Celeste Cooks Characters

Everything I Never told You by Celeste Ng is a mystery novel about how Lydia, the protagonist, died. The family slowly finds out more information about Lydia and how exactly she died in the Lake in May, 1977. The world “recipes” can relate to this novel in many different way. A recipe can be instructions to create food. It can also be the steps in order to complete something, or who a person is based off his or her past. The things that have happened in Lydia’s life have made her the way she is, the way she was brought up/stirred up creates the person she is now. At home, James and Marilyn are fighting about whether Marilyn should work and what it means to work. They are creating a recipe as to how Marilyn should live her life. Marilyn also realizes how much recipes mean to her because of her mother. There are also “recipes for disasters”, as Marilyn leaves, the Lee family is unable to live without her. Characters, events and grammar all show an aspect of how recipes relate to this novel. Recipes are the steps that lead to an objective. Recipes in Everything I Never told You reveal more about the characters, and help the readers relate to the novel better.

As the novel continues, the reader learns even more about Lydia. The reader begins to see the real personality within her, “A small tear, small enough to slip by the busy policemen, intended to escape an even sharper eye: a mother’s. Marilyn works her hand inside and pulls out an open package of Marlboros. And beneath that, she finds something else: an open box of condoms.”(120) Throughout the novel, the reader learns about Lydia. Just like a recipe, the more instructions are read, the closer a cook is to the final dish. Celeste Ng cooks up quite the storm; Lydia is one of the most complex and confusing characters in the novel. Through Marilyn and Nath’s perspectives, the reader begins to relate to Lydia more. Lydia isn’t the perfect child, nobody is, the readers gets to see a different concrete side to Lydia that is relatable.

Marilyn however, has dreams for herself. Celeste Ng creates a recipe as to who Marliyn is, but Marilyn internally realizes how she doesn’t want to be that person. “Marilyn thought uneasily of her own life, of hours spent making breakfasts, serving dinners, packing lunches into near paper bags. How was it possible to spend so many hours spreading peanut butter across bread? How was it possible to spend so many hours cooking eggs? Sunny-side up for James. Hard-boiled for Nath. Scrambled for Lydia. It behooves a good wife to know how to make an egg behave in six basic ways. Was she sad? Yes. She was sad. About the eggs. About everything.” (86) Celeste Ng reveals how unhappy Marilyn is with her life. The recipe to be a good mother, is not the one Marilyn chose to take.

Celeste Ng uses the phrase, “hunched so deeply that his chest was concave.” This image conveys not only what Nath seems like to the world, but also how James sees Nath in a negative way, almost as if he doesn’t want Nath as his son. The characterization of James is opposite to Nath. James is a rough man who wants to fit in. “At home, James did not know how to make eggs behave in any way. Each morning, he served the children cereal for breakfast and send them to school with thirty cents apiece for the lunch line.” (87) It’s interesting to see how this is James’s recipe, 30 cents for lunch. He doesn’t put the time and thought into the children as Marilyn does, and therefore, falls out of the family. Ng depicts a cold-hearted personality of James to the readers.

Overall, the recipes in Everything I Never told You reveal more about the characters, and help the readers relate to the novel better. From the characterization of Lydia and Marilyn, the reader can relate to the craziness and doubt that both these characters share. From the characterization of Nath and James, the reader is able to see the contrast between them, and how their distance from the family makes them alike. The recipes relate to the characterization, and the final dishes relate to how the novel connects the readers and the characters.

Fight the System!

Have you ever felt that the odds are stacked against you? Has society ever failed to value you or your accomplishments? You may be a victim of “the system”.The system is made up of all of our actions and attitudes and actions. Sometimes, it can hurt people's lives. Celeste Ng, in her novel Everything I Never Told You, references the system a lot.
    Centered around a mixed-race family with an Asian-American dad and a white mom, Ng’s book The Lee family’s past and present is talked about throughout the novel, as are the struggles each family member, specifically Marilyn and James, struggle against the system. Marilyn has difficulty establishing herself as a female science major, given the fact that the field is male-dominated. James, as an Asian-American at a boarding school which is majority white, has trouble fitting in with his peers. Additionally, later in their lives, James and Marilyn feel alienated as a mixed race family in small-town Ohio. Celeste Ng, in Everything I Never Told You makes commentaries about the system by describing character Marilyn’s difficulties in becoming a female science major, her husband James’ experience fitting in during his youth at a boarding school, and the couple’s alienation in their small-town home.
    Ng demonstrates the harmful prejudices of the system in Everything I Never Told You is through her description of character Marilyn’s difficulty succeeding in the male-dominated field of science. Marilyn comes to Radcliffe College with the hopes of becoming a physics major, but her dreams are ignored because of her gender. Marilyn's adviser scoffs at the aspiring scientist’s decision to major in the sciences. He treats Marilyn in a way that men would never be treated. Despite Marilyn’s adviser’s blatant sexism, her good grades convince him to place her in a chemistry class. Her adviser condescendingly states, “All right then, why don't you try chemistry, if you can handle it.” (Ng 26) Marilyn continues to face sexism in the class itself, albeit on a more subtle level. The only girl in a class of fifteen men, Marilyn is constantly waited on and spoken to as if she isn't as smart as her peers. It is only through her hard work in the class that she is able to gain the respect of her fellow students and her instructor.
    Through the story of Marilyn’s victory over sexism in college, Ng is able to paint a picture of the system that was in place in 1950s America and its effects on intelligent women. Ng implies that Marilyn represented an exception to a common rule at the time- women were often forced into studying subjects such as history or English due to their perceived inability to process science, which was a man’s topic. As she writes of Marilyn's thoughts, “She held her breath, waiting, afraid he (Marilyn’s advisor) would tell her that science was too hard, that she'd better try something like English or history instead.” (Ng 26) In these ways, Ng describes the sexism Marilyn faces in college as a means to expose just one of the many problems with the system.
    Ng reveals more faults with the system by describing the difficulties that James faces fitting into boarding school.  After his father gets a job working at a prestigious boarding school, James gains the opportunity of becoming Lloyd’s first Asian- American student.  Surrounded by the children of established white American families, James is frequently left feeling out of place as the son of Asian immigrants. James’ different appearance is coupled with his parent’s status as immigrants, which limits his ability to connect with his classmates, who are all from multi-generational American families. As Ng writes, “when they (James’ classmates) did family tree projects in class, he (James) pretended to forget the assignment rather than draw his own complicated diagram.” (Ng 44) James relative poverty compared to his peers is another inhibiting factor to his failure to assimilate. James’ dad earned his son a place at boarding school through his work as the school handyman. Whilst he does recognize his father’s immense sacrifice, James is constantly embarrassed by his father’s role in the school. When his father makes trips into James’ classroom to perform electrical work or clean, James is described as being “scrunched in the back row (of his classroom).” (Ng 43) James’ father’s role in his school further prevents him from forming friendships with wealthy white Americans, who sneer at James and his father from their elitist pedestals.
    Celeste Ng describes James’ troubled childhood as a means to reference classism and racism within the system. James’ story is representative of a larger social commentary that Ng makes regarding the way through which poor members of minority groups faced systemic disadvantages. James, like other poor non-white Americans his age, has a tough time socializing with his peers, and faces regular embarrassment. Ng points to the problematic attitudes and prejudices in the system through her description of James’ failures to fit in at boarding school.
    Ng additionally examines the system is through her narration of the alienation of the Lee family in their home in small-town Ohio. The Lees, as a mixed race family in a small suburban region, are often viewed as being ‘other’, despite their children being American-born and raised. The feeling of
exclusion felt by Marilyn and James in their midlife is shared by their children. Due to their status as the only family of its kind in town, the Lees lack the approachability of their more racially homogenous neighbors, who are majority-white. Ng calls the Lees, “A family with no friends, a family of misfits.” (Ng 112)
    The treatment of the Lees is described by Ng so as to illustrate the inherent racial bias that is associated with the system in place in 1970s America. Ng suggests that, despite the government’s role in enacting racially tolerant laws, the system continues to categorize the existence of a mixed-race family as abnormal. James and Marilyn, as well as their children, are forced to live with the knowledge that many in their community disapprove of their marriage. This brings a constant feeling of anxiety into their lives, putting pressure on their children. Ng denounces the role of the system in harming the security of a well-meaning American family. The constant pressure placed by the system on the Lee family due to their racial makeup represents a critical factor in the family’s gradual collapse. In the previously mentioned ways, Ng describes the alienation felt by the Lee family in their small town home as a means to bring to light the often destructive consequences of the system.
    Celeste Ng, in Everything I Never Told You, reveals the many harmful byproducts of a flawed and oppressive system by describing Marilyn’s struggle to become a science major, her husband James’ difficulties fitting into a prestigious boarding school, and their family’s racially-motivated alienation in their small Ohio town. Sexism in the system during Marilyn’s college career makes it very difficult for her to achieve her ambitions to become a scientist due to her gender. Racism and classism in the system during James’ boarding school education prevented a young and poor Asian American from connecting with his wealthy white peers. Finally, the system in small town America of the 1970s included an inherent racial bias which resulted in the feeling of otherness and alienation in the Lee family. Despite the social progress that has occurred since the time in which Everything I Never Told You is set, a system still remains. In order to prevent the continuation of this system, individuals have to keep fighting for fair treatment. Do your part- fight the system!



   

Everything I Never Told You About Systems

To read and annotate this blog post click here
We encounter systems every day: The Solar System, the digestive system, the judicial system, and many more. Writing is no exception. Every piece of writing is a system, including this blog post. In a piece of writing many literary tools come together to deliver a message. When a piece of writing is not using literary tools efficiently, it may not convey the message that the author intended. But when an author succeeds in creating a system of literary tools connecting in one common purpose, it produces a brilliant piece of writing. One such piece of writing is Celeste Ng’s “Everything I Never Told You.” “Everything I never told you is the story of an Asian-American family going through one of the greatest struggles that a family can be subjected to: death.

        “Everything I Never Told You” is a very bleak, and emotionally heavy story. The reader doesn’t just feel as though they are being told what is happening in the story. Rather, the reader is completely immersed in the story and feels as though they are in the room with the Lee family. This intensifies the heartbreak and anger felt by characters in the book.

   

“Everything I never told you” fits the description of a literary system perfectly. The central story in “Everything I never told you” revolves around the Lee family. The system in “Everything I Nbever Told You” serves the purpose of emphasizing the hardships that the Lee family is suffering in the present day of the story, as well as the difficult challenges that they have had to undergo in the past.

The system uses many different methods to keep the reader engaged and feed them the  grim story. Celeste Ng uses many short sentences throughout the story. One such example is the very first sentence of the novel, “ Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.”(Ng, 1) It immediately hooks the reader and introduces them to the setting. It also hints at the chaos which is to come. It is these short sentences that Ng uses as a part of the whole system to progress the story.

Ng uses dialogue to help express the relationships between her characters, “‘Because you’re acting hysterical. You hear one news report and you let all these ideas go to your head. Let it go.’”(Ng, 115). James confronts Marilyn on her behavior, and it is clear that he is upset that Marilyn still cannot accept Lydia’s death.

Ng also creates moments when the character is having a conversation with themselves in their head. “[Marilyn] makes herself a promise. She will figure out what happened to Lydia. She will find out who is responsible. She will find out what went wrong.”(Ng, 76). Here, we are shown the beginnings of Marilyn's obsession with finding the truth behind her daughter’s death.

“Everything I never told you” is not consistent with its characters and its plot. Ng switches back and forth between characters, as well as time periods. This non-linear story line not only to a non-linear plot, but also a non-linear message and perception.

On many occasions Ng isolates Nathan’s relationship with Jack. “James glanced back over his shoulder and saw Jack peeking through the door from the pool area.” Nathan doesn’t notice that Jack was looking into the locker room, all he remembers is being embarrassed by Jack in the pool. Nathan has always hated Jack, even though there have been instances where Jack has been nice to him. Nathan hates him and that makes the reader hate him as well. But then the reader is shown that perhaps Jack doesn’t mean to be rude to Nathan or make fun of him, and suddenly the reader has to rethink their perception of Jack.

“Everything I Never Told You” is a system, a very efficient one as well; through the use of a large variety of literary tools, both subtle and grand, Celeste Ng immerses the reader in the world of the Lee family. “Everything I never Told You” is an excellent example of a literary system and how it functions.

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.

A catastrophic mid-life crisis!

      Ever had a mid-life crisis? Well, Celeste Ng explores this concept in her book, "Everything I Never Told You" (totally worth reading!). It talks about the struggles of an Asian-American family in the 1970's. Marilyn, the mother, is a white woman who has the big dreams of becoming a doctor. There's just one problem: She's a woman in the 1970's. Plus, family life completely controls her life and she postpones her dreams for around eight years. But when her mother dies (whom she hated by the way), she realizes that the only thing worth keeping was a cookbook. She wants to be anything but her mother and undergoes a radical mental change. Celeste journeys the readers this by using two mechanisms: a scene where she steps out in the rain and "washes" off her old-self, and the moment she saw Dr. Wolff, a female doctor that was well-respected by her fellow male colleagues
       On her way back home, from her mother's house, Marilyn wallows in utter sorrow. To suit her emotions, the rain falls down in torrents. Driving in such rain can be very dangerous, which Marilyn apparently knows as she pulls up at the side of the road. But what we don't expect is that Marilyn gets out of her car, and drenches herself in the rain. Despite the fact that this forces the reader to question her mental stability, Celeste uses this moment to show us something else.
       Marilyn is washing herself off all the burdens of the past: her mother, societal expectations, her shuttered dreams. She opens her mouth, and lets the water flow through every inch of her skin. She says, "I will never end up like that (Ng 86)," definitely referring to her mother. She gets back into the car, dripping wet, and strips off her clothes, a symbol of stripping herself of the past. Either Celeste Ng is a very dramatic writer, or she's trying to show us the extreme transition Marilyn goes through. Probably the latter, or both.
     Second is the moment she saw Dr. Wolff. You are probably wondering who this is. Well, one known thing is that she owns a wild boy who roams about, preying after innocent high school girls. Another thing, and what Marilyn realized, is that she is a doctor. This might not sound as stunning now, but this was the 1970's. Marilyn observes her bossing around her fellow male colleagues (in a nice way). This made Marilyn, who had also aspired to be a doctor,  believe that her dreams were possible. But there was one thing she had to chuck out of her life.

      Marilyn had to get rid of her family responsibilities, just as Dr. Wolff somehow had. Taking care of a family is no easy thing. It took all of Marilyn's time and energy. She figured that getting rid of these obligations would be the key to her aspirations. Seeing Dr. Wolff in the hospital was no doubt a factor that led to Marilyn's mental shift.
       Marilyn undergoes a mid-life crisis where the past comes flooding back, caused by her mother's death, catching her completely unprepared. She responds to this by shifting her mind towards her forgotten ambitions. This journey is clearly delivered by Celeste through the purification of the rain and the observation of Dr. Wolff. The often-asked question on why people go through mid-life crisis and abandon their families is seen in Marilyn's case. Just like Marilyn, many people fall in love, get married and have babies before successfully accomplishing their academic goals. While this might not necessarily be a bad thing, careful consideration should applied before making impulsive decisions. So if you're young and probably not married yet, hold your horses, and only take that one step when you're utterly sure. Don't believe me? Check out Ms. Moem's Poem
     

                        

Incomplete Recipes

A recipe is a set of instructions that lead to an outcome. Recipes are most common when cooking food. If all of the ingredients aren't there, the recipe can't be completed. In the book, Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng includes ingredients about characters and events, but she has not yet included all of the ingredients. Ng wrote a list of all the ingredients that are needed.

We take that list of ingredients and bake the cake following the recipe, keeping in mind what ingredients we have and how much. These ingredients make you feel a certain way, kind of like how if one adds extra sugar, the final result will be sweeter. A few examples of ingredients to describe characters and events is when Ng describes who Lydia is as a teenager, hints about the affair between James and Louisa, and gives clues that make the reader believe Jack has something to do with the death of Lydia.

No one knows what Lydia was actually like as a teenager, you only know what other characters describe Lydia as which is the presentation part of the recipe. These ingredients make up who Lydia is. Nath narrates a physical description of Lydia which is like how the final product should look not taste.

“The same elvish chin and high cheekbones and

left cheek dimple, the thin shouldered build”(Ng 3). You only know the ingredients about Lydia as much as Lydia’s family does, and each member has a different recipe. Nath knew that Lydia did not have any friends, and his parents thought she had friends because of the excuses she made like how she is going to the movies with her friends. You can also infer which ingredients about Lydia are true like how when she smells like smoke, it is her smoking and not one of her pretend friends. Also, when Marilyn finds condoms in her backpack, you can infer that Lydia must have been hooking up with Jack. There are still many ingredients not added to this recipe, but the real identity of Lydia will soon unfold.

Ng adds ingredients that give hints than an affair between James and Louisa was going to happen. Louisa is the first Asian student James has taught, so there was an instant connection. The diction of the scene between James and Louisa in chapter one hints at a sexual connection between them. They have a moment when James takes a ladybug out of Louisa’s hair. “Louisa holds quite still, her eyes open and fixed on his face. It's not a flower petal, as he'd first thought. It's a ladybug, and as he picks it out, it tiptoes, on threadlike yellow legs, to hang upside down from his fingernails”(Ng 11). After Lydia's funeral, James goes to work to look at the autopsy about Lydia. Louisa is there and offers lunch at her place. James accepts this offer. They go to her place and immediately start kissing. James knew that there was never going to be lunch. This is the first time this happened, but not the last. James regrets what he did, but falls back to Louisa after having a fight with his wife. James can finally have a good sleep when he is with Louisa.  “Louisa wraps her arms around him from behind, as if he is a child, and says “Stay.” And he does”(Ng 118). Ng hints at this affair might be more regular, and there will be consequences for this regrettable action because James finds comfort when he is with Louisa. This is a recipe for disaster for James because James can't say no to Louisa, and Marilyn will eventually find out if he keeps going back.

---

Ng gives ingredients that make you think that Jack is suspicious. These clues are like the steps in a recipe, and they come together to conclude that Jack has something to do with Lydia’s death. The beginning of the recipe starts with knowing that Jack is known to run wild at night because his mom works night shifts at the hospital, and he is known to get with a new girl from his school every few weeks. The next ingredient builds off of how Jack is a bad boy, and that Jack influenced Lydia to make bad decisions which leads to bad habits because they were spending so much time together in the Spring. Lydia knew that Marilyn and James would not approve, so she did not let them know about this relationship. Nath would always come up with excuses for Lydia when she was with Jack. “‘Lydia’s staying after to work on math,” he had really meant, She’s with Jack or She’s riding in Jack’s car”( Ng 17). After Marilyn found condoms in Lydia's bag, you know that Lydia wasn’t so innocent with Jack. Another ingredient is when Nath talks to Jack at Lydia’s funeral, Jack gets this worried look like there is something he is not saying and does not want anyone to find out. “For the first time Jack looks Nath in the face: a flash of startled blue eyes”(Ng 63). This makes you think that Jack has something to do with the death of Lydia. The next time Nath sees Jack, Jack runs to his house, so Nath can't interrogate him. “As Jack spots Nath, his face changes. He looks away, quickly, as if pretending he hasn't seen either of them, and walks faster”(Ng 121). Jack is not saying something, and the recipe isn't complete without it.

Celeste Ng uses recipes to describe who Lydia is even though the reader never met her as a teenager, to imply that the affair between James and Louisa would occur, and to give clues to make the reader believe Jack has something to do with the death of Lydia. Ng adds ingredients to make the reader feel and taste certain ways about events and characters. These recipes are not over yet, and there are more ingredients to be added. The cake can't be baked.

Sexism and Racism in Everything I Never Told You

Discrimination exists, but do you feel it. Celeste Ng presents racism and sexism using recipes in her book, Everything I Never Told You. She adds many situations when the character’s experience discrimination; the combination of each different situation allowed me to deepen my empathy with the characters, and those who experience these issues a lot.

Ng creates empathy by showing how Marilyn dealt with the sexism she faced. When she was questioned, “‘Why do you want to take physics?’ he asked, and she explained shyly that she was hoping to become a doctor. ‘Not a nurse?’ he’d said, with a chuckle” (Ng 25). Marilyn’s advisor addressed Marilyn in a condescending tone. He chuckled at the idea of her being a doctor, not a nurse. Because of societal standards at the time, Marilyn could not openly defend herself. Her shy response proves that she has been raised to never go against a man's word. The woman must be subservient to the man. Obeying a man’s word reappears later in the book when James denied Marilyn the opportunity to be a research assistant. James let his pride deny his wife the chance to be happy and regain purpose. A relationship is two-way street, and he just shut down the other half. Marilyn, however, would not be held down for long. Once her mother died, it all hit her at once. Marilyn thought, “Never, she promised herself. I will never end up like that” (Ng 86). These thoughts came to her while thinking about her mother's life. Her mother had a traditional, simple, yet lonely life. All the years of suppression and obedience boiled up that moment and that's when Marilyn snapped.  She needed to leave and go back to school. She couldn’t put her dreams on hold any longer. The fact she is willing to leave her loved ones behind shows how suppressed she was just because of being a girl. Sexism is often because of ignorance, like when James denied Marilyn the chance to be a research assistant. He only thought of himself and his pride. The thought of Marilyn’s happiness never once crossed his mind. By presenting the mindset of Marilyn, and her reaction to each one of the sexist situations, it allowed me, being male, to understand the struggles that women went through, and are still going through.

Not only does Everything I Never Told You talk about sexism, it also talks about racism. James, being Asian, has endured racism since the first day of school when he was asked, “What’s wrong with your eyes” (Ng 43)?  From this day on, James would be the victim of racism. People would be confused when they see him teaching American subjects. Marilyn herself on the first day of class when she saw him even thought, “An Oriental” (Ng 31). It took her by surprise because the standard was that Americans teach American subjects, and Asians are not American. When Marilyn and James were getting married, Marilyn’s mom objected, “‘It’s not right, Marilyn. It’s not right’” (Ng 54). That did not stop Marilyn however, they still got married. Love prevailed. James always internalized his feelings when being discriminated against. He never showed his shame. Even his children experienced similar discrimination like the day when a little girl shouted at Nath, “‘Chink can’t find China!’ and the other children laughed” (Ng 90). Nath was different from his father though, Nath immediately got upset and left the other kids. James, watching the entire situation, related to his son, and he understood exactly how ashamed he was just for being himself. The worst racist experience for James came from his own wife, the person who should love him more than anybody else in the world, used the word kowtow. His reaction perfectly illustrates how deeply comments like this affect people:

To James, though, the word rifles from his wife’s mouth and lodges deep in his chest.

From those two syllables -- kowtow-- explode bent backed coolies in cone hats, pigtailed Chinamen with sandwiched palms. Squinty and servile. Bowing and belittled. He has long suspected that everyone see him this way -- Stanley Hewitt, the policemen, the checkout girl at the grocery store. But he had not thought that everyone included Marilyn. (Ng 116)

The way Ng creates the analogy of Marilyn’s slur being as wounding as a gunshot or explosion shows how deeply that one word affected James. Her words are so powerful my heart hurts a little while reading that. The last line is the most powerful line. It is the twisting of the knife after being stabbed. He accepted that everyone else in his life viewed him in such a way, but not Marilyn. It hurt so badly because it came from her, the love of his life. Each experience with discrimination deepens the level of understanding and empathy I for people who have experience these issues on a daily basis. 

Everything I Never Told You made me look at myself and evaluate any unknown prejudices I had, either between genders or among races. Each example Ng puts in book is like another ingredient put in a recipe. One ingredient alone carries far less power than a finished recipe. However, some ingredients are more important; ultimately, the final product is what people remember. Ng creates a perfect final picture of sexism and racism, which allowed me to deepen his or her empathy towards those issues. That is why this is such a wonderful book.

Recipes At Work; #EINTY

Aaron Lake

EINTY blog

4/27/17

             

Readers can see recipes at work in Celeste Ng’s novel Everything I Never Told You. The novel follows an Asian American family, struggling after their oldest daughter Lydia turns up dead. Ng incorporates recipes all over the novel. A recipe is by definition “something that is likely to lead to a particular outcome.” In two very obvious instances, Ng uses recipes to give the reader insight into the past that lead to the present event

In chapter three of Everything I Never Told You, Lydia’s father, James, begins an affair with his teaching assistant, Louisa Chen. A recipe (with the key ingredient being Lydia’s death), brings James to this point. James and Louisa have long had some mutual attraction. They blush like kids when a coworker walks in on them talking. The fact that Ng devotes two and a half pages to detail Louisa and James’ history let's the reader know she will be a character well involved in the novel.

Ng makes it clear that something has been developing between James and Louisa, but their chemistry is only a part of the recipe. It's not hard to believe that the only asians around would have some form of connection. The main ingredient in the recipe of James’s infidelity is obviously the death of his daughter. Losing Lydia put James in a very bad place, and forced him to turn to something or someone to help him cope. James’s vulnerability is without a doubt an important ingredient. Louisa sees his vulnerability and deliberately decides to take advantage of his weakness. Ng combines James vulnerability and Louisa’s desire for him to help create another ingredient for an affair between the two. Many factors or ingredients build up to the major event of James and Louisa sleeping together. Ng does well to combine ingredients to create a new plot event.

Before the novel takes place, Lydia’s mother disappears. Using a recipe, Ng shows the reader what pushed Marilyn to leave. Ng’s recipe begins years and years before the present, when Marilyn gets pregnant with Nath. Her and James weren't expecting the pregnancy, and Marilyn is forced to drop out of school to stay home and take care of their child. She does so assuming that before long she will able to return to school and finish her degree, but this chance to return doesn't materialize for years.

,Later, Marilyn’s mother dies, and while cleaning out her mother’s house Marilyn realizes that she does not want to die a housewife. Her mother's cookbook, the only thing in her mother's house that Marilyn decided to keep, was the key ingredient in the recipe of Marilyn's disappearance. She wants to leave more than a cookbook for her kids when she dies. The book helps Marilyn realize that she's unhappy with the life she has chosen, or was forced to choose. Another piece of the recipe for Marilyn’s disappearance comes when she sees her neighbor, Dr. Janet Wolf,f at the local hospital. Seeing another independent successful woman with a career really hurts Marilyn, and makes her jealous, and makes her want to change her life. Dr. Wolff helps push Marilyn into action, and Marilyn decides to leave her family to return to college, living in a small apartment nearby. She leaves her family with a letter explaining why she can no longer stay, and begging for forgiveness. Ng lays out the backstory to a relatively minor event in the novel with such a detailed recipe, which shows just how highly Ng values recipes in her writing.

Recipes are a common theme of Everything I Never Told You, and come before every plot event. For smaller events Ng’s recipes are more brief, and vice versa, but they are ever present. After the death of Lydia, the recipe to her death will in time be revealed by Ng. As the book builds to the discovery of how Lydia died, recipes for her death become more and more prominent. Was she unhappy, and enough so to commit suicide? Did Jack kill her, and what recipe brought him to do this? Ng’s recipe make the novel flow smoothly, provide information, and help the plot to make sense. Ng uses recipes to great effect, to help the story flow smoothly, and to ensure that the reader has a good understanding of the text.

Mechanisms of Characters

In Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, the author uses mechanisms to develop characters. These characters contribute to the themes of mysterious death and hardships for Chinese-Americans.


Lydia was a mysterious character and her family did not know a lot about her life. She often lied about where she was after school or what she was doing with her life. Her family did not know a lot about her boyfriend Jack. Lydia claimed that she had a lot of friends, but really did not know many people that well. These pieces come together in a mechanism to create a lonely character. The bubble of problems with that Lee family popped when Lydia died. The family realized that they were lonely as Chinese-Americans.

James has many experiences as a child that show how hard it was to grow up as a Chinese-American. He was lonely is school and in the workforce. When his daughter dies, he cheats on his wife. These elements come together in a mechanism to show that Lydia felt the same feelings as James. Lydia felt alone and hopeless as an Asian in northeastern Ohio. She felt a lot of academic pressure from her family and had high expectations.


Marilyn is described through anecdotes that come together to create a mechanism. Marilyn's life is described as a struggle as a woman trying to be a doctor. She struggles between her family and her career. Marilyn was focused on her career more than her children and dreaded being a homemaker. She left her family for a brief period and never provided necessary support for Lydia when she went through a depressing time at the end of her life.

Nath is a lonely kid that represents the Lee family well. He has a high academic standard and does not have many friends. He feels like an outcast as a Chinese-American. He put pressure on Lydia when he was accepted in Harvard. These come together to create a mechanism that was hard on Lydia. She was going to be lonely when he was in college and had high standards to live up to. This pushed her to her eventual death.


Hannah is a shy character that even her own family does not recognize. Hannah epitomizes the loneliness of the Lee family. She is an often overlooked character that knows rare details about the death of her sister. These things come together to create a mysterious character that could be the secret to discovering Lydia's death.

In conclusion, details come together to create mechanisms for characters. These mechanisms combine to create the themes of minority struggle and handling a premature death. The mechanisms help send messages to the reader and prove to be the building blocks of Everything I Never Told You.