“rules of the Game” by Amy Tan and “sweet Sixteen and Never Been Kissed” by Ioda Munn

The short stories- “rules of the game” by Amy Tan and “sweet sixteen and never been kissed” by Ioda Munn, both have similarities and differences. The similarities are that the main characters in both theses short stories have to deal with conflict within their family. The differences are that how they deal with the different types of conflict within their family. There are many aspects, in which people could like or dislike the main characters.

In the short story- “rules of the game” by Amy Tan, the main character is Waverly Jong (known also as “Meimei” meaning little sister). Waverly is seven according to the American way but eight by the Chinese calendar. She lives in San Francisco’s China Town above a Chinese bakery in a two bedroom flat. Waverly is sharp and hard working- this is because she learnt how to play chess from scratch, but her brother Vincent was the first one to start her off by explaining the rules but she didn’t get them at that time so she went to the China-town library and took books out and read through the rules and what each chess piece did. From this she learnt a whole lot- “I discovered that for the whole game one must gather invisible strengths and see the end game before the game begins” (pg5). But her main influence that led her to play in champion ships is Lau Po. He taught her basically everything he knew and made her a better chess player-“ by the end of the summer, Lau Po had taught me all he knew, and I had become a better chess player”(pg5).

Waverly was not only winning tournaments but was also getting fame at the same time. But her mum was according to Waverly “embarrassing her” but her mum thought that she meant it was “embarrassing to be her daughter”. This is where misunderstanding occurred and Waverly failed to sort things out and instead of explaining she ran and ran. This was her part that I disliked. At the end it leaves you wondering what will happen next. The ending takes place within her thoughts and imagination. This shows that there might be conflict later on. It also shows her latest challenge has changed to winning to the struggle with her mother.

In the short story- “sweet sixteen and never been kissed” by Ioda Munn, the main