Rules of the Game Youth Quotes

Waverly begins without any real knowledge of the world around her. More importantly, she's "like most of the other Chinese children," meaning that there's nothing different or special about her. This changes once she finds chess—not only does she become different, her childhood starts slipping away.

Look closely at the voice here. This isn't a little girl telling you what she sees; this is a grown-up woman looking back at her childhood. She sees details that wouldn't register with a kid, like noticing that old people are at the playground as well as children. The narrator's aware of the innocence she had as a little girl, which an actual little girl would be unaware of.

Innocence and youth comes through here as an act of imagination. "Bad people" sounds like fairy tale monster here, something kind of fun and cool to be marveled at, rather than anyone really scary. The paragraphs around this one are littered with these kinds of description, showing the world through a little girl's eyes. Those descriptions change subtly as the story goes on, though, marking Waverly's maturation.

Lau Po is a key point in Waverly's youth, a quiet step from childhood to adulthood. He treats her like a child when he first meets her, but he's impressed by her chess-playing skills and teaches her to play. He beats her regularly, but he also helps her change from a pretty good chess player (kid) to a great chess player (grown-up).

This is such a loaded and important moment in the story. Looked at from the theme of youth, is it possible that Waverly's mom is trying to protect her a bit? You know, trying to maintain her youthful innocence by saying she's really not that good? What do you think?

Vincent sees Waverly's chess practice as playing—a child's pastime—even though it's much more serious than that. Plus, while Waverly gets out of chores, she also isn't allowed to play anymore. Insofar as kids are expected to do chores, when Waverly is exempted from them, it's kind of a bad sign about the state of her childhood.

Tan draws a contrast here between Waverly's little-kid age and her grown-up accomplishment. Waverly's a girl split between two worlds—kid and adult.

And now for some consequences. Chess is a trap and Waverly's caught in it, forced to give up all of the things that made up her childhood. That's a pretty steep price to pay, right? Waverly has to confront the fact that her choices (and her mother's) have impacted her life in ways that go far beyond chess.

As a follow-up to the previous quote, Waverly now understands that when she makes a decision—like running away—she's going to have to pay for it in some way. Everyone learns this sooner or later, and part of our childhood goes away once we do.

Yes, Waverly still lives with her folks, and probably will for some time since she's only nine, but here her mother throws down, basically telling her she's on her own. She can't depend on her parents for emotional support anymore. Good luck, kid.