Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club is about Chinese immigrant mothers and their daughters who struggle to maintain balance in their lives. Waverly, a chess prodigy, struggles to fulfill the wishes of those around her while trying to fulfill her own wishes. Waverly becomes addicted to chess and practices expanding her scope of knowledge, making sacrifices along the way, which ultimately makes her a childhood star. However, as she became more and more focused on winning, the defeats began to weigh heavily on her and eventually caused her to give up. Waverly is originally motivated by her passion for playing chess, which allows her to become famous; However, once she becomes famous, the pressure others put on her to perform exceptionally ends up causing her to break under the pressure. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay When Waverly begins playing chess, winning is not her main goal, but learning, which leads to her success. Waverly's brother receives a chess set, which piques her interest in the game; she asks questions about the rules of the game that her brother can't answer, so she goes to find the answers on her own. When she goes to the library, she says, "I studied each chess piece, trying to absorb the power it contained." I learned the early moves...I learned the middle game...I learned...the late game...I loved the secrets I found in the sixty-four black and white squares” (Tan 94). The repeated use of the phrase "I learned..." emphasizes that she is gaining knowledge about chess on her own, showing that she wants to learn more. She "loved the secrets she discovered in the sixty-four black and white squares", implying that she is motivated to study because she wants to learn more about the game, rather than studying because that it would help him win. She then searches for Lau Po, an old man who plays chess: "But as the weeks went by, as each roll of candy dwindled, [she] added new secrets... At the end of the summer, [she] ] had become a better chess player” (95-96). Waverly loses candy when she doesn't win. However, for her, gaining knowledge far outweighs the cost of losing countless rolls of candy, driving her to continue playing regardless of the sacrifices she must make; whereas if she only focused on winning, she would have given up on the game as there is no immediate return from her sacrifice. Ultimately, Waverly's desire to learn more about chess due to her interest led to her successful chess career as a child. After Waverly begins playing solely to win, this eventually causes her to give up when she loses. She confronts her mother and stops playing chess to spite her mother because she thinks her mother cares about her winning, but her mother doesn't care. When she starts playing again after reconciling with her mother, she discovers that she can no longer win. When she started playing again, “[she] fought hard, with fear and despair. When [she] won, [she] was grateful, relieved... When [she] lost twice to the boy whom [she] had so easily defeated years before, [she] stopped playing games altogether. failures” (173). She fights with “fear and despair” to win; the choice of words shows that she doesn't want to win because she likes winning in itself, she has to win because if she loses she..