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

To Sink or Swim “He pushed her in. And then he pulled her out. All her life, Lydia would remember one thing. All his life, Nath would remember another” (155). Narrated by a third person omniscient narrator, this central event from the sixth chapter grants insight into a dénouement between characters as part of a significant, overarching pattern within Celeste Ng’s novel Everything I Never Told You. Essential to uncovering the plot, the third person omniscient point of view enables the reader to access the internal struggles that beleaguer the Lee Family and also to witness the variation in perception between characters: a primary instigator of tension and a source of dramatic irony. Exemplified in the passage, Ng demonstrates dramatic and

Most significantly, Nath is affected by his tense relationship with his parents. Anxious for his son to avoid similar alienation, James desperately attempts to “shape [Nath] into something different” from himself, actually slapping Nath within the sixth chapter (92). Although Nath is an incredibly diligent student, James pushes his son to be athletic and popular similar to Jack or the quintessential American cowboy from James’s studies. However, Nath is content with his academic aspirations and opposes his frustrated father’s protective social guidance. Notably, Ng produces intergenerational cosmic irony as Nath’s similarity to his father causes him to seem destined to follow his father’s path -- just as Marilyn was destined to follow her mother’s path as a housewife. On the other hand, Nath suffers from Marilyn’s neglect, which is displayed when Marilyn “…[forgets] all about his egg,” a reoccurring contextual symbol of his mother’s love (152). Ironically, Nath is more academically-inclined than his sister, knowing “…the answer to every question [his] mother [asks]” Lydia (151). Nonetheless, Marilyn vicariously fixates on Lydia’s potential, reserving her affection for Lydia while utterly disregarding Nath and Hannah. As a result, Nath is consumed by envy for Lydia’s monopoly on her mother’s attention and fantasizes about a life without her. Therefore, Nath’s action is consequentially motivated by envy for his sister who “… is [his] mother’s favorite. And [his] father’s too”