Amy Tan: Short Stories Literary Elements

Short Fiction

“Fish Cheeks” is set in America. “Rules of the Game” is set in Chinatown, San Francisco.

“Fish Cheeks” employs First Person narration. The first person narrator in “The Rules of the Game” is Waverly Jong.

“Fish Cheeks” employs a contemplative tone and a mood of desperation. In “The Rules of the Game,” Waverly Jong uses a tone that exemplifies coming of age and creates a mood of resilience.

The Protagonist in “Fish Cheeks” is Amy. The antagonist is Amy’s mother. The protagonist in “Rules of the Game” is Waverly Jong (in "Rules of the Game"), whereas the antagonist is Waverly Jong's competitor in chess and her mother.

In "Fish Cheeks," Amy is disenchanted by her Chinese identity. The main conflict in Waverly Jong’s ability to master and triumph in chess.

In "Fish Cheeks," the climax occurs when Amy's father embarrasses her by offering her the 'fish cheeks.' The climax takes place when she earns her foremost trophy of chess.

In the exposition of "Fish Cheeks," Amy dreads that their un-American dinner would embarrass her.

Amy reckons that the food was "appalling mounds of raw food," whereas they are food she is expected to know as a Chinese.

Amy employs a Biblical allusion by likening Robert's whiteness to the Virgin Mary's.
In "Rules of the Game," there is a religious allusion to Christmas.

“Fish Cheeks” outlines the peculiarity of a Chinese dinner. Amy outlines the strategies of triumphing in chess contests in “Rules of the Game.”

Amy, in "Fish Cheeks" deems the Christmas dinner shabby although it comprises her favorite meals." Waverly Jong's mother credits her triumph in chess to luck in "Rules of the Game, "yet Waverly Jong has strived to master the game.

Amy employs parallelism when describing her relatives’ mannerisms; she begins the sentences with “my relatives.”

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Waverly Jong, in "Rules of the Game," personifies the wind she perceives in the course of her chess contest. The wind is given the ability to laugh like a human.