Rules Of The Game Character Analysis

The plot of both stories is greatly affected because of the lack of understanding that the older generation has of American culture, which leads to conflict with the younger generation. In Who’s Irish, the grandmother is a tough woman who values hard work and discipline. She is from a culture that believes that hard work breeds success and she is disgusted with her son-in-law and his brothers who cannot find work or are too lazy to try. She states, “I especially cannot understand my daughter's husband John, who has no job but cannot take care of Sophie either. Because he is a man, he say…” (Jen 60). There is nothing wrong with her son-in-law, it’s just that he is lazy, a trait that cannot be found in China, which makes it even more difficult
The people of Chinese descent have their Chinese heritage, but struggle to keep true to their traditions while living around American culture. The major conflict in Rules of the Game, the clash of different cultures, leads to the weakening of the relationship between the Waverly and her mother. For example, when Waverly reenters the apartment after running away, she sees the "remains of a large fish, its fleshy head still connected to bones swimming upstream in vain escape" (Tan 508). Waverly sees herself as the fish, stripped clean by her mother's power, unable to break free. Through the major conflict, the characters struggle to keep their relationship healthy and loving. Similarly, the conflict with Sophie, Nathalie and the grandmother led to the weakening of their relationships and unlike Rules of the Game, the struggle is greater when it comes to maintaining a loving relationship. When Nathalie finds out that her mother is spanking Sophie she puts her mother out of the house and sends her to live with Sophie’s other grandmother. The grandmother states “Of course, she is sorry. Sometimes she cry, I am the one to say everything will be okay. She say she have no choice, she doesn't want to end up divorced” (Jen 66). Nathalie hardly visits her mother and when she does
The major theme relates directly to the entire context of both stories. The formidable mother-daughter and grandmother-granddaughter/daughter conflict going on throughout the stories expose the clash of their cultural roots. The conflicts show the theme where Mrs. Lindo does not understand the game of chess and does not accept Waverly playing it, while the grandmother does not understand the America way on discipline and follows what she was taught instead. Also, Nathalie is against how her mother raises and punishes her daughter and is strictly against beating and doesn't approve of how she was raised through the Chinese culture. Hence, she doesn’t want her daughter, to be raised in the same way. On the other hand, without the use of symbolism in Rules of the Game, the story would have lost a major impact on the plotline. Overall, adapting to a new culture is not easy. Tan’s and Jen’s major theme of the culture gap makes it possible for people to not only understand this, but to relate both short stories to their own lives as