Theme Of The Relationship Between Waverly And Her Mother By Amy Tan

The conflict between Waverly and her mother was very realistic due to the nature that many mothers and daughters have different views which causes disagreements. The people of Chinese descent have their Chinese heritage, but struggled to keep true to their traditions while living around American culture. The major conflict in the story, the clash of different cultures, led to the weakening of the relationship between the two characters. For example, when Waverly reentered the apartment after running away, she saw the "remains of a large fish, its fleshy head still connected to bones swimming upstream in vain escape" (Tan 508). Waverly saw herself as the fish, stripped clean by her mother 's power, unable to break free. Through the major conflict,

Tan explained the feelings of Waverly through an important symbolic imaginary chess game as she wrote, “My white pieces screamed as they scurried and fell off the board one by one. As her men drew closer to my edge, I felt myself growing light” (508). This showed how Waverly felt about the relationship with her mother and how she was losing the battle. The conflicts were important especially to the theme, for the conflicts shown where the lack of understanding came from and how it can be resolved.
Amy Tan used symbolism to reveal the cultures and how it interacted with the conflict of the story. One example was she used the game of chess as more than just a game. She illustrated it as a game of life and a way of her adaptation into her new American culture. This was demonstrated when Waverly’s mother read the rules of chess but did not understand them. Mrs. Lindo said, “Every time people come out from foreign country, must know rules… They say, don’t know why, you find out yourself” (502). This quote demonstrated the culture gap in the family, because the mother grew up with Chinese beliefs. Symbolically, when they received the American game of chess for Christmas they were excited and

The major themes related directly to the entire context of the story. The formidable mother-daughter conflict going on throughout the story exposed the clash of their cultural roots. The conflict showed the theme where the mother does not understand the game of chess and does not accept Waverly playing it. Also, it showed it when Waverly felt embarrassed by her mother using her as a trophy metaphorically. Another theme is the symbolic games of chess that Waverly played. Without the use of symbolism the story would have lost a major impact on the plotline. Also, Amy Tan used setting to her advantage to fully show the tone of the story and created a scene of emotion. Its major theme of mother-daughter relationship made it possible for young children to relate the short story to their own