46 pages • 1 hour read
Amy TanRules of the Game
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1989A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Waverly Place “Meimei” Jong
Waverly is named after the street her family lives on, yet the family calls her Meimei, which means “Little Sister.” Waverly is the youngest of three children, the only girl, and grows up playing in the alleys and on the streets of San Francisco’s Chinatown. She watches customers through the windows of shops and pesters her brothers to let her play with them. She has many adventures but none so great as her introduction to chess.
This story centers on Waverley’s relationship with her mother and how that relationship contributes to Waverly’s growth both as a chess player and as a person. Waverly is youthful, naive, and relatively unburdened by external concerns. Because her mother shields her from financial and domestic worries, Waverly is able to explore her passion (chess) and begin to find her place in the world. At the beginning of the story, she is largely defined by her brothers—taking up their interests and seeking to join in their games. But by the end, she has found her passion and set her goals.
Thanks to her mother’s guidance, Waverly cultivates an “invisible strength,” symbolized by the wind, an invisible force that guides her chess moves. She practices careful observation, learned from her mother, as well as adaptability, learned from her community. She also comes to recognize the value of perseverance and humility. All these lessons translate to chess, catapulting Waverly to local and national success. Although Waverly sometimes experiences her mother as overbearing, her mother has Waverly’s best interests in mind. The mother’s wisdom and guidance do challenge Waverly, but she rises to the occasion and takes those lessons onboard. The story’s message of growth and self-discovery suggests future lessons will continue pushing Waverly forward toward opportunity and a strong sense of self.
Waverly’s Mother
Waverly’s mother raises three children, makes “three five-course meals everyday” (Paragraph 4), manages household duties, and maintains social and cultural contracts within her community with seeming ease. When Waverly’s brother selects a chess set as a gift during the local church’s Christmas party, Waverly’s mother dutifully responds to the crowd, “Too good. Cost too much” (Paragraph 17), even though the set was missing pieces and clearly used. She quickly sheds her humility once they are home, instructing her children to “throw [it] away” (Paragraph 18). Her ability to shift from one persona to another depending on the setting shows her deft understanding of social norms.
Even though Waverly might regard her mother’s advice and criticism as insensitive, her mother often clears the path for her daughter to succeed. She rewards Waverly with salted plums when Waverly behaves well on their shopping trip. She makes a book of chess rules available to Waverly. And when Waverly needs more time and quiet to study chess, her mother makes certain that her brothers take over her chores and remain silent in a room away from her. Without Waverly’s mother’s interventions, Waverly might not have had the time or space to become a chess champion.
Vincent and Winston
Waverly’s brothers are both older than her and often accompany her on adventures around Chinatown. When the three of them attend the church’s Christmas party, they have the opportunity to select gifts from a Santa’s bag. Vincent chooses a chess board. Vincent and Winston commit themselves to learning chess, excluding Waverly until she offers candy as a prize for the winner. They quickly tire of Waverly’s questions and return their focus to “roaming the streets after school in their Hopalong Cassidy cowboy hats” (Paragraph 31). Once Waverly’s chess skills start to bring the family notoriety, her chores are handed to the brothers to take on, a move about which they both complain. Regardless, they follow their mother’s orders closely.
Chinatown
Chinatown plays such an important role in the story that it might be considered a character itself. Waverly’s descriptions of the alleyways, playgrounds, shops, and people keep all the story’s characters in close contact with the setting. A mention of the setting is never far away; and the narrator gives sensory descriptions of the setting at almost every turn. The characters are inhabited by the setting more than they inhabit it. The buildings, smells, and sounds give life to the story as strongly as the dialogue does.
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By Amy Tan
