Waverly starts out a normal kid doing normal kid things in "Rules of the Game," playing on slides and driving her mother nuts with weird questions. But when she starts playing chess—and more to the point, when she gets incredibly good at chess—all that normal kid stuff goes away. Chess becomes a prison, and while this prison has perks, it also ends up robbing Waverly of her childhood. The question then is, who put Waverly in this prison? Was it just her mom, or does Waverly herself share a bit of the blame? Read on to try to answer this one for yourself.
Questions About Freedom and Confinement
- Does Waverly think that Chinatown is a prison? Why or why not?
- How does playing chess free Waverly? How does it make her feel confined and imprisoned?
- At what point does Waverly stop loving chess? What specifically causes this shift (if anything)?
- How does Waverly dress when she plays in her chess tournaments? Are the clothes described as comfortable or restricting? Does this change at all over the course of the story? What does this tell you about her relationship to the game?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Waverly's "imprisonment" is necessary if she wants to be a great chess player.
Despite her mother's overbearing ways, chess actually gives Waverly an escape from her mom.