The Symbolism In Rules Of The Game By Amy Tan

The story Rules of The Game by Amy Tan is a fascinating short story. Most people think that it is just a chess story but it is so much more than that. It shows the relationship between a Mother and daughter. Amy Tan uses chess as a form of symbolism to deliver the damage caused by toxic, controlling relationships among the family members. Reflecting the way that the main character was neglected and lived a whole different life due to her mother. Waverly does not know how her parents are helping her as a person yet.

The readers are shown complications in the relationship between Waverly and her mother, Waverly gets mad with her mother for trying to show her off for her Chess skills, so Waverly says “Why do you have to use me to show off? If

When Waverley is playing a chess tournament she describes her opponent “As I began to play, the boy disappeared, the color disappeared out of the room and I only saw my white pieces and his black ones on the other side” (Tan 152) Waverley is so caught up in playing chess that she loses focus on the opponent that she was against. The game is starting to blur out the details of her childhood. It infers that chess is consuming a part of her life that she will never get back. This goes further: chess represents the relationship between Waverly and her mother. It is like they are in a battle to the death, her mother thinking that she is helping by criticizing her daughter thinking it is beneficial for her, but in the long run, it ruins the mother-daughter relationship between them by having the relationship where you have to be a certain standard to be loved. Chess has taken up so much of her life that she has no room for anything else. The mother is trying to help her but Waverly takes it as Criticism, sure some of it may be criticism but long term it is helping her gain her invisible

Waverly describes her parents “ My parents made many concessions to allow me to practice. One time I complained that the bedroom I shared was so noisy that I couldn’t think. Thereafter, my brothers slept in a bed in the living room facing the street” (Tan 155) This shows us that the parents sacrificed everything for Waverly to play chess. It makes it feel like Waverly is indebted to them to play chess. By relieving Waverly of all of these tasks it makes playing chess feel more like a job than a hobby to play in your free time. Making chess her life can make her connection with others not as strong as people who find things to do in their free time. Chess for Weverly has felt more like an inconvenience if anything. Then you have to look at the parents' side of the board. They are trying to do what they think is best for their daughter, so they try to rid of the distractions that make Waverly lose focus on chess. Her parents just want her to succeed but she doesn’t realize it yet because winning or losing at chess is ultimately up to