The short stories" Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan, and "Who's Irish" by Gish Jen deal with immigrant mothers and their experiences with their daughters. Each story tells how their is a strain on the mother-daughter relationship and a gap with culture.
In "Rules of the Game", Amy Tan's narrator is Waverly Jong. Waverly is forced throughout the story to discover what game she is playing, and what rules she must follow in order to succeed in life. Waverly's chess playing becomes a metaphor for her struggle with her greatest opponent, her mother. At first Waverly's mother supported her but the mother-daughter relationship is strained by the end of the story. Waverly's mother gave her chang, (a small piece of red jade) (pg. 472), when she had her first tournament and told her this is for luck (pg. 472). This showed support for Waverly but after the tournament, Wavelry's mother told her "Next time win more, lose less" (pg.
Matti
English: Publicity photo for Gish Jen in B&W.
Amy Tan, author472). This showed that no matter what Waverly did to succeed, her mother would always have something negative to say. Toward the end of the story, Waverly ran away. After she came back home, her mother said " We not concerning for this girl. This girl not have concern for us" (pg. 474) while Waverly stood their for her punishment. Waverlys' mother was disappointed in her and was upset that she only thought of herself.
In " Who's Irish" the narrator was a immigrant Chinese grandmother. This story is based on her thoughts and feelings about being a grandmother. The point of view focuses on the grandmother and begins the story talking about her background. The story is arranged in chronological order. First, Sophie Shea, the granddaughter is introduced. Then Sophie's families background. The narrator describes herself...