Critical Essay on “Rules of the Game”
... Waverly’s pride finally snapped, and she spoke out. This is a trait that she obtained from her mother. Her mother was always proud, and she wanted all her children to rise above their social circumstances, especially her daughter. Mrs. Jung said that Waverly had potential to leave her circumstance in a run down community, thus, Waverly’s mother supports her in everything she does. For example, Waverly’s mother allowed her to avoid doing chores around the house so she can concentrate on playing chess. Another example occurs when Waverly asks her mother to stop peering over her while she is practicing, and her mother obliges with this request and backs off. Waverly’s final decision in the end to speak out was not a wise decision on her part; even though in the beginning she knew that her relationship with her mother entailed her compliancy, she still had the urge to reveal her feeling to her mother. Throughout the story, Waverly grows more frustrated with her mother. She wants her mother to release the strong hold on her and allow her to gain independence. At each and every stage that Waverly reaches, she finds her mother looking over her shoulder. For instance, Waverly was in her room practicing chess moves and her mother peers around the corner. This annoyed Waverly, and she says “Ma, I can’t practice when you stand there like that” (Tam 1477). This is just one of the incidents where her mother wears her down. The end result caused Waverly to burst out in public leaving her mother embarrassed. Waverly, in this circumstance, became frustrated with her mother. With this in mind, relating it to the new game that she has taken a liking to, she should have learned how to be patient and control her moves. Since she has learned to be an excellent player, she should utilize the patience in her everyday life situations. She does not learn to do this until the end when she contemplates her next move in her room after standing up to her mother. Waverly constantly grows in small steps in this story, so the final outcome should not have occurred. For example, when she defeats her brothers in chess, she wants to find more skilled opponents to play against, and learn from, hence, she finds the old man in the park to play against. This is reaffirmed when it was mentioned...