Celeste Ng, the author of the novel Everything I Never Told You, is a Chinese American writer who grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio。 Celeste is the second generation of immigration。 Her parents moved from Hong Kong, China in the late 60's, both of whom are scientists。 Her own marriage is interracial。 Her family background has a strong impact on her writing of this book。 Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You, which was a New York Times bestseller, talks about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio。 Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue。 But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos。 What caused Lydia’s death is the main clue of this book。 Readers will find the answer in the end, and the main female character, Marilyn, who is Lydia’s mother, partly caused Lydia’s death。 

Many profound topics are discussed in this book, of which the topic of feminism is vitally significant。 This paper will mainly discuss the feminist issue, by taking Marilyn as an example, deeply explores the female self-realization in this novel Everything I Never Told You。

Marilyn, as a typical 1970s’ American woman in this book, shows certain characteristics of that era。 Marilyn always likes to challenge male status to catch others’ eye when she was in school。 In 1958, interracial marriage is illegal in some areas of Virginia, and it was also very controversial in Boston, she still married James, a American-Chinese man, even though her mother was strongly against (Yan Yin, Liu Junping, 2016) And as a result, she failed to complete her studies and realize her dream to become female doctor because of her unexpected pregnancy。 In this book, Marilyn’s self-realization has gone through three periods of failure。 Marilyn is quite typical as a 1970s’ woman, but under the background of Marilyn’s interracial marriage, Marilyn is unique, so her self-realization is worth studying, which no research has been carried out in this way。

1。2 Literature Review

Little attention has been given to Celeste Ng and her book at home and abroad。 Several domestic researches mainly deal with the relationship of characters, e。g。 the relationships between Marilyn and James, Marilyn and Lydia, parents and children and so on。 Some papers analyze the main characters in Everything I Never Told You (Li Yang, 2016), in which some parts about Marilyn’s character analysis can provide backing materials for the topic of Marilyn’s self-realization。 Some researchers (Yan Yin, Liu Junping, 2016) did study on bicultural dilemma in Marilyn’s family。 To investigate the reasons caused the dilemma in the interracial family, they analyzed the struggle of Marilyn’s self-realization。 But so far no paper pays attention to deeply investigate Marilyn’s self-realization in this book or studies in a feministic point of view。 In this sense, the topic, the female self-realization in Everything I Never Told You, is worth studying。论文网

The background of this novel is set in the 1950s-1970s, which coincides with the second-wave feminism in America。 So it’s reasonable to use some feminist theories in the second-wave feminism to analyze heroine’s mental activity and social surroundings。 There are mainly three feminist theories in the second-wave feminism。 They are liberal feminism, Marxist feminism and Radical feminism。 Among these three theories, liberal feminism and Marxist feminism are more influential and received, so these two schools of theory will be used to analyze characters and social background in Everything I Never Told You。

Liberal feminism is an inpidualistic form of feminist theory, which focuses on women’s ability to maintain their equality through their own actions and choices。 Liberal feminists argue that society holds the false belief that women are, by nature, less intellectually and physically capable than men; thus it tends to discriminate against women in the academy, the forum, and the marketplace。 Liberal feminists believe that "female subordination is rooted in a set of customary and legal constraints that blocks women’s entrance to and success in the so-called public world"。 They strive for sexual equality via political and legal reform。 (Tong, Rosemarie, 1989) Liberal feminists hold the view that psychological sex differences are caused by the inequality of educational opportunity, and they are against the emphasis on gender differences, advocate reason and equality。 (Gong Fan, 2011)