Question

In 3–5 complete sentences, thoroughly explain how the protagonist's cultural background affects his or her actions and choices in your Module One short story? Provide at least two specific details from the text to show how the protagonist's cultural background affects his or her actions and choices. Story: Rules of the Game by Amy Tan

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

In "Rules of the Game", by Amy Tan, the protagonist is Waverly Jong, the daughter of a couple of Chinese immigrants. Waverly has two cultural backgrounds in constant conflict with each other: the American and the Chinese. Even though her mother is always teaching her the Chinese ways and life philosophies, Waverly is also absorbing the ways of the country where they live, where she is growing up.

We can mention at least one detail of how each background affects Waverly's actions and choices. For instance, she learns the power of silence from her mother. According to her, a smart person will not insist or use force, but wait in silence until she can get what she wants. Waverly uses that to get the candies from the store:

The next week I bit back my tongue as we entered the store with the forbidden candies. When my mother finished  her shopping, she quietly plucked a small bag of plums from the rack and put it on the counter with the rest of the  items.

However, toward the end of the story, Waverly behaves in a way that is offensive to her mother. She does not want her mother to proudly show her around, to introduce her to people, because of her talent to play chess. Instead of remaining quiet, Waverly ends up complaining in a very non-Chinese, disrespectful way:

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.

[...]

"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?"