Comparing Thank You Ma Am And Rules Of The Game

Everyday people deal with their own problems. Some people deal with family problems or obstacles in their jobs, but either way, everyone has something in common with another person. Roger, in Langston Hughes’s story, Thank You Ma’am, and Waverly in Rules of the Game by Amy Tan, relate in this same way. Hughes’s story occurs in Harlem, New York, whereas, the excerpt, takes place in Chinatown, San Francisco. Thank You Ma’am is about a young boy, Roger, who attempts to steal a woman’s pocketbook due to his absence of money. Instead of being successful, the woman catches Roger and takes him to her house to teach him manners and the proper way to live his life. However, Waverly has a family and lives a normal life, until she starts playing chess and is very victorious in it. This goes well for her, until her mom and her have a dispute and Waverly ends up never playing chess again. In the short stories, Thank You Ma’am and Rules of the Game, Roger and Waverly compare and contrast because they both are quiet when necessary, Waverly gets …show more content…
Waverly has had the attitude that it is the best to not argue and the way to ignore arguing is by keeping quiet. Waverly was told by her mother, “ ‘Bite back your tongue,’ scolded my mother when I cried loudly…” (Tan 1). Ever since she was little, Waverly was told to be quiet. It has been engraved in her and she knows to think before she speaks. Based on what has been told to her, causes Waverly to stay hushed. Like Waverly, Roger, also chooses to remain muted. Hughes describes the way Roger acts, “There was another long pause. The boy’s mouth opened. Then he frowned, but not knowing why he frowned” (2). Roger, also, chooses to be quiet for a similar reason to Waverly. He did not want to create an unwanted conversation, leading him to close his mouth. Therefore, both, Waverly and Roger, think before they speak, and often decide to remain