A Thematic Analysis Of Rosario Castellanos 'Chess'

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The poem “Chess” is by Rosario Castellanos, who felt alienated from her family after learning she wasn’t valued as much as her brother. “Chess” is about two people in a broken relationship, trying to destroy the other through a game of chess. Castellanos points this out in lines 1 and 12-13, writing that the speaker and the antagonist were once friends who sometimes loved each other, but now are playing chess in hopes to annihilate the other. The universal truth about humans that can be extracted by this evidence from “Chess” is that not all relationships work out, and sometimes the best and most effective way to beat someone is by brains over brawns. The paraphase and straightforward tone of “Chess” supports the idea that relationships can