IndexImagery and symbolism in 'Rules of the Game''Rules of the Game': Emotional ConflictWorks CitedChess is boring, right? Most students my age wouldn't think it could be used to make life decisions, but not for the main character Waverly in Amy Tan's short story, "Rules Of The Game." In this story, the author uses the imagery and symbolism of a simple and insignificant game of chess to compare the challenges of life as a young girl. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Images and symbolism in "Rules of the Game" The author uses images to paint us a picture of how the characters behave and daily life in San Francisco, specifically in Chinatown, a very busy and very noisy city and every corner there is a restaurant or a fish restaurant. Waverly describes the fish market to show how her culture commonly buys food by shouting her orders "Give me your freshest", and then the butchers immediately kill and gut the fish. (pg.1-Amy Tan) The reader can vividly imagine how Amy illustrates her community through her description of the playground as a play area “lined by wooden plank benches where old farmers sat cracking roasted watermelon seeds with their gold teeth" (page 1) . Amy provides us with more imagery as she reveals her mother's anger when “[Her] eyes turned into dangerous black slits. He had no words for me, just sharp silence. This description is all too familiar as a teenager who often receives these types of looks from my parents. "Rules of the Game": Emotional Conflict Elsewhere in the story it is explained how chess is the primary basis of symbolization as the author Amy Tan exposed stories of emotional conflicts between Chinese-American mothers and daughters separated by generational and cultural differences, that's why the author reveals how mother/daughter are the missing pieces because a bond is missing "a black pawn and a white knight are missing" (Amy Light Brown Pg3). Along with her distinctive writing style, Tan's treatment of themes such as loss and reconciliation, hope and failure, friendship and family conflict, and the healing power of storytelling have brought her popular success and the attention of critics. Chess was a way that author Amy Tan symbolized how she uses Waverly's life as a representation that she gains a lot, but chess takes a lot away from her as it keeps her out of the rest of her life, she loses everything else in the his childhood, to the point where he doesn't really have any childhood left. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay More importantly, although the chess works as a giant symbolization representing Waverly and her mother. It seems to me that this story captured the reader's attention more than the title says. I never thought that reading the title there would be a significant story about how we need to be careful about how we choose our next step because one wrong move and you're checkmate. Works Cited Tan, Amy. "The rules of the game." The Joy and Luck Club. Vintage books, 1989, pp. 1-3.