Suicide is a very complicated event, and there are usually many different reasons why an individual decides to take his or her own life. Often, it involves a number of different people. In the case of Lydia Lee from Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, it technically was her own fault that she drowned in the community lake. However, many people in her daily life did play a role in her decision to go out to the lake in the first place, especially the members of her family. Even though Nath and James both did play a very significant role in Lydia’s decision to commit suicide, Marilyn should be to blame for Lydia’s death because she put too much pressure on her, she disregarded her feelings, and because she never promoted a healthy social life.
Marilyn’s troubled past promoted her decision to pressure her daughter, which eventually led to her demise. For example, after Lydia said that she lost her mother’s cookbook, Marilyn thought, “It was a sign, Marilyn decided. For her, it was too late. But it wasn’t too late for Lydia. Marilyn would not be like her own mother shunting her daughter toward husband and house, a life spent safely behind a deadbolt.” (Ng 147) Ever since Marilyn traveled to her mother’s house, she realized that she had to promote her daughter’s education in order to allow her to become a doctor. While Marilyn firmly believes that allowing her daughter to become a doctor will be the best possible future, she fails to realize how much pressure this is