Everything I Never Told You Quotes

Jeremy Morris

Alissa Cruz

Eng 112 v01

18 July 2023

The Power of a Parents Actions

The struggles between parents and their children can go unchecked and unseen, building up to an emotional gap, beginning to rip apart their relationship from the inside out. This fact is all the more prevalent when reading about the life of the Lee family in the book- Everything I Never Told You. This story follows Marilyn Lee and James Lee, the parents of Nath, Lydia, and Hannah Lee {In that exact order}. There is the regretted one, the beloved one, and the forgotten one. It is these labels given to them not in words but in the actions of the parents, this is what will form the family dynamic. Along with these labels, they are given varying amounts

Nath Lee, the regretted son and just maybe the smartest child of James and Marilyn. A Harvard college student who will probably go on to be an astronaut at Nasa. Is a child whose dream is constantly ignored and never supported by his parents. It is this action of overlooking Nath's dreams and accomplishments that causes damage to form between him and his father. Nath knew they would never care about his dreams after this incident with his father, “On Sunday evening, Nath said, “Daddy, can you believe people can go practically to the moon and still come back?” and James slapped him, so hard Nath’s teeth rattled. “Shut up about that nonsense,” he said.” (Ng 80). Nath Lee's damage from parental expectations comes from them not expecting anything from him. Nath Lee is just a boy, who in his father's eyes, will never not be a shy little boy too scared to make friends, or in other words, a reflection of his younger self, something he has hated for a long time. Now in his eldest son, Nath, he sees all the things he hates about himself and pushes that hatred toward Nath. This image of his son was the starting point for their rocky relationship that would get continuously worse. It gets

It is this action of neglect that damages their relation with her. Hannah Lee is the most neglected kid in the Lee family, and this is shown in her actions, which are comparable to real-life children who suffer from neglect. For instance, the children welfare government site says that “Maltreatment can cause victims to feel isolation, fear, and distrust, which can translate into lifelong psychological consequences that can manifest as educational difficulties, low self-esteem, depression, and trouble forming and maintaining relationships” (Children’s Bureau 3) it is isolation, that Hannah demonstrates. Hannah was so isolated that “They set up her nursery in the bedroom in the attic, where things that were not wanted were kept, and even when she got older, now and then each of them would forget, fleetingly, that she existed” (Ng 97). In the case of Hannah, her relationship with her parents is not so much about the interactions they have together but the lack of interactions. This lack of interaction seems to come to a stop near the end of the story when they finally tell her that they will see her tomorrow, which is a sentence she had longed to hear her whole life. It is also in this instance that Hannah stops feeling neglected and seems to stop doing the things that a neglected kid would do, such as listening into other's conversations.