Waverly Jong
Lindo Jong
"It's hard to keep your Chinese face in America" (294)
Doube Face
The Red Candle
- Arranged marriage to Tyan-yu
- Blows out marriage candle and makes up elaborate story
- Family pays her off and goes to America
- Goes to beauty parlor with Wavorly
- Talks about her life when first moving to the U.S.
- Got a job at a cookie factory, met An-mei Hsu and was introduded to her husband, Tim Jong.
- Discuss identity at beauty parlor.
- Lindo thinks about her two faces- one Chinese and one American.
"IT is like what happened when I went back to China last year, after I had not been there for almost forty years. I had taken off my fancy jewelry. I did not wear loud colors. I spoke their language. I used their local money. But still, they knew. They knew my face was not one hundred percent Chinese. They still charged me high foreign prices. So now I think, what did I lose? What did I get back in return? I will ask my daughter what she thinks." (305)
Four Directions
Rules of the Game
- Chess prodigy
- lots of attention
- mother shows her off
- embarassed of mother
- Waverly gets engaged to a man named Rich. She must work up the courage to tell her mother.
- Takes mother to apartment
"And so I watched her, seeing her
reaction to the changes in my apartment-from the pristine habitat I maintained after the divorce when all of a sudden I had too much time to keep my little life in order-to this present chaos, a home full of life and love." (185)
For waverly, the game of chess symbolizes her life. Just as each move in chess has an effect, every decision she must make in her life has a result, positive or negative.
- Waverly, Rich and Shoshana go to dinner at Waverly's parents' house. Rich does not particularly fit in.
"IN my head, I saw a chessboard with sixty-four black and white squares. Opposite me was my opponent, tow angry black slits. She wore a triumphant smile. 'STrongest wind cannot be seen,' she said" (103)
- waverly becomes upset and goes to confront her mother but stops herself when she sees her mother vulnerable and defensless. Waverly sees her mother for who she really is and seems to understand her
"i closed my eyes and pondered my next move." (103)