“Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan is a short story that portrays a Chinese – American girl named Waverly. One day, her brother receives a chess set for Christmas, and she starts to learn how to play. She quickly starts to become extremely good and is able to beat many people at chess tournaments. Later, her mom brags about Waverly’s success at a mall, and she becomes upset because she does not like that her mom is showing her off. Instead of listening to Waverly and stopping, she also becomes angry at her daughter.
I believe that her mom should respect that Waverly does not want her mother to brag about her. She tells her mother, “‘I wish you wouldn’t do that, telling everybody I’m your daughter”’ (Tan). Her mother misunderstands and thinks that Waverly is ashamed to be her daughter, but in reality, Waverly just does not like all of the attention. When she is finally able to clarify what she means, her mother is shocked and becomes even angrier. Although her mother just wants everyone to know Waverly, she does not understand why her daughter would not like all the recognition from others. This represents how many parents treat their children because the parents do not understand them. For example, a mother may think something is really exciting, such as watching a video about fish, but her child just does not want to. Although this story seems like a simple short story about a young girl who likes chess, it actually holds many other important messages, like how someone shouldn’t treat another rudely because they don’t like the same things as them.