Waverly is a chess prodigy and the relationship between she and her mother has always resembled a real-life chess match, as one tried to out-maneuver the other, once Waverly put her foot down (inwardly at least) after deciding she would be what she wanted to be--not what her mother's enthusiasm for the possibilities in America thought she should be. Their chess game comes to a draw when Waverly sets her ill-will aside and her mother sets her plans aside while the sit side-by-side in preparation for Waverly's wedding to a white man. Each woman yields to the other through new understanding and enlightenment thus finding resolution between themselves.
I believe there is resolution between the mother and daughter, Lindo and Waverly Jong. Lindo is afraid that she has not taught her daughter how to have a strong Chinese character, feeling that with all she has been able to teach her...
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daughter, she has failed her inthis.
"Inside—she is all American-made."
Lindo is surprised to learn that her daughter does have an admirable Chinese character, something she had never expected to see in Waverly.
Ironically, Waverly has distanced herself from her mother for a long time. She thinks that she knows her well: how she can hurt Waverly with her silence, knowing Waverly's weakest points. However, at the end of the story, Waverly comes to see that she doesn't know her mother all that well, or especially how much of her mother's strength she shares with her—her silence and "double-face"—in other words, her ability to hide what she is thinking. These things have enabled Waverly not only to be strong but to be a successful young woman. This information comes as a surprise to Waverly.
I think that a resolution occurs by the end of the story. When they two women go to the hair dresser, the stylist is amazed at how much alike they look. This once worried Lindo because she wanted her daughter to have and be so much more than she—to have a better life. When Waverly hears this, she shows her "sour" American face. However, by the end of the chapter, when Lindo's hair is finished for Waverly's wedding, Waverly finds pleasure in seeing what they have in common, even their crooked nose. Waverly points out that they share the best of qualities—having a "double face." While Lindo is not sure which of her faces is the better one, the American or the Chinese, she is enough at peace with Waverly that she plans to ask her daughter's opinion about which is her better face. This desire to connect with her daughter, and her daughter's ability to see their similarities with affection, indicates a resolution between them.
We see at the end of this exciting novel that there is a resolution reached between Waverly, who is finally able to live the life that she wants to in spite of the way that her mother dominated her life when she was a child. The acceptance of Waverly's white fiance to me is a real symbol of her mother's acceptance of her as a whole and her way of life.