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

Brady Bai

Mrs. Lyons

English I D

9 February, 2023

Prompt #1

The importance of Communication Good communication is of paramount importance. For any family, communication is the foundation and structure that keeps the relationship from collapsing. However, in Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You, the Lee family struggles to communicate effectively with each other, as both of Lydia’s parents try to force their ideas on Lydia without knowing of her approval, and Marilyn makes remarks that James find racially sensitive, although Marilyn is unaware because James never came clean about his insecurities.. Ultimately, Ng proves how poor communication within the Lee family is the main culprit of Lydia’s death, which the author uses to demonstrate

In a fight with James, Marlyn doesn't think twice before saying “Unlike some people, I don't just kowtow to the police'', which to James, “explode bent-backed coolies in cone hats, pigtailed chinamen with sandwiched palms. Squinty and seville… he had long suspected that everyone sees him this way… but he had not thought that everyone included marilyn'' (116). Although Marilyn is only trying to say that James is being too subservient to the police, James sees this as a racial insult to him, and he believes that Marilyn had always seen him this way, just like everybody else did. James' misinterpretation of Marilyn’s words is the main factor that causes their relationship to deteriorate, Later, when the police close the case, Marilyn says that “[i]f [Lydia] was a white girl, [the police would] keep looking”, which “proves what James had feared… all along; she [labels] everything. White and not white.” (202). While Marilyn is only saying that the police are racist, James sees this as a form of racial prejudice on Marilyn's end, and that she was only reminding him that he was different. Marilyn’s words cause James to believe that his wife had betrayed him, revealing his own insecurities, caused by a lifetime of experiencing racial prejudice from others. Because of this, James disappears, but this time for a while. Ng uses this situation to prove that lack of communication and failure to come clean about one’s own insecurities causes a relationship to