Waverly Jong-->Rules of the Game: Chapter 5-term: narrator

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

This chapter begins with the narrator of the story as Waverly Jong.  She talks about her childhood and the type of place where she lived.  She explains, "We lived in San Francisco's Chinatown.  Like most of the other Chinese children who played in the back alleys of restaurants and curio shops, I didn't think we were poor" (89).  She talks about her childhood, and it makes it seem like she had it pretty good.  Her mother was nice to her compared to the past chapter's mothers.  She was named after the street they lived on which was Waverly Place.  The quote I picked from this chapter stuck out to me because it criticized Americans.  Waverly's Ma says, "'Chinese people do many things...Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture" (91).  This reminded me of all the labor that children have to do in China.  It also makes me think of all the technology Americans use to make their life easier.  Later in the chapter, Waverly takes up the game chess.  At first, she plays with two missing pieces and replaces them with Life Savors candy. She becomes almost perfect at it by studying it every day and every night.  She convinces her Ma into letting her play in tournaments.  As she becomes better, she travels further from home.  She wins trophies which are displayed in local shops around their town.  Waverly becomes National Chess Champion.  Her mom is so proud of her, that she shows Waverly off quite often.  Waverly gets very uncomfortable about how much attention her mother puts on her and runs away.  After she returns home, her family especially her mother is very angry with her.  She escapes to her room after dinner and continues to dream about chess.