Identify some of the particular words and images that clearly identify him as a narrator sympathetic to the grandmother's situation.

“tall and pale as the whiteness of petals” (163).

Grandmother uses this simile when she is telling Sek-Lung stories about her childhood in China, and tells him about the acrobat who taught her to juggle and gifted the jade peony to her. The simile shows Grandmother's more lyrical and emotional side, since she uses poetic language and a simile to describe the acrobat. Usually, Grandmother is quite pragmatic and blunt, so the simile reveals a different aspect of her character and hints at what she might have been like a a young girl, before she endured the many hardships of her life. The simile also creates continuity of imagery, since Grandmother compares the acrobat's skin to flower petals, and he was the one to gift her a beautiful flower carved from pale pink jade.