Consequently, the narrator's thoughts and emotions tend to become the reader's thoughts and emotions. In this story, readers tend to support and cheer for Jing-mei's stance against continuing to go along with her mother's child prodigy plans. Jing-mei wants to do her own thing and become her own person, and the more her mother pushes, the more Jing-mei digs her heels in and fights back. Since she is the narrator, readers understand her stance against her mother.