Section 2: The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, Chapter 1: Rules Of The Game

Chapter 1
Rules Of The Game
Waverly Jong

This chapter is narrarted by Waverly Jong, Lindo Jong's daughter. Waverly starts off the story talking about how her mother taught her the art of "invisible strength" at age six.  She says that she became a chess prodigy because her mother taught her this. When Waverly was a child, "santa" came to the Jong's church and handed out gifts donated from another church. Waverly recieved a box of Lifesavers candies and her brother got a second-hand chess set with two missing peices. Waverly made a deal with her brothers that if she replaced the two missing peices with lifesavers, she could play. The deal was whomever won got to eat both of the candies. Waverly became very interested in chess, studying the instruction booklet and renting chess strategy books from the library. The was fascinated that the game was based on invisible strength which included secret traps and forward thinking. As her brothers lost interest, she began to play chess with a man named Lau Po. He taught her many new strategies. As Waverly continued to play so well, she attracted alot of attention and became quite famous in the Chinatown of San Francisco. By the age of 9, she became a national champion and was only 429 points away from Grandmaster status. Though Waverly began getting special treatment, she had to start feeding her mother's pride as well. Waverly's mother would walk Waverly through the streets, bragging of her prodigy daughter to anyone in earshot. One day, Waverly yelled at her mother in the street. She said she was embarassed by her constant flaunting. Waverly ran off, ignoring her mother's shouts, and did not come home until later that evening. When she returned, her mother looked at her and said "We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us" (pg 100). Waverly then went to her room and envisioned a chess game, opposing her mother. Her mother's peices were shoving her's off the board, Waverly felt as if she became weak, and ended the chapter with "I pondered my next move" (pg 101).
This article seemed to have the theme of wanting independence. Waverly is trying to be disobideint with her mother. She strictly wants her chess playing to be her own individual achievement and misundersands her mother's pride. With her mother hovering over her during practice, Waverly feels as though her mother is trying to take credit for her own achievements. Thematically, Waverly's story connects with her mother's story (The Red Candle). As I analyzed in my Chapter 3 article, Lindo uses the "art of invisible strength" to get out of her unahppy marriage. She realizes the pregnant servant and, instead of telling the family instantly, waits to inform everyone until she can use it to her oppertunity. This was successful for Lindo, as she got to get out of her marriage and have enough money to immigrate to America. Waverly also can owe her success to the "art of invisible strength" that she uses to make strategic traps and decisions to anihilate her opponent. However, when Waverly yells at her mother in the street and loses her support, she reveals her secret weaknesses which are her feelings about her mother and her desire to be independent.