Question

Read the excerpt below from the short story “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan and answer the question that follows. “About time you got home,” said Vincent. “Boy, are you in trouble.” He slid back to the dinner table. On a platter were the remains of a large fish, its fleshy head still connected to bones swimming upstream in vain escape. Standing there waiting for my punishment, I heard my mother speak in a dry voice. “We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us.” Nobody looked at me. Bone chopsticks clinked against the inside of bowls being emptied into hungry mouths. I walked into my room, closed the door, and lay down on my bed. The room was dark, the ceiling filled with shadows from the dinnertime lights of neighboring flats. In my head, I saw a chessboard with sixty-four black and white squares. Opposite me was my opponent, two angry black slits. She wore a triumphant smile. “Strongest wind cannot be seen,” she said. Her black men advanced across the plane, slowly marching to each successive level as a single unit. My white pieces screamed as they scurried and fell off the board one by one. As her men drew closer to my edge, I felt myself growing light. I rose up into the air and flew out the window. Higher and higher, above the alley, over the tops of tiled roofs, where I was gathered up by the wind and pushed up toward the night sky until everything below me disappeared and I was alone. I closed my eyes and pondered my next move. Why does the narrator imagine an imaginary chess game in her mind in this excerpt? Explain what this imaginary chess game reveals about the narrator’s motivations and her internal conflict.

Answer 1

Waverly “Meimei” Jong imagines a chess game in this scene, which occurs at the very end of the short story “Rules of the Game,” because she has just made a bad strategic move regarding her relationship with her mother. She had an emotional outburst that has now led to her being ostracized for the evening. In the beginning of the story, Meimei observes that “invisible strength” helps one win “arguments, respect from others, and . . . chess games.” In the last scene, she reflects on the argument and her current relationship with her mother like a chess game in which her mother is now winning. As Meimei ponders her “next move” she needs to figure out what she can do to master “invisible strength” and win the respect of herself and her mother again.

Answer 2

For Waverly in this story the "invisible strength" is very important. This invisible strength she associates with inner strength and it is this power that helps you both respect, arguments and chess games. This is why the chess board is the important motif here and she's her and her mothers relationship as a chess game a battle for recognition and respect. Her mother because of her outburst earlier in the story has the power in their little power struggle and that's why she is pondering how to resolve her issues with her mother, and the generational gap between two of them.