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Everything I Never Told You Theme

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Family trust and secrets are two major themes in the book Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. Readers are first presented with the fact that Lydia, the favorite child in a family of five, is dead, and they are taken on an crazy, complex journey to find out how and why. Through this journey they detect the growing tension between family members, and how their desire to keep secrets from each other ultimately lead to family discord. Personally, I believe that family members do not need to, but rather are encouraged, to share their feelings with one another. I think that age is one limitation in sharing your feelings and thoughts with family members. As people become older, they become more stubborn, and therefore are less willing …show more content…

Marilyn, in eager pursuit of her medical degree, leaves her family for nine weeks to study to finish her last year of college. However, she never leaves a note explaining why she left. Although the real reason she left is because her mom wanted her to become a doctor and live an academic based life, this holding back of feelings causes complete chaos in the Lee household: James believes that Marilyn leaves because he is Asian and an outsider, and Nath and Lydia believe that she left because they disappointed her. They sit on the couch all day watching TV and live off of cereal and sandwiches. After exactly two months, Lydia makes a promise she swears she will never break: “If her mother ever came home...She would do everything her mother told her. Everything her mother wanted. (137)” Eventually, Marilyn returns, and her arrival is “nothing short of a miracle. (Ng 146).” Life goes on in the Lee household, and eventually Lydia finds herself a sophomore in high school. Her parents push her to take advanced, rigorous courses, and although her parents are under the impression that Lydia is a happy girl at school with lots of friends and adequate grades, they are wrong. She is actually very lonely, and her friends only use her for homework. Her grades are severely slipping as well. Since Lydia does not share these feelings with her parents, they weigh her down. The promise she made the day

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