The Joy Luck Club

Jong: Rules of the Game & St. Clair: The Voice from the Wall

Directions: As you read through the chapters, annotate the text for germane themes, craft, and
global issues. Then, answer each of the following questions in at least 3-4 concise sentences,
making sure to include a proper citation for ALL quotes.

PLEASE DO NOT RESEARCH THESE ONLINE!

CHALLENGE YOUR INTELLECT AND DO THE WORK YOURSELF!

Chapter 5: Waverly Jong: Rules of the Game

1. Examine the correlation between chess and wind in this chapter, using at last two direct quotes
to support your response.
Amy Tan incorporates the correlation between chess and wind in order to depict a woman’s
intuition and their power to withhold noticeable struggle along with knowledge. When Waverly
was six, her mother “taught [her] the art of invisible strength” that helped her win arguments,
respect, and ultimately helped her with chess competitions (Tan 89). After Waverly began to
understand the power of chess, she noted that it was “a game of secrets in which one must show
and never tell” and during Waverly’s chess tournaments, the wind would whisper “secrets only
[she] could hear” (Tan 96-98). Her invisible strength, the wind, assisted Waverly in choosing her
next move, while also concealing it from her opponents. Not only does it help her during her
tournaments, but will help her in the future by being unnoticeably in control.
2. Analyze the relationship dynamic between Lindo and Waverly throughout the narrative,
exploring how it supports a main theme of the novel.
Throughout the chapter Lindo begins to support Waverly’s new hobby and allows her to leave
the table without finishing her food, she doesn’t have to do her chores, and even goes as far as
giving Waverly her own room. As Waverly begins to become more successful, her mother
establishes pride in her daughter, but Waverly views it as an embarrassment since she believes
her mother is using her to show off. This connects to the main theme of immigrant parents and
Americanizaed children having a disconnected relationship. Waverly doesn’t comprehend how
much joy it brings her mother that she is essentially famous and being able to compete in
national tournaments because she lacks an understanding of how much her mother has sacrificed
for her children to be successful in a country that effortlessly rejects numerous people.

Chapter 6: Lena St. Clair: The Voice from the Wall

*Open prompt chapter: Write three specific questions that provide focus for analysis and
then answer them accordingly! At least two questions should include direct quotes.

3. What is the significance of YingYing St. Clair being declared as a “Displaced Person”?
Provide at least two quotes.
When Ying Ying first arrived in America, she was detained at the Angel Island Immigration
Station for three weeks. During the process her “father proudly named her in her immigration
papers; Betty St. Clair, crossing out her given name Gu Ying-Ying” (Tan 107). Lena’s father also
“put down the wrong birth year, 1916 instead of 1914” (Tan 107). Ying Ying was stripped from
her own identity, along with her Chinese heritage as her husband “insisted [she] learn English
(Tan 109). She is essentially a “displaced person” in her own family. Ying Ying can hardly
communicate with her own family as she speaks in “moods and gestures, looks and silences…”
to her husband, meanwhile Lena can “understand the words perfectly, but not the meanings”
(Tam 109). Since they are both disconnecting from Ying Ying, they have no choice but to put
words into her mouth.

4. Provide an example or passage of imagery and explain its relevance throughout the chapter.
“I looked like my father, English-Irish, big boned and delicate at the same time. But if they
looked really close, if they knew that they were there, they could see the Chinese parts. Instead
of having cheeks like my father’s sharp-edged points, mine were smooth as beach pebbles. I
didn’t have his straw-yellow hair or his white skin, yet my coloring looked too pale, like
something that was once darker and had faded in the sun. And my eyes, my mother gave me my
eyes, no eyelids, as if they were carved on a jack-o-lantern with two swift cuts of a short knife”
(Tan 106)
-In this passage, Lena essentially describes that not many people know that she is Chinese
because of her last name and because she looks more like her father. The significance of Lena
looking like her father is that she doesn’t necessarily have to experience racism or prejudice
because she looks more American. In the next few pages, a drunk man comes up to her mother
and as Lena cries, his companions tell him that he is “scarring [the] poor little girl and her maid”
(Tan 111). The men don't acknowledge that it is her daughter because they recognize her as a
white American little girl, as they hastily presume that her mother is a maid.

5. Why do you think the author includes Teresa? What is her significance to Lena?
Amy Tan incorporates the character Teresa in order to depict that even the worst things in life
that constantly feel like an endless cycle, may come to an end. Throughout the chapter, Lena
believes that her neighbor’s life, Teresa, is far worse than hers and begins to feel grateful that she
isn’t suffering like her. In the end (the turning point),Teres helps Lena realize that she had been
wrong the whole time and instead it was her that had it worse. Lena was the one that was
suffering. Despite Teresa and her mother having a horrible relationship, Teresa ultimately knew
her place and knew she was loved. After, Lena recognizes that “the worst possible thing, would
one day stop” foreshadowing that her mother or life would soon get better (Tan 120).