Amy Tan?s writing style is about the Chinese-American culture integrated with life stories. She gives the reader an opportunity to gain knowledge about the way of life her family, friends, and even herself have had. Tan?s main purpose of writing is to educate people about growing up as a minority. In her stories, ?Tan is handing us the key with no price tag and letting us open the brass-bolted door.? (Gillespie.365).
The focus of ?Rules of the Game? was on the culture of the Chinese-Americans but it was weaved into a story to catch the reader?s attention. She introduces the readers to the way of like of the Chinese-Americans, ?it?s like being invited into a dusty room full of castoffs, and being given a chance to re-apprehend them in their former richness? (Gillespie.365).
Tan wrote about her experiences, her relative?s experiences, and fellow Chinese-Americans living in America. In the story ?Rules of the Game? Tan included experiences she had known from her life. In all of Tan?s stories and novels ?Tan wrote about what she had seen herself and what she hadn?t- her own experience and her mother?s? (Fitzgerald.367) including in the short story ?Rules of the Game?. In ?Rules of the Game?, she uses her experiences about learning to play chess as the theme of the story. Tan?s stories give a ?lucidity of vision? (Chang.363), so you are able to imagine exactly what is going on. The entire idea of chess comes into play when Waverly?s older brothers get an old, used chessboard with missing pieces from a church Christmas bazaar, while all that Waverly got was a book with twelve packs of Lifesavers. Even though her gift wasn?t much, she was still grateful and talked her brothers into letting her play by giving them Lifesavers as substitutes for the missing pieces. The story ?Rules of the Game? has ?skepticism, same themes and linear structure that allows puzzles to be unraveled and truths to unfurl along the way, and splendidly cinematic scenes? (Gillespie.365).
The Review on Electronic Games and Entertainment
As early as 2600 BC, games are universal part of human experience and present in all countries as part their cultures. Games are usually for enjoyment, leisure, and sometimes used as educational tool. Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental and physical stimulation, and often both. Games can take a variety of forms, from competitive ...
Because of Waverly?s persistence in the story, her brothers eventually let her play, and again and again Waverly would defeat them. Waverly?s mother was very shocked at how well she did, so she decided to enter her into competitions. Tan keeps the reader thinking of what is going to happen next, especially when Waverly wins all the competitions that she competes in and at the end when Waverly, the star chess player, runs away because of all the attention she receives from winning. In ?Rules of the Game?, ?she defanged all her potential critics, silencing us with the sheer weight of her apprehension, guilt-tripping them in advance?(Gillespie.365) by making us feel bad for Waverly when her mother bragged about her and embarrassed her in front of many people and also for Waverly?s mother when Waverly didn?t want recognition. In Tan?s story ?Rules of the Game?, ?Tan expresses the sense and sensibility of being Chinese in a remarkably accessible way, while remaining uncompromisingly true to her own experience, her own vision.? (Chang.363).
Tan allows the readers to get a better view on the lifestyle of the Chinese immigrants living in America, and their culture contrasted to the Americans, rather than the way that society portrays their lifestyle. In ?Rules of the Game?, the Chinese-American lifestyle is shown by describing how the family went to church, where their house was, and how they lived in Chinatown, where they were around other Chinese-Americans that had the same morals, standards, and values as they had. In ?Rules of the Game?, when the boys first got the chess game, Waverly?s mother wanted them to throw it away but the boys did not because they did not understand why their mother felt that way. This is an example of Tan ?demonstrating fundamental faith in invisible forces which pervades traditional Chinese culture and that this, too, divides the first and second generations? (Chang.363).
The Essay on Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue
There are thousands of languages in the world, such as Spanish, French, Chinese, English…However, No one can do better job in the second language than their mother language. In the article Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan emphasized her idea that we speak different languages unconsciously and we are categorized by the way we talk. The author talked about her mother who is a Chinese emigrant ...
The boys not being able to relate to their mother shows that in coming to America, some of the standards and ways of life have changed. The story ?Rules of the Game? was about Waverly becoming very good at chess and her mother began to brag about her. Amy Tan?s books and stories were mostly about mothers and daughters and their relationships. Waverly did not want her mother to make a spectacle of her so she was upset when her mother told everyone of her success.
In conclusion, Tan wants the readers to gain a knowledge and respect for the Chinese-American culture. Tan?s stories demonstrate Chinese-American culture integrated with life stories about herself and those around her. Tan?s stories are very effective in introducing readers to knowledge of a Chinese-American culture and lifestyle.
Bibliography:
Works Cited Chang, Scarlet. ?Your Mother is in Your Bones.? Amy Tan. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Jeffrey W. Hunter, Ed. Vol.120. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Fitzgerald, Penelope. ?Luck Dispensers.? Amy Tan. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Jeffrey W. Hunter, Ed. Vol.120. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Gillespie, Elgy. ?Amy, Angst, and the Second Novel.? Amy Tan. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Jeffrey W. Hunter, Ed. Vol.120. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999.
