Cooking with Celeste

As Celeste Ng wrote Everything I Never Told You, she developed the story like a simple food recipe. With a few specific ingredients, a simple plot to the story is put together, with the power to be developed EVEN further. The author includes these ingredients numerous times so that she can create what she had envisioned the final product to be. Ng threw in some prejudice, loneliness and deception to her recipe, creating a complex novel that is the way it is because of the influence of these elements.

One of the main themes of the story, prejudice, is a powerful part of the recipe and quickly established its influence on the final result. James Lee grew up as an Oriental and having this social identify, his life was greatly changed. In the course he taught it was obvious him being oriental caused many to become uncomfortable taking it, “After that it was a steady trickle. Every minute or two another few students left” (Ng 32). James’s appearance led to many struggles he had to overcome in his life, and similar L's surface with other characters. His wife had to grow up facing a different social barrier. As a woman, she was told many times the job she wanted wasn't possible for someone of her sex. She was told over and over again what her life was supposed to be. After being asked if Marilyn could take wood shop, her principal told her, “‘We can’t make an exception for anyone, or everyone will expect it.’ At the look on Marilyn’s face, he reached across the desk and patted her hand. ‘Some of the equipment in the shop would be difficult for you to use’” (Ng 27). The Lee children inherit the same problems their parents faced, but Hannah and Lydia were both female and Asian-American. Receiving these attributes took its toll on Lydia and could conceivably be a motive for her possible suicide. The prejudice in the recipe gives the story the consistency you would notice as he/she find his/her way through the novel. The social situations the characters are put in because of these social structures force the creation the next important ingredient for the recipe.

The previously stated prejudices the Lee family had to endure made them extremely lonely. Before getting together, Marilyn and James were both very isolated with very little friends. James faced seclusion because of his race, while Marilyn had gone to a school at a time when many women weren't and didn't pursue the career path she desired. The isolation both of them experienced was handed down to their children, especially Lydia. As a female Asian-American, she received a similar experience of both her father and her mother. After Lydia’s disappearance, her parents began to contemplate Lydia’s friendships. “He realizes now that he had never seen a ticket stub, that for as long as he can remember, Lydia had been alone on the curb when he came to take her home” (Ng 18). The loneliness of the characters greatly affected the plot of the story and could have played a large role in the death of Lydia. With time to themselves, these characters lived a noticeably misleading life.

        Throughout the story, Ng sprinkles instances of deception into the mixture, giving the story the flavor you can taste on every page. Lydia seemed to have lived a totally different life than what her family, or at least her parents, believed she had lived. To their horror, after calling anyone they thought would have close ties with her, they began to put the pieces together. The truth surfaced following her death. The truth that she wasn't the esteemed scientist or popular girl her parents had imagined. Their daughter wasn't who she seemed to be. Another large form of deception thrown into the batter was the relationship between James and Louisa. James is having an affair with his teacher’s assistant, during a time of tragedy when he should be close with his wife. One morning James tells himself he will end their relationship, “This was a mistake. I love my wife. This must never happen again. Now, when she opens the door, what comes out of his mouth is: ‘Please.’ And Louisa gently, generously, miraculously opens her arms” (Ng 118). Marilyn is unaware that James is cheating on her. That she is being lied to. The author likes to display this false sense of trust or lack thereof in the story as well. It is particularly possible that Lydia left her journals blank in fear that her family would discover the real life she was living. No matter the motive, it is evident this novel is riddled with dishonesty, specifically placed to heavily influence it.

        All of these ingredients come together to work in perfect harmony in order to give the book the right consistency, flavor, and appeal. Ng carefully chose when to add her ingredients, slowly stirring together a mixture full of prejudice, loneliness, and deception. The outcome is an enchanting story that makes the you beg to turn the next page, or go for another slice.