Question

Write a character sketch for your protagonist in your Module One short story. Include literal, interpretive, and evaluative information. Your character sketch should be 3–5 complete sentences and include at least three specific details from the text to support your character analysis. (My story is Rules of the game by Amy tan.)

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

A character sketch, as the name suggests, is a type of draft or summary of a character. Sketches are often used by authors during the pre-writing phase, as a means to build their characters. They usually concern physical appearance, personality, actions, and feelings, among other possibilities.  In this case, we are analyzing a character that belongs to an existing story. Since the story you chose is "Rules of the Game", we will be sketching the narrator/main character, Waverly.

Character sketch:

Waverly is a young girl of Chinese descent. She is a quick learner, picking up life lessons as well as learning to play chess with an ease that is quite surprising for her age. Waverly also seems to have a questioning nature, especially when it comes to certain demands from her mother. Even though she can be considered a genius, Waverly is still just a girl who has  to mature and learn enough to become as strong and resilient as her mother.

Now, let’s provide evidence to the sentences above:

1. Waverly is a young girl of Chinese descent. She is a quick learner, picking up life lessons as well as learning to play chess with an ease that is quite surprising for her age. - "Bite back your tongue," scolded my mother when I cried loudly, yanking her hand toward the store that sold bags of salted plums. At home, she said, "Wise guy, he not go against wind. In Chinese we say, Come from South, blow with wind-poom!-North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be seen." The next week I bit back my tongue as we entered the store with the forbidden candies.

I studied each chess piece, trying to absorb the power each contained. I learned about opening moves and why it's important to control the center early on; the shortest distance between two points is straight down the middle. I learned about the middle game and why tactics between two adversaries are like clashing ideas; the one who plays better has the clearest plans for both attacking and getting out of traps.

2. Waverly also seems to have a questioning nature, especially when it comes to certain demands from her mother. - One day, as she struggled to weave a hard-toothed comb through my disobedient hair, I had a sly thought. I asked her, "Ma, what is Chinese torture?" My mother shook her head.

3. Even though she can be considered to be a genius, Waverly is still just a girl who has  to mature and learn enough to become as strong and resilient as her mother. - "What you say?" I knew it was a mistake to say anything more, but I heard my voice speaking, "Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don't you learn to play chess?" My mother's eyes turned into dangerous black slits. She had no words for me, just sharp silence.