules of the Game" might tick folks off. Tan
wasn't forced to exit stage left, though, and
other critics praised her representation of the
experiences of Chinese women and immigrants in
America.

14. No matter where you fall in the debate, though, there's no
denying that "Rules of the Game" hits the bull's-eye with
regards to a universal theme. Through subtle humor, Tan
gently shows us that some things (like bossy moms) aren't
restricted to race. It seems like when it comes to moms,
we all can't live with 'em or without 'em.
What is Rules of the Game About and Why Should I
Care?
Discovering that you're really good at something is one of
the more magical moments in life. It's such a rush to
realize your own potential, to feel capable and powerful
instead of all the harder things we so often feel. Plus, most
of the time our parents are super proud of us, too. And
who doesn't love collecting high-fives? We sure do.

15. But occasionally, in their loving efforts to help us be all that
we can be, parents push us a little too hard to develop our
gifts. Suddenly, second place becomes code for first loser,
and even when we do better than we've ever done before,
Mom (or Dad) seems to find something to nitpick. Just like
that, our best of times becomes our worst of times, and it
totally stinks.
Amy Tan captures this frustration in Waverly's story. Sure,
it's tucked into a story about chess and navigating Chinese
and American culture, but at its heart "Rules of the Game"
is really about this most universal of struggles. It just might
leave you feeling like your parents really aren't so bad after
all—or it might inspire you to tell them to buzz off. Either
way, you'll be hard-pressed not to consider your own life,
talents, and parents as you read this story.

16. Definition of Motivation
In literature, “motivation” is defined as a reason behind a character’s specific
action or behavior. This type of behavior is characterized by the character’s
own consent and willingness to do something.
There are two types of motivation: one is intrinsic, while the other one is
extrinsic.
Intrinsic motivation is linked to personal pleasure, enjoyment and interest,
while extrinsic motivation is linked to numerous other possibilities.
Extrinsic motivation comes from some physical reward such as money, power,
or lust.
Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is inspired by some internal reward
such as knowledge, pride, or spiritual or emotional peace or wellbeing, etc.
Characters have some motivation for every action, as do people in real life.
Therefore, the implicit or explicit reference to a motivation of a character
makes the piece of literature seem closer to life and reality.

17. Function of Motivation
In literature, motivation is used to connect the behavior and actions of a
character with the events of the story.
Motivation serves as the logical explanation for what a character does,
which is necessary for the readers and audiences to understand the
causes of a character’s actions. The core desires of characters lead the
way to all actions in storytelling.
Sometimes motivations of characters change with the development of the
story. With a change in the motivation, the character changes too.
For effective characterization, unified and dominant motivation is
inevitable. Great characters have great motivations. These characters
teach some good or bad moral lessons to the readers and the audiences.
The readers and audiences get more interested in motivated characters
and understand those motivations, which make or break societies.

18. Defining Characterization
Characterization is the process by which the writer reveals the
personality of a character. Characterization is revealed through direct
characterization and indirect characterization.
Direct Characterization tells the audience what the personality of the
character is.
Example: “The patient boy and quiet girl were both well mannered and
did not disobey their mother.”
Explanation: The author is directly telling the audience the personality
of these two children. The boy is “patient” and the girl is “quiet.”
Indirect Characterization shows things that reveal the personality of a
character. There are five different methods of indirect characterization:

19. Speech
What does the character say? How does the character speak?
Thoughts
What is revealed through the character’s private thoughts and
feelings?
Effect on others
toward the
character.
What is revealed through the character’s effect on other
people? How do other characters feel or behave in reaction to
the character?
Actions
What does the character do? How does the character behave?
Looks
What does the character look like? How does the character
dress?

20. 1-What do you think the mother’s sayings about the
wind mean? Restate them in your own words.
2-What is the mother’s motivation for sharing daily
truths with her children?
3-Ailing comes from the Greek word áchos, meaning “pain.”
Based on this, what do you think ailing means?
4-What do you think is Waverly’s motivation for
saying this to the man?
What evidence from the story supports your reasoning?

21. 5- Circle the narrator’s legal American name. Underline
the name she is called at home and its meaning.
6- Based on what you’ve read so far, how would
you describe the mother’s personality?

22. Rules of the Game Themes
Family
defines Waverly's life in "Rules of the Game." She's just a kid, after all, and her
mother is a force to be reckoned with—and she has her eyes set on Waverly. Yes,
chess is in the mix, but the game is ultimately secondary to the complex
relationship Waverly has with her mother. Waverly would probably still be happily
playing chess in the park if her mom weren't around. But around she is, so
Waverly has to make peace with her mother's overbearing nature and decide
what kind of relationship they're going to have.
Questions About Family
1-Why does Waverly's mom dismiss her early victories as luck? What does this
say about her as a person and as a parent?
2-The first sentence of the story gives Waverly's mom credit for teaching Waverly
important things. How does this contrast with her mother's later behavior? How is
it similar?
3-When exactly does Waverly's mother change her tune about the chess set?
4-How do Waverly's brothers treat their sister's success? Why doesn't she find
them as exasperating as she does her mother?

23. Manipulation
Chess becomes a metaphor for life in "Rules of the Game," as Waverly and her
mother climb into each other's heads and start yanking wires like deranged
howler monkeys. Waverly learned manipulation from her mother, and while
Mom's definitely better at it, their respective powers of manipulation eventually
leave both of them deeply hurt and alienated from each other. Interestingly, their
fundamental break comes when Waverly says something directly to her mother,
instead of trying to manipulate her, which leaves us wondering what role honesty
plays in the never-ending chess game that is their relationship.
Questions About Manipulation
1. Why does Waverly ask the question about Chinese torture? What kind of
reaction is she hoping to get from her mother? What do you make of the
response she actually gets?
2. Does Waverly's mother encourage her daughter solely in the hope she'll get
better? Is she trying to cover up her own perceived shortcomings? Give
evidence from the text to support your answer.
3. Is Waverly's manipulation a form of power for her? What are some of the
consequences she suffers because of this?
4. How effective is reverse psychology for Waverly and her mom? What are some
of the reasons for why it works?

24. Youth
The main character in "Rules of the Game" is just a kid, so it isn't
too surprising that the story is concerned with youth. Specifically, this
story is about how Waverly slowly loses her innocence. The better
she gets at chess, the more expectations are placed on her and the
less time she is allowed to spend as a normal little kid. Thanks to the
incredible pressure her mom puts on her, as Waverly loses her
freedom to spend time being a carefree kid, she also grows more
critical and aware of her mother's controlling way. The poor kid's
childhood gets yanked from her on a couple of levels. Ouch.
Questions About Youth
1.Why does Waverly's mother initially tell people that her daughter is
winning through luck? Is it just modesty? Or is it a way to excuse the
fact that she's so young?
2.How is Waverly's mother more child-like than Waverly with her
desires and wishes? How is she more adult?
3.Does Waverly's skill at chess seem extra special because she's so
young? Why or why not?

25. Freedom and Confinement
Waverly starts out a normal kid doing normal kid things in "Rules of
the Game," playing on slides and driving her mother nuts with weird
questions. But when she starts playing chess—and more to the point,
when she gets incredibly good at chess—all that normal kid stuff goes
away. Chess becomes a prison, and while this prison has perks, it
also ends up robbing Waverly of her childhood. The question then is,
who put Waverly in this prison? Was it just her mom, or does Waverly
herself share a bit of the blame?
Questions About Freedom and Confinement
1. Does Waverly think that Chinatown is a prison? Why or why not?
2. How does playing chess free Waverly? How does it make her feel
confined and imprisoned?
3. At what point does Waverly stop loving chess? What specifically
causes this shift (if anything)?
4. How does Waverly dress when she plays in her chess
tournaments? Are the clothes described as comfortable or
restricting? Does this change at all over the course of the story?
What does this tell you about her relationship to the game?

26. Foreignness and "The Other"
Waverly's mom grew up in China before moving to America, while
Waverly is growing up in a part of America that is heavily influenced
by China. Chess becomes her window into the United States—which
is more intellectually rigorous than, say, going to barbecues and
rooting for the 49ers, but still a way of getting out of her Chinese
neighborhood. Her mom wants this for Waverly, but can't let go of her
Chinese values enough to make it work. Both Waverly and her mom
are stuck in the middle of two cultures in "Rules of the Game"—so
naturally, they end up blaming each other.
Questions About Foreignness and "The Other"
1. Why does Waverly's mom stress that the chess rules are American? Why is this
so important to her?
2. Waverly says that Santa Claus is not Chinese, but she doesn't say the same
thing about the Christian church where he hands out his presents. What is it
about Santa that makes him different from the church in that sense?
3. Does Waverly's mom think that chess is a way of proving Chinese dominance?
Why does Waverly attribute Chinese thoughts and philosophy to her chess
playing?
4. Why does Tan have Mom speak in broken English? What does that say about
her as a character?

27. Narrator Point of View
First Person (Central)
Waverly tells her story from her point of view, making her the
central narrator. That's pretty normal for stories like this; it helps
us sympathize with her predicament and feel her pain. There's
something subtle in the narrative tone, though, that makes the
story a little more interesting.
See, as a character Waverly's a little girl, but she's not writing
like a little girl. Let's face it: no nine-year-old girl uses phrases
like "an impatient gathering of gurgling pigeons" (5) or says
things like "One of the Chinese parishioners had donned a
Santa Claus costume" (13). We can probably assume that
Waverly is writing this as a grown-up remembering her
childhood. This gives her wisdom that she couldn't have at the
time the story takes place, and lets her see things—like the real
identity of Santa Claus—that her kid self wouldn't.

28. Narrator Point of View
First Person (Central)
This fits in with the tone of The Joy Luck Club itself, which uses
lots of different narrators with lots of wildly differing points of
view. Waverly's first-person voice is just one way of looking at
the world, and the older Waverly's voice differs from this,
bringing wisdom and perspective to the themes in the story.

29. Tone
Reflective, Sad
As we mention in the "Narrator Point of View" section, the
tone suggests that grown-up Waverly is looking back on her
less-than-ideal childhood. To this end, she can get kind of
cranky with her mom, taking little digs at her to show us what a
pain she can be. But since Waverly-the-adult is in the mix, she
also examines her own behavior with a pretty harsh eye, like
when she points out "how wicked I was being" (11) when she
asks her mom about Chinese torture.
As narrator, Waverly also tries to weigh the situation evenly
instead of just judging her mother. So when she says, "My
mother imparted her daily truths" (3), what starts as a sort of
sarcastic jab morphs into a more compassionate understanding
as Waverly explains her mother's desire to "help my older
brothers and me rise above our circumstances" (3).

30. Tone
Does Mom bug her? Yup—but as Waverly looks back, she tries
to give her mom the benefit of the doubt, too.
That said, an atmosphere of general sadness pops up all over
the text. Waverly doesn't ever come out and cry or tell us how
unhappy she is; instead, she lets her descriptions tell us how she
feels. For instance, when she describes her life after becoming a
chess champion, she says:
I no longer played in the alley of Waverly Place. I never visited
the playground where the pigeons and old men gathered. (51)
She never says she's sad, but in listing things she once enjoyed
and doesn't get to do anymore, we can easily draw our own
conclusions. A change like this would bum anybody out, and
though she doesn't declare her feelings, Waverly makes sure we
feel it.

31. Genre
Family Drama
Killer chess moves aside, "Rules of the Game" is really about a
girl and her mother—and all the drama that grows from their
relationship. Without such an overbearing mother, there'd be
no story, and without such a talented daughter for Mom to
latch onto, there'd also be no story. Sure there's drama in the
chess world, but the real action takes place as Waverly tries to
please her mom, and then gets fed up with trying to do so. And
because of this, this short story is definitely a family drama.

32. What's Up With the Title?
The title has a double meaning here. Tricky, we know. At first
glance, the title refers to chess, the game Waverly learns to play
and master over the course of the story. Chess has a lot of
rules, and Waverly has to learn all of them, starting with the
formal ones then moving on to the strategic ones and finally
getting to the really obscure stuff, like etiquette. So "Rules of the
Game" draws a pretty clear connection to the chess skills she
picks up.
At the same time, though, there's another game going on
between Waverly and her mother. This is a battle for power, a
dark game that doesn't come with a rulebook. It still has rules,
though, and Waverly has to figure them out if she's ever going
to come out ahead of her mother and claim control over her
own existence. Chess may come and go, but this game—this
battle of the wills—is unrelenting in the story. The title, then,
draws a connection between Waverly's chess game and life
with her mom.

33. What's Up With the Ending?
The ending is pretty open since we don't know if Waverly keeps
playing chess and if her relationship with her mother will remain
broken. She even turns her mom into a chess opponent straight
Waverly's imagined opponent (a.k.a. her mom) thrashes her
badly, and we're left to wonder if either Waverly or her mother
will ever recover from the break. Importantly, the argument with
her mother seems to set Waverly free:
I felt myself growing light. I rose up into the air and flew out the
window.
No more pressure to win, no more mom hovering around her
dropping snarky comments about doing better. Sure, Waverly's
all by herself—"everything below me disappeared and I was
alone" 68)—but she's still so young, and her lonesomeness
seems to suggest that she can now make her own choices
instead of having them made for her.

34. Chinatown, San Francisco
Besides being a snazzy tourist destination, San Francisco's
Chinatown plays a huge role in the theme of the story. Waverly
(a Chinese American girl) and her mother (an immigrant born
and raised in China) both live there, and they almost never
leave (except to go to chess tournaments). Why is this
important? Because Chinatown stands in between Chinese
culture and American culture, just like Waverly and her family.
It's in an American city and a lot of white tourists visit, but
Chinese immigrants live there, and their culture is on full
display. For example, look at the sign in the fish shop, which
"informed tourists, 'Within this store, is all for food, not for pet'"
(6), or the restaurant down the block where "Tourists never went
[…] since the menu was printed only in Chinese" (8).
Chinatown, in short, is a cultural crossroads.

35. Waverly and her family hang in the same balance, and it's
possible that some of the tension between Waverly and her
mother comes from the fact the Waverly is more comfortable
living in that balance than her mom is. For instance, when
Waverly has to decide between American and Chinese
birthdays—"I was seven according to the American formula and
eight by the Chinese calendar" —she doesn't choose one or the
other. Instead she simply says, "I was born on March 17, 1951"
. It works equally well for both cultures without specifically
belonging to either one of them. Nicely done, Waverly.
Contrast this with her mom, who thinks American people are
"lazy" and doesn't want to belong to their culture. She changes
her tune only when it's convenient to her, like when she
explains away the unfair chores she gives her sons as "new
American rules" . She doesn't really integrate into American
culture, and in Chinatown she doesn't really have to. Sadly for
her, Waverly isn't quite that accommodating.

36. Plot Analysis
Exposition
Happy Childhood, Draconian Mother
Tan starts out with the basic set-up, giving us the things we
need to know before anything happens. Waverly lives in
Chinatown with her family. They are poor but happy, and while
Mom can be a pain in the butt, she's no monster. Waverly takes
the time to fill us in on the details of her life, like what the bakery
under her apartment smells like and how she and her brothers
think bad people come out of the restaurant at night.
Rising Action
The Titles Gets its Double Meaning
The first real signs of conflict arise when Waverly starts playing
with her brother's chess set. She gets good, then very good,
then super-amazing good, then awesome-national-champion
good. Mom transfers her passive-aggressive meddling strictly to
Waverly's chess game, leaving Waverly to do her darndest to
master not only chess, but her mother's head games, too.

37. Plot Analysis
Climax
Trophy Child
This isn't a book with a concrete crisis—there's no big battle
and Darth Vader doesn't cut off anyone's hand—but there
definitely is a dramatic break. Waverly steadily improves at
chess, and in return receives perks, such as never having to do
chores. Too bad she also doesn't get to be a kid anymore,
thanks to her mom's obsession with her success.
The situation isn't helped by the fact that Mom introduces
Waverly as her own personal chess champion trophy to
everyone. Finally Waverly wigs out at Mom, Mom freaks out at
Waverly, and one unfortunate old lady's groceries take a dive.

38. Plot Analysis
Falling Action
Run, Waverly, Run
After blowing her stack at Mom, Waverly runs away. The joke's
on her, however, since she's nine years old and can't really go
anywhere except the alley. The big break has happened, we've
hit the climax, and now we just need to find out about the
ramifications. We'll have to wait until Waverly stops running first.
Resolution
No Soup for You
When Tan brings the story to a close, it doesn't end with a neat
little bow. Waverly heads home, but Mom gives her the cold
shoulder. No soup for her—literally—and she has to imagine a
life alone up in her room.