Rules of the Game Character Analysis.
Waverly Place Jong has a special talent. From the first time she reads the instructions to her brother's chess set she is fascinated by the complicated moves and subtle strategies she must master. Her success at chess singles her out in her community and gives her special privileges at home. But, her mother's pride in her accomplishments embarrasses her. When they quarrel about her mother's boasting about her daughter, Waverly runs away through the alleys of Chinatown until she can not run any more and realizes she has nowhere to go. When she gets home, her mother excludes her from the family meal and she must go to bed hungry. She imagines herself blowing away from her home and all she has known. Waverly, also called Meimei is very talented, clever and diligent.
It is apparent Meimei is very talented. At the beginning when she starts to play chess with her brother, and she did not know the rules or how the game was played, she starts to ask too many questions and her brother got mad telling her, "Why must you always ask stupid questions?" (Diyanni 645). Her mother also tells her that she needs to learn the rules of the game or the rules of life. At this time, Waverly realizes that she must learn the rules of the game. "I read the rules and looked up all the big words in a dictionary. I borrowed books from the Chinatown library. I studied each chess piece, trying to absorb the power each contained" (Diyanni 645). When Waverly was nine years .
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old, she was a national chess champion. She was a very talented little girl and had a superb memory.
Meimei is very clever. At the beginning of the story, she is begging for salted plums and her mother did not buy them for her. Her mother said, "Bite back your tongue,"(Diyanni 642), she is trying to teach her a lesson that Meimei did learn fast. The following week when they went to the store she is clever enough to bite back her tongue and not beg.
