Theme - The main theme of "The Rules of the Game" is power. Throughout the story, Waverly struggles to gain power over her controlling mother and exercise her independence.
Voice - Waverly tells her story from her point of view, helping us to sympathize with her predicament and feel her pain, as well as making the story more interesting.
Mood - The mood is principally one of tension. This tension is caused not by suspense or secrecy but by the conflict between Waverly and her mother.
Tone - The tone of this story is contending, as mother and daughter are pitted against each other from the start.
The conflict of the story was the relationship between the mother and daughter, and how they disliked each other. The mother was very controlling and it started going out of hand for Waverly.
Man v.s. society - Her mother is trying to make Waverly a traditional Chinese girl, but Waverly does not want any part of it.
Man v.s. man - Her mother is trying to "live" through her daughter's success and this annoys Waverly.
Climax - Waverly steadily improves at chess, and in return receives privileges, such as never having to do chores again. Because of her success, her mother forgets that she still needs to live her life as a kid, as her mother introduces her as her own personal chess champion “trophy” instead of her normal young child.
Waverly ran away from her mother when she was taking pride in her. Waverly finally lets go of the frustrations about her commanding mother that was accumulated since the beginning of her chess career.
Resolution - The resolution is when Waverly gets home and realizes that her mom is beating her in a game of chess that is in her mind and she is pondering her next move.
By Valentina Quintero, Step 9 Yellow.
