Category: Others

I liked the idea of “Rules of the Game” alot, and I really enjoyed reading it. It tells about how the more time you spend at something, you will get better at it. Meimei, a little girl who lives in Chinatown with her mom and two brothers one day discovers chess. Her brother got the set as a Christmas present from their church. Meimei learns on her own from the library and from an man in the playground. She gets very good, and plays in many tournaments. She is just short of a grandmaster, and is getting slightly annoyed at her family for not meeting her requirements of how the live, and they keep on having to adjust to her needs. She finally has had it when her mom goes around and shows her off to other people. Meimei runs off and returns later, knowing that no matter how famous she is, she just like everyone else and needs to plan things out. I found this story very entertaining by the very Chinese point of view, and the moral that you always need to look ahead

The short story, The Rules of the Game is about a girl named Waverly that has a mom that judges her a lot and uses her to become more popular. One day she sees her brother playing chess and she wanted to learn how to play. After her brother teaches her how to play she starts to read books about the pieces and improves very fast. She got so good that people stoped playing her. After playing some people at the park, people started to watch her. Her mom starts to brag about her. Waverly gets angry and has a fight with her mom. I think the moral of the story is to stand up for yourself. I believe this because her mom is taking advantage of her and I think that she could stand up for herself.

Curtis Zhang

6/3/20

Rules of the Game

The short story “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan is a story that tells about a Chinese girl(Waverly) growing up in Chinatown and becoming a chess prodigy and trying to get away from her mom who she thinks doesn’t care about her, but actually does. Some things that I have noticed about this story is how her mom is trying to use her to bring their family honor, Waverly not noticing that her mom is actually caring about her, and the daughter trying to escape from living to please her mom.

Waverly shows how her mom is controlling her life as well when in the chess tournament her mom accidentally annoys her without knowing, but she cannot say anything “I was annoyed, but I couldn’t say anything.” The Narrator then shows why her mom wants to use her daughter when her mom went around the street telling everyone that her daughter was Waverly to try and get people to think highly of her. This shows that the mom is controlling her for honor and praise and Waverly dislikes that. Waverly even runs off when her mom shows her off and hides in the dark alleyways for a few hours.

Waverly either does not like the way her mom is presenting her care for her or does not realize that her mom actually cares for her, as her mom makes her brothers do all her chores and makes her study chess right after school. She shows that she dislikes her mom’s care when her mom is standing over her and making  “a soft “Hmmmmph” would escape from her nose,” and she tells her mom that she can’t concentrate when she does that and her mom does not appreciate that and makes loud noises in the kitchen, presumably because of her being annoyed at her daughter.

It also shows that the daughter wants to escape from the way that her mom is trying to control her, as shown when the daughter tries to escape by running away from her mom but ultimately failing. This is also made more apparent in the fact that at the end of the story Waverly declares her mom as her enemy and decides her next move against her mom. 

The story “Rules of the Game” is very interesting because it shows the struggles of a strained relationship between a mom and a daughter.

Everybody needs sleep. The real question is how much? Every single body, whether short or tall, young or old, needs sleep. Living creatures just can’t survive without it. Though sleep is such a large part of life, there still remains the question of how much sleep is good for the body. There are countless doctors or reporters that swear by a certain amount of hours of sleep every night, but how are they reliable? Sleep schedules differ from body to body, and it is clear to see why.

Animals, such as bears, are very similar to humans. Every single species of animals have different sleeping cycles. Whether it is hibernation, to being nocturnal, no two species are alike. It is the same thing with people. No two people are alike; even twins. Twins, although can look extraordinarily similar, have a few differences in the way their bodies function. Therefore, shouldn’t they need different amounts of sleep?

Some of the recommended amounts of sleep are: 6-8 hours, 8-10 hours, and 10-18 hours. However, those are for adults, teenagers, and infants. As the human body progresses on its cycle of life, the recommended sleeping cycles progress too. If they change for the stage of life, then they are different for everybody.

Lastly, there are even “experts” who claim that people who sleep too little become ugly. Though there are real consequences to sleep deprivation, those same “experts” will preach their recommended sleeping amount. Hours of sleep should not be scared into a person. Each individual should explore how much sleep their body needs, and then alter their schedules to fit into the healthy cycle of natural sleep.

All in all, sleep is important, and many people try to tell the rest of the world how long they should spend in their bed. Statistically, humans sleep for approximately one third of their lifetime. It should be spent healthily. Everybody should choose their own amount of sleep; there is no right amount.

Sleeping is something many people do on a daily basis. Sometimes we spend half a day sleeping and sometimes a couple hours, but does the number of hours really affect how you do during the day? Sleeping is a major role in physical health and mental health.
First of all, for physical health, sleep can actually cause a gain in weight. A study had shown that children and adults who have a tendency to lack a sufficient amount of sleep are more likely to gain weight and develop obesity compared to kids and adults who sleep a good amount, which is about eight hours respectively. It was also proven that people who are sleep-deprived and lack sleep are often affected with hormones interfere with the appetite and leads to eating excess calories than those who get a sufficient amount of sleep, who intake fewer calories.
Adding on to physical health, you need your body to be the healthiest it can be when perfuming sports or some kind of extra curriculars activity. You need to be the healthiest in order to do well and can maximize the amount of energy you have to perform the sport you play. Less sleep can take away that energy and can weaken the performance of one.
Now mentally, how does sleep affect you mentally? There is obviously effects of someone’s physical health when they lack sleep but what exactly goes on mentally for someone when they do not get a good amount of sleep? Well, it could lead to disorders and affect moods most importantly, which can also lead to anxiety. Sleeping is what helps us recover from our mental health every day, and without the proper sleep, it is easy to fall into problems, which can soon lead to suicidal thoughts and depression. Sleep is an important part of our lives, and we should not overlook it because it is something that helps us recover and grow stronger for the next day.

It is well known how overbearing Asian parents are. Everybody has heard of the joke that if an Asian student comes home with less than an “A+” on their report card, they will get kicked to the curb. Rules of The Game clearly shows how this tendency of the so called “tiger moms” can strain a relationship. But this schism isn’t just the fault of the parents. The narrator, now grown up, looks back and realizes “how wicked” she was.

Waverly’s mom, realizing that her daughter is a genius at chess, latches on, causing her daughter to lose much of her freedom. Waverly, looking back, writes, “I no longer played in the alley of Waverly Place. I never visited the playground where the pigeons and old men gathered.” In doing so, Waverly starts to feel suffocated. She can’t understand her mother, which isn’t helped by the language barrier between them. Her mother, being from China, speaks broken English, which is muddled and hard to comprehend. Waverly hates it when her mother stands over her, watching as she studies new chess moves. But the grown up Waverly realizes that her mother might have thought herself as her daughter’s “protective ally.”

Despite the obvious strain in their relationship, Waverly still tries to please her mother. Throughout the story, the mother-daughter duo try to outmaneuver each other, and Waverly sees her mother as a chess opponent, “two angry black slits.” But perhaps this is also just a scheme of Waverly’s; she believes that if she could just please her mother, her mother would stop being so demanding. She believes that she could end the chess game with her mother if she fulfills everything that her mother wants.

Waverly dreams of running away from her mother. She sees herself being “pushed up toward the night sky until everything
below (her) disappeared.” This is just another indicator to the tense relationship she shared with her mother. Nevertheless, Waverly never estranges herself from her. Maybe it’s just because of the Chinese quality of being xiao shun, of being filial to parents. But it is clear that Waverly respects her mother; she respects that her mother “imparted her daily truths,” allowing Waverly and her brothers to become better in every which way.

The strain between Waverly and her mother is caused by a variety of factors, among them misunderstanding, miscommunication, and the uneven placement of control. However, no matter how large the rift is between mother and daughter, somehow they don’t alienate themselves from each other. This is seen in how grown-up-Waverly doesn’t write about her mother with bitterness, but describes her fairly. Waverly as an adult still views her childhood with sadness, but she has changed her view of her mother, from dreaming of running away to understanding that she was well-meaning.

Thinking in a negative way is really unhealthy and can lead to depression. Pitying yourself, envying your friends, and thinking the world is just too unfair may make you feel better in the moment, but not in the long run. This kind of thinking or perspective weakens your mental strength, so it is important to not fill our heads and minds with these destructive thoughts. There are three main beliefs that we should be aware of, so we are not tempted into enjoying the momentarily comfort they provide us with.

The first is having unhealthy thoughts about yourself. Feeling sorry for yourself, and blaming outcomes on others. To escape  this uncomfortable situation, we decide to avoid it. This often prevents us from finding the solutions, as we are too focused on the problem and all the troubles it has brought. We get stuck in the same place, and it’s hard for us to move on. You don’t necessarily have to come up with a solution that’ll immediately fix what has happened though. You can take smaller steps at a time, and it’ll still make a difference. Over time the small differences become a big difference, and it’s way better than doing nothing except feeling bad for yourself.

The second is having unhealthy thoughts about others. This comes from comparing ourselves with others around us. The only person we should be comparing to is ourselves. How have I grown, or what do I do differently now compared with what I used to do? We let them influence our lives, when we should be the ones with the ultimate decision. We should not let them shape us, and give up the control over ourselves. 

The third is having unhealthy thoughts about the world. Thinking that the world is unfair, or that it owes us. Thinking that when we have accomplished something we will get rewarded, but that is not how it works. We should accept that, but we should not use it as an excuse to not try our best. This should not hold us back, and should not make us feel less about ourselves.

The only way to be mentally strong is to give up all bad habits like envy and strengthen our good habits like appreciation. We counter those unhealthy, negative beliefs with positive ones. Just because you have been through some tough times, it doesn’t mean your whole life will be like that. You are in control and you can change your life, your world. Once you believe that you can do that, you won’t be afraid of what future obstacles you’ll be met with, and nothing can hold you back. That is what a person with strong mental strength looks like.

In Amy Tan’s short story “Rules of The Game”, Waverly Jong, adolescent chess wizard, goes through a fight with her mom when she embarrasses Waverly by constantly telling everyone that “this is my daughter, [Waverly] Jong”. In their actions in response to each other, several flaws in their relationship become apparent, like lack of communication, maturity, empathy/understanding, and the lack of will to fix any.

The lack of maturity is what fuels the lack of communication, which in turn keeps Waverly and her mother from understanding each other, and the unwillingness to resolve these issues is woven all throughout these and is, of course, what keeps them from being resolved. An instance that demonstrates all of these flaws is a fight they have in a market, which stems from Waverly’s anger at her mother telling everyone they meet that Waverly Jong is her daughter.

In response to Waverly’s embarrassment and annoyance, instead of responding calmly and responsibly like an adult mother should, the mother only gives icy silence, and when she actually does respond it is to call her own daughter a “stupid girl” for accidentally bumping into someone. The mom does not show the level of maturity to be expected from her, but the same cannot be said of Waverly, because she is still growing up and cannot be expected to show the same level of maturity that her mom should, but does not. Waverly runs from the site and does not return home for hours.

In the market, Waverly does not properly communicate her feelings with her mother, and her mother nearly fails to communicate at all, leading to a complete lack of understanding on both parts of the other’s feelings. Her mother’s greeting upon her return home- that if this girl would not bother with them, they would not bother with her- demonstrates that she is unwilling to even attempt to actually have a proper talk and fix things with her daughter. Waverly says nothing and only retreats to her room, proving herself also unwilling to fix things. However, the blame for this unwillingness can be almost entirely attributed to the mom. As children and young adults, a girl’s primary role model is her mother. Mom demonstrates what a mature woman should be, and we follow her example. So when Mom teaches us a certain thing, whether it be something we should learn or the exact opposite, we learn it.

In this way, it is shown that Waverly Jong and her mother’s unwillingness to communicate and empathize with each other in a mature way can be almost completely blamed on her mother (Waverly does have other influences- friends, teachers, her own thinking, etc.), and it can only be hoped that Waverly will learn a better lesson and that she and her mom will fix things, for that is entirely up to them.

In literature, sayings, which are similar to dialogue, are used in numerous ways. It can be used to portray society, action, and religion, or used to further elaborate on an idea in the story. Amy Tan is an american author who mainly writes about Chinese mother-daughter relations. In her short story “Rules of The Game” she uses two main sayings to exaggeratedly portray Chinese tradition and action.

Here is a brief summary on Tan’s short story. There is a young Chinese girl called Waverly who lives on Chinatown with her parents and two brothers. One day, she decides to start playing chess, and over the period of a few days, she improves tremendously. Her mother also teaches her sayings. Waverly decides to attend at a competition a few weeks later, and in her mind, she thinks about her mother’s sayings. When her mother realizes that Waverly is starting to become famous and appear on news, her mom goes outside to brag and also makes her brother do more chores. Waverly gets extremely annoyed at her mom’s behavior, and her mom gets furious.

The first saying is how Waverly’s mother uses the concept “American Rules”. When her mom is looking through the chess book, the author describes it as, “She scanned the pages quickly, not reading the foreign English symbols…This American Rules” (Tan 3). Her mother truly does not understand the rule book, as it is foreign, and proceeds to call it american. This is because Waverly’s mother does not enjoy being seen as bad, hence always wants to be the best. She simply denies that it is because she is not fluent in English, but instead concludes that it is because that the rules were american. Additionally, when Waverly’s brother has to do more chores than her, they obviously complain, but her mother says that this, “Is new American rules [sic]” (Tan 4). Her mother obviously favors her daughter because she has become a master at chess, so she makes her do less chores. Instead of telling the honest truth, she tells her sons that it is a new American Rule. Since the mother thinks American rules are foreign, and bad, she assumes that her sons think the same. She is taking advantage of “American Rules” so that she is not blamed. Tan uses the “American Rules” to create something that the Chinese see as foreign, bad, or irrelevant.

The second saying is, “he not go against wind…[he] come from [sic].” (Tan 1). The saying means that one must not go against something, but rather go with it. This further simplifies down to go with the flow. Going with the flow helped her in chess in many ways. In the world of chess, go with the flow translates to adapting to your opponent’s moves. Do what flows best, what strikes the enemy best. As the situation changes, so does the “wind”, and one should move differently accordingly to their opponent. Tan portrays how Chinese tradition involves creating sayings to help people improve on different activities.

In conclusion, Amy Tan’s usage of sayings shape the way of how the reader sees Chinese tradition in this “made-up” story. “American Rules” is something, foreign, and “he not go against wind…[he] come from [sic].” is one of the many possible sayings used to help people succeed. The Chinese in this story are thought to enjoy being honored and also enjoy creating sayings to further elaborate certain doings.

Us humans have been in 2 worlds. One is where you are fully conscious, and you spend most of your time in. This is the world where you wake up, where you dress and eat, where you exercise and think, et cetera. This world is called reality. The other one is a world we enter mostly at night. In order to go to that world, you must go through a portal. For most people, their portal is a bed. Others it may be a couch. This world, the birthplace of dreams, is the world of sleep. What exactly is sleep? Scientifically defined, according to Google, “Sleep is a condition of body and mind such as that which typically recurs for several hours every night, in which the nervous system is relatively inactive, the eyes closed, the postural muscles relaxed, and consciousness practically suspended.” Why is sleep important? Sleep is the brother of consciousness. Without consciousness there is no sleep, and without sleep there is no consciousness. Consciousness allows your mind to experience new things each and every day, while sleep works alongside consciousness and allows your mind to file out that day’s experiences throughout the system.

However, many people are sleep-deprived. This is major issue. Sleep deprivation is causing many people to have health-damaging conditions, sleep is important for a good mood, and good sleep means a good body. People need to obtain a sufficient amount of sleep every day.

First and foremost, poor sleep is a lot of times the reason why people are having some health conditions. For example, poor sleep is related to depression, and many teens have little sleep each day, which means teens are sometimes prone to depression. Other unaccustomed symptoms also may occur, such as headaches and drowsiness. The article “How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?” by Jade Wu illustrates, “Having an unstable schedule can cause daytime sleepiness one day and insomnia the next, which confuses both you and your body.” This means a lack of sleep is a major distraction to your body. This matters because people need decent quality time to fulfill their everyday needs and to-do’s.

Moreover, sleep is one of the determining factors of mood. If you have a good sleep, the next day you might have a great mood, and your attitude to everything will be much better. On the other hand, if one day you have poor sleep, the second day you might scream at someone and then start weeping. The text demonstrates, “A recent meta-analysis including over 1600 participants confirmed that sleep restriction is associated with poorer attention and thinking. We’ve known for decades that sleep deprivation disrupts mood.” This proves that a lack of sleep can often affect your temper, to yourself and to others. This is significant because other people are trying to live their normal day as well, and it is bad for unnecessary conflict.

Last but not least, sleep determines whether your body is benefiting or damaging. Poor sleep is linked to a higher body weight, while good sleepers tend to have healthier diets. Having good sleep minimizes your chances of getting heart disease or stroke. These are just some examples. The article “The Benefits of Slumber” mentions, “It affects growth and stress hormones, our immune system, appetite, breathing, blood pressure and cardiovascular health. Research shows that lack of sleep increases the risk for obesity, heart disease and infections.” This exhibits that sleep can affect many factors of health. This is vital because everyone needs to maintain a good physical condition in order to live a fit life.

Ultimately, people, young or old, need to keep track of the hours of sleep and have an adequate amount of rest time. They need to prevent harming conditions, gain a fine mindset and spirit, and maintain a healthy body. I encourage you to sleep a few hours more. “Sleep is the best meditation.”