In this short story, Waverly learns important lessons by her mother. One thing she learns is the art of invisible strength (p. 37); “Wise guy, he not goes against the wind”. Waverly soon use those lessons to get what she wants. One example is on p. 46 where she tells her mother she doesn’t want to play in the local tournament where she probably will loose anyway because she know her mother will react with pushing her to the competition. “Is shame you fall down nobody push you” she says. I will say that means that is an even bigger shame to give up without trying rather than try and fail.
When Waverly plays chess, she uses her mother’s rules to win. Those rules help her to stay calm and focus. And besides those rules, she has read many books about chess and had a competent teacher when she was playing in the park. It seems to me that she loves the rules, or maybe she just loves the secrets behind the rules? This reminds me of my dad’s favorite quote which always have tried to learn me: “knowledge is power”. Waverly uses the secrets to defeat her competitors.
Anyway, Waverly is soon becoming Chinatown Chess Champion and she is starting to feel the benefits. One of them is that she no longer has to take the dishes and she makes up excuses so she got the bedroom she shared with her brothers alone. She knows that her parents do everything if it means she will keep winning. She has becoming the Chinese family’s pride and hope in America.
Two years after she started to play chess for fun, she is a national chess champion and there’s a picture of here in the Life magazine. Her mother took Waverly out for shopping every Saturday. They didn’t buy too much and it’s obviously that the weekly routine is just a way for the mother to proudly show her daughter off. One day, a very uncomfortable Waverly asks her mother if she could stop telling people who she is. Even her mother wants the attention Waverly doesn’t like it. Her mother reacts with anger; I think maybe she felt a little offended. The discussion ends with Waverly runs away.
When she finally is back home she is expecting scolds and yelling. But instead her parents tell her that they trust Waverly, still it is a weird atmosphere in the room. Waverly runs to her room and imagining her mother in a chess game. She are the black slits and they are taking Waverly’s white slits one by one. The two black, angry slits are her mother’s eyes. It’s clear that Waverly looses.
I think maybe Waverly’s behavior is a call for help, that she doesn’t want special treatment. She wants to be a normal kid with friends and play chess because it’s fun. She tries to be unreasonable and difficult (ex making her brothers moving to the living room and run away without coming back before late) but her mother doesn’t let the bad behavior affect her dream of having a known daughter she can tell people about. A Chinese girl who becomes a big star in America! Especially since they don’t have too much money either. So, she ignores it. And Waverly has to realize that she can’t defeat her own mother.
One last ting; one the first and the last page, Waverly’s mother says, “the strongest wind cannot be seen”. Maybe Waverly’s mother is the strongest wind.
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