future. The story ends with Waverly pondering her next move, and this undoubtedly refers to her mental chess game with her mother.

Personification is a literary device in which an inanimate object, animal, or idea is given human attributes. Amy Tan uses personification several times throughout her short story "Rules of The Game," which chronicles the experiences of a young chess prodigy, Waverly Place Jong. When Waverly is questioning her mother about Chinese torture as her mother roughly combs her hair, Waverly utilizes personification by saying,

"One day, as she struggled to weave a hard-toothed comb through my disobedient hair, I had a sly thought" (Tan, 1).

Waverly personifies her hair by referring to it as being disobedient. Disobedience is a human attribute and hair cannot behave a certain way. However, using personification helps describe the difficulty of combing Waverly's tough hair.

When Waverly attends her first outdoor chess tournament, she once again utilizes personification by attributing human characteristics to the light wind that begins to blow past her ears. Waverly says,

"A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whispered secrets only I could hear" (Tan, 4).

Wind is personified by having the ability to whisper into Waverly's ear like a human. Personifying the wind allows the reader to imagine Waverly's intricate thought process as she competes in her chess match.

Personification is a type of figurative language in which a writer gives a nonhuman subject human characteristics. In the story "Rules of the Game" (an excerpt from the novel The Joy Luck Club), Waverly, the first person narrator, often speaks figuratively in the description of her life growing up in San Francisco's Chinatown. For example, she uses personification when she describes the pigeons which she sees in the playground near the alley where she lives: "old country people sat cracking roasted watermelon seeds with their golden teeth and scattering the husks to an impatient gathering of gurgling pigeons." Impatience is usually a quality reserved for humans so by describing the pigeons as impatient as they wait for food is personification. Another example of personification occurs when Waverly is describing the chess board which her brother Vincent received as a present at the church Christmas party: "The chess board seemed to hold elaborate secrets waiting to be untangled." Again, holding secrets is definitely a human endeavor so Waverly is again personifying a nonhuman object, in this case, the chess board. 

Personification is attributing human traits to animals or inanimate objects.

One example of personification in this story is the wind. The wind represents the abstract concept of invisible strength, but it also is treated at times as if it is a human being. For example, while Waverly is playing in a chess tournament, the wind seems to speak to her and offer her advice, just as a human might:

It whispered secrets only I could hear. "Blow from the South," it murmured. "The wind leaves no trail."

The chessmen in the story also are personified. For example, although they are only inanimate objects, Waverly learns to

Keep captured men in neat rows, as well-tended prisoners.

Later, when Waverly is playing in a tournament, a chess piece is given human agency, as if it has thought for itself:

The knight came forward ready for the sacrifice.

It is not surprising that these two important elements of the story should be personified. The Taoist philosophy of moving with the wind and using the power of its flow is central to how Waverly experiences life. Like a human, the wind is of mixed character for Waverly: she both uses its invisible power to help guide her and rebels against the ideas of silence and invisibility that it imposes on her.

Chess also becomes central to Waverly. It becomes a metaphor for navigating the game of life as Waverly learns to navigate the rules of two different cultures. It shows mastering the rules as central to Waverly's existence.

Personification is a literary technique in which a written word provides non-human entities with human characteristics.

Waverly describes how her mother would twist her thick black hair into two tight pigtails before school each morning, using the hard comb to brush through her "disobedient hair." Here, Tan is giving human intention to Waverly's hair; it provides the hair with the agency to resist being combed to indicate how tough it is to brush.

When Waverly's brother Vincent receives the used chess set for Christmas at the church party, their mother instructs Vincent and Winston to throw away the set. Waverley then describes her brothers as having "deaf ears" to indicate that they did not listen to their mother and kept the set.

Waverley then describes how fascinated she is with the chessboard, which she claims "hold[s] elaborate secrets waiting to be untangled." Waverley is giving the chess set human characteristics, namely, the ability to keep secrets; it is not merely a toy or game to her but something that seems to possess some measure of agency.

When an author personifies something, she's giving human qualities to something that isn't human. (Saying that the rain is screaming, for example, is personification: rain can't really scream; it's something that humans do, but by saying that it is, you're adding interest and imagination to your description.)

Tan's use of personification, in particular, is one of the tools that brings her stories to vivid life. Let's check out some examples from "Rules of the Game."

“A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whispered secrets only I could hear.”

Here, Tan personifies the wind, saying that it whispers secrets to Waverly. In this passage, this use of personification conveys the excitement and magic of Waverly’s chess victory being described.

“Seated across from me was an American man, about the same age as Lau Po, maybe fifty. I remember that his sweaty brow seemed to weep at my every move.”

In this description, Waverly’s grown-up American chess opponent has a sweaty forehead that “weeps.” This use of figurative language helps us see not just the visual image of the sweating forehead, but also the sad distress of the chess player who’s being beaten by a little girl.

“Her lips would be sealed tight, and after each move I made, a soft ‘Hmmmmph’ would escape from her nose.”

Waverly describes her mother in this way, saying that the disapproving sound would “escape” from her mother’s nose. By presenting the sound of annoyance and criticism as something that can, like a person, work its way free from restraint, Tan not only characterizes Waverly’s mom as a deeply controlling person but also artfully touches on the theme of the need for personal freedom and escape.

First things first: in order to answer this question, we need to define personification. In a nutshell, personification is giving human attributes to nonhuman entities. For example, if an author refers to "trees dancing in the breeze," we know that trees do not actually dance. However, their movement in the breeze is being described through personification.

One of my favorite examples of personification in "Rules of the Game" is when the protagonist is watching Vincent and Winston play a game of chess.

The chessboard seemed to hold elaborate secrets waiting to be untangled.

Of course, a chess board is an inanimate object that cannot hold secrets. However, the use of personification makes the chessboard immensely interesting. As it is now a holder of secrets, the reader naturally wants to read on to find out what happens.

A second example of personification can be found when the protagonist plays her first tournament. As she takes on her opponent, a light wind picks up.

It whispered secrets only I could hear.

It goes without saying that a breeze cannot actually whisper secrets. This figure of speech helps to create an exciting atmosphere and engage the reader in the story.

Shortly after the wind "whisper[s] secrets," there comes another example of personification involving the wind.

"Check," I said, as the wind roared with laughter.

Wind, of course, cannot roar with laughter, but this use of personification helps to increase the levels of excitement in the story as the protagonist moves towards victory, both in the game and in the tournament.