The fish on the family dinner table at the end of the story represents Waverly's fear of being trapped and destroyed by her mother's repressive Chinese cultural norms. After Waverly confronts and then runs away from her mother for continually bragging about her as a chess champion, she comes home late to dinner and sees the fish:

On a platter were the remains of a large fish, its fleshy head still connected to bones swimming upstream in vain escape. Standing there waiting for my punishment, I heard my mother speak in a dry voice.

Like the fish, Waverly has tried in vain to escape her fate of being consumed by her mother and her family traditions but has ended up coming home. She expects to receive a punishment similar to the fish's. She, too, feels she has tried to swim upstream to escape—in her case, through her chess expertise—but finds there is, at the moment, seemingly no exit.

Fish imagery occurs earlier in the story, too, when Waverly describes the local Chinese fish market. A sign explains that all the fish are meant to be eaten, not purchased as pets. Waverly feels some distress looking at the dead fish and the "doomed" fish and turtles trying futilely to climb out of a slippery tank. She especially feels a horror at the sight of the flattened-looking sanddabs, which remind her of her mother's warning not to be careless.

Like the fish, Waverly wants to escape being trapped and consumed by outside forces.