Part A.
Tan’s acclaimed novel The Joy Luck Club focuses on four Chinese American immigrant families living in San Francisco. Tan focuses heavily on mother-daughter relationships, and the following excerpt is no exception. This selection examines the relationship of young Waverly Jong and her mother after Waverly becomes a successful child chess prodigy.
“Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan,
excerpted from The Joy Luck Club
I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength. It was a strategy for winning arguments, respect from others, and eventually, though neither of us knew it at the time, chess games.
"Bite back your tongue," scolded my mother when I cried loudly, yanking her hand toward the store that sold bags of salted plums. At home, she said, "Wise guy, he not go against wind. In Chinese we say, Come from South, blow with wind-poom!-North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be seen."
That winter, we had gone to the annual Christmas party held at the First Chinese Baptist Church at the end of the alley. Donated gifts were given out to all of the children there. My older brother Vincent was the one who actually got the chess set. It was obviously used and, as we discovered later, it was missing a black pawn and a white knight. When we got home, my mother told Vincent to throw the chess set away. My brothers had deaf ears. They were already lining up the chess pieces and reading from the dog-eared instruction book. I watched Vincent and Winston play during Christmas week. The chessboard seemed to hold elaborate secrets waiting to be untangled.
"Let me! Let me!" I begged between games when one brother or the other would sit back with a deep sigh of relief and victory, the other annoyed, unable to let go of the outcome. Vincent at first refused to let me play, but when I offered my Life Savers as replacements for the buttons that filled in for the missing pieces, he relented. He chose the flavors: wild cherry for the black pawn and peppermint for the white knight. Winner could eat both.
(Line 5) I read the rules and looked up all the big words in a dictionary. I borrowed books from the Chinatown library. I studied each chess piece, trying to absorb the power each contained.
I learned about opening moves and why it's important to control the center early on; the shortest distance between two points is straight down the middle. I learned about the middle game and why tactics between two adversaries are like clashing ideas; the one who plays better has the clearest plans for both attacking and getting out of traps. I learned why it is essential in the endgame to have foresight, a mathematical understanding of all possible moves, and patience; all weaknesses and advantages become evident to a strong adversary and are obscured to a tiring opponent. I discovered that for the whole game one must gather invisible strengths and see the endgame before the game begins.
I also found out why I should never reveal "why" to others. A little knowledge withheld is a great advantage one should store for future use. That is the power of chess. It is a game of secrets in which one must show and never tell.
On a cold spring afternoon, while walking home from school, I detoured through the playground at the end of our alley. I saw a group of old men, two seated across a folding table playing a game of chess, others smoking pipes, eating peanuts, and watching. I ran home and grabbed Vincent's chess set, which was bound in a cardboard box with rubber bands. I also carefully selected two prized rolls of Life Savers. I came back to the park and approached a man who was observing the game.
"Want to play?" I asked him. His face widened with surprise and he grinned as he looked at the box under my arm. "Little sister, been a long time since I play with dolls," he said, smiling benevolently. I quickly put the box down next to him on the bench and displayed my retort.
(Line 10) Lau Po, as he allowed me to call him, turned out to be a much better player than my brothers. I lost many games and many Life Savers. But over the weeks, with each diminishing roll of candies, I added new secrets. Lau Po gave me the names. The Double Attack from the East and West Shores. Throwing Stones on the Drowning Man. The Sudden Meeting of the Clan. The Surprise from the Sleeping Guard. The Humble Servant Who Kills the King. Sand in the Eyes of Advancing Forces. A Double Killing Without Blood.
There were also the fine points of chess etiquette. Keep captured men in neat rows, as well-tended prisoners. Never announce "Check" with vanity, lest someone with an unseen sword slit your throat. Never hurl pieces into the sandbox after you have lost a game, because then you must find them again, by yourself, after apologizing to all around you. By the end of the summer, Lau Po had taught me all he knew, and I had become a better chess player.
A man who watched me play in the park suggested that my mother allow me to play in local chess tournaments. During my first tournament, my mother sat with me in the front row as I waited for my turn. I frequently bounced my legs to unstick them from the cold metal seat of the folding chair. When my name was called, I leapt up. My mother unwrapped something in her lap. It was her chang, a small tablet of red jade which held the sun's fire. "Is luck," she whispered, and tucked it into my dress pocket. I turned to my opponent, a fifteen-year-old boy from Oakland. He looked at me, wrinkling his nose.
As I began to play, the boy disappeared, the color ran out of the room, and I saw only my white pieces and his black ones waiting on the other side. A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whispered secrets only I could hear.
"Blow from the South," it murmured. "The wind leaves no trail." I saw a clear path, the traps to avoid. The crowd rustled. "Shhh! Shhh!" said the corners of the room. The wind blew stronger. "Throw sand from the East to distract him." The knight came forward ready for the sacrifice. The wind hissed, louder and louder. "Blow, blow, blow. He cannot see. He is blind now. Make him lean away from the wind so he is easier to knock down."
(Line 15) "Check," I said, as the wind roared with laughter. The wind died down to little puffs, my own breath.
My mother placed my first trophy next to a new plastic chess set that the neighborhood Tao society had given to me. I attended more tournaments, each one farther away from home. I won all games, in all divisions. The Chinese bakery downstairs from our flat displayed my growing collection of trophies in its window, amidst the dust- covered cakes that were never picked up. The day after I won an important regional tournament, the window encased a fresh sheet cake with whipped-cream frosting and red script saying "Congratulations, Waverly Jong, Chinatown Chess Champion." Soon after that, a flower shop, headstone engraver, and funeral parlor offered to sponsor me in national tournaments. That's when my mother decided I no longer had to do the dishes. Winston and Vincent had to do my chores.
By my ninth birthday, I was a national chess champion. I was still some 429 points away from grand-master status, but I was touted as the Great American Hope, a child prodigy and a girl to boot. They ran a photo of me in Life magazine next to a quote in which Bobby Fischer said, "There will never be a woman grand master." "Your move, Bobby," said the caption.
I no longer played in the alley of Waverly Place. I never visited the playground where the pigeons and old men gathered. I went to school, then directly home to learn new chess secrets, cleverly concealed advantages, more escape routes.
My parents made many concessions to allow me to practice. One time I complained that the bedroom I shared was so noisy that I couldn't think. Thereafter, my brothers slept in a bed in the living room facing the street. I said I couldn't finish my rice; my head didn't work right when my stomach was too full. I left the table with half- finished bowls and nobody complained. But there was one duty I couldn't avoid. I had to accompany my mother on Saturday market days when I had no tournament to play. My mother would proudly walk with me, visiting many shops, buying very little. "This my daughter Wave-ly Jong," she said to whoever looked her way.
(Line 20) One day after we left a shop I said under my breath, "I wish you wouldn't do that, telling everybody I'm your daughter." My mother stopped walking.
Crowds of people with heavy bags pushed past us on the sidewalk, bumping into first one shoulder, than another.
"Aii-ya. So shame be with mother?" She grasped my hand even tighter as she glared at me.
I looked down. "It's not that, it's just so obvious. It's just so embarrassing." "Embarrass you be my daughter?" Her voice was cracking with anger. "That's not what I meant. That's not what I said."
"What you say?"
I knew it was a mistake to say anything more, but I heard my voice speaking, "Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don't you learn to play chess?"
(Line 25) My mother's eyes turned into dangerous black slits. She had no words for me, just sharp silence.
I felt the wind rushing around my hot ears. I jerked my hand out of my mother's tight grasp and spun around, knocking into an old woman. Her bag of groceries spilled to the ground.
"Aii-ya! Stupid girl!" my mother and the woman cried. Oranges and tin cans careened down the sidewalk. As my mother stooped to help the old woman pick up the escaping food, I took off.
I raced down the street, dashing between people, not looking back as my mother screamed shrilly, "Meimei! Meimei!" I fled down an alley, past dark, curtained shops and merchants washing the grime off their windows. I sped into the sunlight, into a large street crowded with tourists examining trinkets and souvenirs. I ducked into another dark alley, down another street, up another alley. I ran until it hurt and I realized I had nowhere to go, that I was not running from anything. The alleys contained no escape routes.
My breath came out like angry smoke. It was cold. I sat down on an upturned plastic pail next to a stack of empty boxes, cupping my chin with my hands, thinking hard. I imagined my mother, first walking briskly down one street or another looking for me, then giving up and returning home to await my arrival. After two hours, I stood up on creaking legs and slowly walked home. The alley was quiet and I could see the yellow lights shining from our flat like two tiger's eyes in the night. I climbed the sixteen steps to the door, advancing quietly up each so as not to make any warning sounds. I turned the knob; the door was locked. I heard a chair moving, quick steps, the locks turning-click! click! click!-and then the door opened.
(Line 30) "About time you got home," said Vincent. "Boy, are you in trouble." He slid back to the dinner table. On a platter were the remains of a large fish, its fleshy head still connected to bones swimming upstream in vain escape. Standing there waiting for my punishment, I heard my mother speak in a dry voice.
"We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us." Nobody looked at me. Bone chopsticks clinked against the inside of bowls being emptied into hungry mouths.
I walked into my room, closed the door, and lay down on my bed. The room was dark, the ceiling filled with shadows from the dinnertime lights of neighboring flats.
In my head, I saw a chessboard with sixty-four black and white squares. Opposite me was my opponent, two angry black slits. She wore a triumphant smile. "Strongest wind cannot be seen," she said.
Her black men advanced across the plane, slowly marching to each successive level as a single unit. My white pieces screamed as they scurried and fell off the board one by one. As her men drew closer to my edge, I felt myself growing light. I rose up into the air and flew out the window. Higher and higher, above the alley, over the tops of tiled roofs, where I was gathered up by the wind and pushed up toward the night sky until everything below me disappeared and I was alone.
(Line 35) I closed my eyes and pondered my next move.
"Rules of the Game" Multiple Choice Questions
Directions: Select the options that best answers the questions. Note: Parenthetical numbers next to questions or answers refer to the corresponding paragraph number in the story.
1. What is the best interpretation of the mother’s advice: “Wise guy, he not go against wind. In Chinese we say, Come from South, blow with wind-poom!-North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be seen"? (2).
a. It is better to not complain and keep your thoughts hidden
b. Sailing requires one to follow the wind rather than try to sail into it
c. It is important to give back to the community that you live in
d. Wise men use the wind to guide their course
2. How does the family first acquire the chess board? (3).
a. Meimei steals it from a dumpster near their apartment
b. Vincent bought it from a elderly man who lived nearby
c. Winston found it in the attic of their home
d. Vincent received it as a donated Christmas gift at their church
3. “A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whispered secrets only I could hear” (13). This statement is an example of:
a. Metaphor
b. Imagery
c. Personification
d. Alliteration
a. Meimei steals it from a dumpster near their apartment
b. Vincent bought it from a elderly man who lived nearby
c. Winston found it in the attic of their home
d. Vincent received it as a donated Christmas gift at their church
3. “A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whispered secrets only I could hear” (13). This statement is an example of:
a. Metaphor
b. Imagery
c. Personification
d. Alliteration
4. How was Waverly able to attend national chess tournaments? (16).
a. Her parents were rich and could afford to send her
b. She was sponsored by several neighborhood businesses
c. She won money from smaller tournaments that allowed her to afford to attend them
d. The tournaments were held near her hometown
5. In context, the word “concessions” (19) most nearly means:
a. Her parents were rich and could afford to send her
b. She was sponsored by several neighborhood businesses
c. She won money from smaller tournaments that allowed her to afford to attend them
d. The tournaments were held near her hometown
5. In context, the word “concessions” (19) most nearly means:
a. Candy or food items
b. Suggestions
c. Sacrifices
d. Forfeits
6. Why is Waverly embarrassed that her mother introduces her to strangers in the marketplace, saying, “‘This my daughter Wave-ly Jong,’...to whoever looked her way”? (19).
a. Because Waverly is very shy
b. Because Waverly is embarrassed to be seen with her mother
c. Because Waverly feels like her mother is using her to brag
d. Because Waverly does not like her name
7. "I said under my breath, ‘I wish you wouldn't do that, telling everybody I'm your daughter’" (20). In this statement, the narrator’s tone can be described as any of the following EXCEPT
a. Confrontational
b. Angry
c. Confused
d. Annoyed
8. Why is Waverly’s mother so angry about her daughter’s statements in the marketplace?
a. Because they show a disregard for all of the things her mother has done for her
b. Because they are rude and unnecessary
c. Because they accuse her of using Waverly simply as a way to make her mother feel important
d. Because the comments are offensive to other people who might hear them
9. “I could see the yellow lights shining from our flat like two tiger's eyes in the night” (29) is an example of:
a. Simile
b. Metaphor
c. Hyperbole
d. Personification
c. Sacrifices
d. Forfeits
6. Why is Waverly embarrassed that her mother introduces her to strangers in the marketplace, saying, “‘This my daughter Wave-ly Jong,’...to whoever looked her way”? (19).
a. Because Waverly is very shy
b. Because Waverly is embarrassed to be seen with her mother
c. Because Waverly feels like her mother is using her to brag
d. Because Waverly does not like her name
7. "I said under my breath, ‘I wish you wouldn't do that, telling everybody I'm your daughter’" (20). In this statement, the narrator’s tone can be described as any of the following EXCEPT
a. Confrontational
b. Angry
c. Confused
d. Annoyed
8. Why is Waverly’s mother so angry about her daughter’s statements in the marketplace?
a. Because they show a disregard for all of the things her mother has done for her
b. Because they are rude and unnecessary
c. Because they accuse her of using Waverly simply as a way to make her mother feel important
d. Because the comments are offensive to other people who might hear them
9. “I could see the yellow lights shining from our flat like two tiger's eyes in the night” (29) is an example of:
a. Simile
b. Metaphor
c. Hyperbole
d. Personification
10. The best explanation of the theme of this passage is that
a. children can learn games more quickly than adults
b. children are often unaware of how much sacrifice their parents make for them
c. chess is a game that can bring entire communities together
d. it is difficult to be an immigrant in America
B. Poetry:
a. children can learn games more quickly than adults
b. children are often unaware of how much sacrifice their parents make for them
c. chess is a game that can bring entire communities together
d. it is difficult to be an immigrant in America
B. Poetry:
“Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad”
by Jan Heller Levi
I think you are most yourself when you are swimming;
slicing the water with each stroke,
the funny way you breathe, your mouth cocked
as though you're yawning.
You're neither fantastic nor miserable (Line 5)
at getting from here to there.
You wouldn't win any medals, Dad,
but you wouldn't drown.
I think how different everything might have been
had I judged your loving (Line 10)
like I judge your sidestroke, your butterfly,
your Australian crawl.
But I always thought I was drowning
in that icy ocean between us,
I always thought you were moving too slowly to save me, (Line 15)
When you were moving as fast as you can.
"Not Bad, Dad" Multiple Choice
Directions: Select the options that best answers the questions.
11. The writer’s tone is .
a. bitter
b. celebratory
c. sympathetic
d. melancholic
12. The descriptions of the speaker’s father reveals that he was
a. an awful father
b. a decent father
c. the best dad in the world
d. an absent father
13. In the poem, swimming is used as a
a. simile
b. allusion
c. metaphor
d. foreshadow
14. The poem most reflects the theme that
b. allusion
c. metaphor
d. foreshadow
14. The poem most reflects the theme that
a. children often misinterpret their parent’s rules
b. swimming is a worthwhile and fulfilling hobby
c. with age comes appreciation; we often appreciate the things (or people) we once criticized
d. relationships are the most important thing in life
15. What has the speaker realized about her father at the end of the poem?
a. His “failings” as a father were the result of her youthful perspective at the time
b. The speaker blames her father for embarrassing her at the swim meet
c. He is a pathetic person who is not worth having a relationship with
d. Her dad always wanted to be a professional swimmer and failed as a father because of it
C. Open Response Question
Directions: When answering an open-response question, be sure to do the following:
Essay Question:
Often children’s views of their parents change as they (the children) mature and grow. How do “The Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan and “Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad” by Jan Heller Levi demonstrate the speakers’ views of their parents from a younger and/or more mature perspective?
b. swimming is a worthwhile and fulfilling hobby
c. with age comes appreciation; we often appreciate the things (or people) we once criticized
d. relationships are the most important thing in life
15. What has the speaker realized about her father at the end of the poem?
a. His “failings” as a father were the result of her youthful perspective at the time
b. The speaker blames her father for embarrassing her at the swim meet
c. He is a pathetic person who is not worth having a relationship with
d. Her dad always wanted to be a professional swimmer and failed as a father because of it
C. Open Response Question
Directions: When answering an open-response question, be sure to do the following:
- Read the question carefully
- Answer all parts of the question/prompt in a brief essay
- Create a 1-2 sentence thesis/intro
- Form body paragraphs
- Explain your answer in the essay
- Add supporting details to each paragraph - Be sure to include lines from both the story and poem to defend your stance.
- Make a quick 1-2 sentence conclusion
- Double-check your work
Essay Question:
Often children’s views of their parents change as they (the children) mature and grow. How do “The Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan and “Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad” by Jan Heller Levi demonstrate the speakers’ views of their parents from a younger and/or more mature perspective?
