Comparison Of Rules Of The Game And Royal Beatings

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The short stories, "Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan and "Royal Beatings" by Alice Munro are both about a young girl dealing with a mother/ mother figure daughter relationship. The stories are written from different points of view. Tan wrote the Rules of the Game in first-person and Munro wrote Royal Beatings in third-person omniscient. Although the authors use different points of view they still make us feel the tension build between the protagonist and their mother/mother figure starting with a vulnerability which leads to misunderstanding and grows to resentment that turns into disrespect and finishes with punishment. It is often said that a girl’s first friend is her mother, which is true in most cases. Your mother is the one you tell your …show more content…

The mother is older and has had different life experiences and the younger daughter feels that the mother cannot understand what it is like to grow up in the current time. In “Royal Beatings” Munro actually describes the difference between Flo and Rose’s life in detail. In “Rules of the Game” we can only infer the differences between them by how Waverly describes her mother comparing the Americans with Chinese people. “Chinese people do many things,” she said simply. “Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people.” (Tan 1425) As the stories continue you can see resentment growing in both protagonists Rose and …show more content…

In the “Royal Beating” Flo lists all of the ways, she feels that Rose has been disrespectful towards her (Munro 1134) and then goes and gets Rose’s father to punish her. Once the punishment has been dealt they go back to normal and their lives go on. In “Rules of the Game” the way Waverly describes her mother’s reaction you know that she is very angry at her. “My mother’s eyes turned into dangerous black slits. She had no words for me, just sharp silence.” (Tan 1430) And later when she gets home her punishment is isolation, “We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us.” (Tan