Communication In Cecilia Ng's 'Everything I Never Told You'

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Valentina Marmol Mr. Chow Thanatology 20 December 2016 Everything I Never Told You It is important to voice one’s opinion, because hiding things can only lead to negative consequences. In Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng tells us a story about a girl, Lydia, who tried to carry out her parent’s unfulfilled desires. She deceived her parents into thinking that she was the perfect child that they always wanted her to be, popular and into medicine and science, but in reality it was quite the opposite. Her innate ability to hide her actual life from her parents ultimately led her family to breakup. Communication is extremely important amongst family members, because through thick and thin, they will always be there for you, no matter …show more content…

While thinking about her mom,” Never, she promised herself. I will never end up like that (86)." After coming back home, Marilyn wanted to become a professional in the medical field in order to avoid becoming a housewife. She was so determined that she was even willing to leave her entire family. Once Marilyn eventually ends up similar to her mother she decides to focus on Lydia’s future from an early age. She focuses so intently, that she overlooked the fact that maybe Lydia didn’t want to become all these things that her mother had imagined. Ng shows her Lydia’s neglect to her parent’s desires when Marilyn found out that, “ It had not been science that Lydia had loved...As if the tears are telescopes, she begins to see more clearly.... Everything that she had wanted for Lydia, which Lydia had never wanted but embraced anyway (247).” Lydia’s parents are filled with guilt as soon as they find about their daughter’s disappearance; they realized that their expectations of Lydia to fulfill their lost dreams had ultimately taken the best of her. Marilyn had just found out that she did not have desires of becoming a doctor because Lydia did want to see the disappointment in their parents. After finding the stethoscope and other articles in Lydia’s room given by her parents, it became evident that Marilyn and James had gone too far. “ A dull chill” (247) crept over Marilyn and this was the first time that she realized that her relentless in having her daughter live out their unfulfilled desires might have been the cause of her death. The lack of communication between Lydia and her parents prevented her from creating a sense of self

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