The Joy Luck Club- Amy Tan

Rules of the Game:

Significance- This chapter is about a girl named Waverly Jong. She lives in Chinatown, San Francisco with her parents and brothers. She is a very happy girl, and she is not poor. Then one day her brother brings home a chess set from a party. She enjoys playing chess, and becomes very good at it. She learns many rules from playing against many people, and becomes a national winner. Her mom keeps bragging about her, and before she knows it she is using all the rules of the game in her own life, to have her mom not brag about her anymore. She has to take one step at a time, and plan her moves before it happens, just like chess.

Perspective- This book was written by Amy Tan, but not in her perspective. This book is a collection of vignettes written in 4 different women's perspectives, and it would be very different if it was written in Amy Tan's perspective. However, she is a very good author, and I don't really think many other writers would have been able to pull of writing about these kinds of tragedies these women went through. She writes in such metaphors that sometimes it's hard to follow, and I really don't think any other author would be able to pull those kind of metaphors off.

Evidence- I can definitely say that Waverly is talented at chess. I can say this because she learned how to play chess very quickly and she is really good at it. She also picks up the rules very quickly, and accepts them into her own life. She is also very smart, and brave, so that helps her talents. I know that she is smart because she learns the rules very quickly and uses a lot of logic in playing chess. She always knows what she's going to do next in life, and in the game, and she is just very smart. She is brave because she can talk back to her mother, and since she is smart, you know it can't be her not being smart. She can also go to lots of competitions and not be scared of being there, and playing against a lot of different people she's never met before.

Connection- In this book Waverly's mom embarrasses her because she so proud of her and is bragging to people about how amazing her daughter is. I've definitely had my family members embarrass me, and my grandmother can never stop bragging about me. Although I don't feel embarrassed, it's kind of awkward, and I just have to realize that I'm one of the best things in her life, like Waverly's mom's life. In Waverly's scenario she couldn't talk to her mom about it, and I'm not really sure I'd ever talk to my grandmother about it, but in both scenarios it's a family member that's very proud of their family.

Supposition- In this book, I think everything would be very different if Waverly had never gotten the chess board. I don't think she would have learned the same life lessons, because the chess board taught her so many things about life. She also wouldn't be as bold, and as brave, because she learned all of those things from the game. She learned how to talk to people, meet new people, approach new people. It's amazing how much you can learn from on little chess board.