“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan’s feelings of inferiority in “Fish Cheeks” are archetypal among the Chinese Immigrants who want to give the impression of Americanism. Amy Tan undergoes an identity crisis at fourteen. She wishes to have a “blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.” Fourteen is a somewhat young age for Amy to comprehend the psychological impetus of her desires. These wishes infer that at fourteen, Amy wanted to be white; in other words, she was not delighted with Chinese heritage.
Amy Tan’s mother programs her to lead a duplicitous life when she tells her , “ You want to be the same as American girls on the outside…but inside you must always be Chinese.” Amy Tan’s mother may have been naïve to establish the influence of her comment on Amy’s identity. Living as an American and Chinese synchronously, could have aggravated Amy Tan’s identity crisis. Her outer life ( which is typically American) could be described as acting or a mask. As a consequence, Amy Tan could unceasingly be pulled apart by the clashing American and Chinese ways of life.
“Rules of the Game”
The narrator’s mother is not articulate in English; nevertheless, Amy Tan integrates her direct speech, which comprises of sentences are fundamentally translated from Chinese to English, in “Rules of the Game”. Amy Tan had the option of standardizing her English so that it would sound American. The non-standard English which the narrator’s mother uses when communicating to her children is noteworthy in the story as it draws attention to the mother’s worldview which is largely contingent on her Chinese background.
Waverly Jong Place, unlike her brothers, espouses a growth mind-set. She says: “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.” The growth mind-set gives her a competitive edge over her brothers and the players that she competes with in the game. Waverly Jong’s outstanding success is not due to chance as she faces off Americans, who could be said to know the chess rules by heart, and could have effortlessly overwhelmed.
Additionally, observational learning contributes exceedingly to Waverly Jong’s dexterity. She says, “over the weeks, with each diminishing rolls of candies, I added new secrets.” When Waverly Jong Place plays chess with Lau Po, who is more proficient than her brothers, she picks up extra rules from him. Losing to him does not dishearten her from absorbing and getting to grips with all the rules. Therefore, observational learning plays a contributory role in fine-tuning Waverly Jong’s competence.
By all accounts, Waverly Jong’s mother is not highly-educated. She does not have the psychological knowledge about operant conditioning. Nevertheless, she turns out to be a prodigy of operant conditioning. For example, after Waverly wins a trophy, her mother tells her, “"Next time win more, lose less." According to Waverly’s mother earning a trophy is not sufficient. So, she expects Waverly to narrow down the number of pieces that she losses to her opponents. Accordingly, through operant conditioning Waverly endeavors to rise above winning trophy and sustain her status of a champion.
