An Analysis of Celeste NG’s Everything I Never Told You from the Perspective of Cultural Ethics 从文化伦理角度解读伍绮诗的《无声告白》文献综述

 2023-05-15 09:05

文献综述

The Everything I Never Told You is one of the most important works of Celeste Ng a significant figure in American literature. Although the book tells the story of an American family, due to the background of the authors Chinese American Celeste Ngs poetry, it is actually more like Chinese education, and the characterization of the characters is closer to the thinking of the Chinese people. Therefore, it has a sense of substitution and empathy. In the 1970s, the United States was still an era of unfairness and racial discrimination against women. In this context, the heroine Marilyn met the different hero James with the dream of being a female doctor. James lived in the shadow of racial discrimination all his life. He was timid and inferior because he was a second-generation Chinese American of Chinese workers. Every child is the continuation of parents life. Although children will eventually get rid of their parents constraints, children always bear the brand of parents. Jamess personality traits have influenced his son Nath and his daughters Lydia and Hannah to a certain extent. They have no friends, no communication, lonely and introverted, and no one listens to their introverted confession. For the whole town, they are different. Although Marilyn abandoned her husband and son for her dream, she finally returned to the family for her children. As the book says, returning to plain is a relief. But she was unwilling. Her daughter Lydia became the continuation of her dream. Marilyn longed for Lydia to become a female doctor instead of her. James hoped that Lydia would be sociable and gregarious, and asked Ness to enter Harvard. This is not so much their dream as a perfect pursuit of their inner personality. As children, Lydia was forced to become the apple of her eye, but Nath and Hannah were neglected, resulting in their personality defects. But the reality is always unsatisfactory. Lydia is forced to accept the expectations she doesnt want, which is not what she wants at all. It can be said that the excessive pressure of her parents dragged Lydia into the lake, causing tragedy, and finally woke up. The so-called silent confession is the confession to the voice of the heart, the release of pressure and the talk of the times. Because she lived on the junction of two opposite and different cultures, Ng is very conscious of the situation of being neither American nor Chinese, which makes her examine racial andgender issues deftly within domestic and societal spheres in her creation. In her debut novel Everything I Never Told You, she delineates the dilemma that an interracialfamily in the margin of the society encountered at home and outside in detail. Thisthrilling and engaging story has drawn particular attention from the public andreceived lots of acclaim from literary critics and reviewers.Many reviewers comment on the fiction from the perspective of family ethics. Alexander Chee (16) mentions individual identity and parentage concerning thefamilys theories. Carol Haggas (13) claims that the novel captures the tensionbetween cultures and generations with deftness.Lots of scholars point out Ngs reference to the issues of race, gender, andidentity in the novel. Terry Hong thinks, Ng constructs a mesmerizing narrative thatshrinks enormous issues of race,prejudice, identity, and gender into the miniaturistdynamics of a single family (69). Carolyn A. Schweitz (1-31)maintains that the novel tells the struggle of mix-racial marriage and the pain ofgrowing up.Some critics think highly of Ngs proficiency in narrative and characterization. Julie Barer writes that Ngs prose is precise and sensitive,her characters [were] richly drawn(28). As an emerging Chinese American writer, Ng has demonstrated her potential forliterature and accomplishment through her novels, but she is still growing and needsmore practice. In the critical essay, Currents of study: charting the course of AsianAmerican literary criticism, Sohn and Gamber combed the publications of AsianAmerican literary criticism from pre-1982 to the present. Ng belongs to the third phase the meta-critical phase. She is still creating new works and scholars comments on her are still underconsideration.Everything 1 Never Told You, translated by Sun Lu, was introduced to China in 2015. Since the introduction of this best seller, it has attracted a magnitude of attentionand has been thought highly of by Chinese critics and scholars. Nevertheless, at thebeginning of the publication of the translated version, critics interpretations of thisbook merely focused on the analysis of the tragedy and its popularity in America.Many scholars have made studies on the significance of this books publication. Su Shaowei (W04) holds that the reason why Everything I Never Told You has becomepopular in the United States is that it reflects he small families in the big society.The new problems of the United States in the new century are the matters of ethnicgroups and families. Li Mingzhu (98-102) analyses the values reflected behind eachindividual, mirroring the core of American values that freedom, equality，andindividual rights are paramount. Li Rui (50-52) indicates the significance of publication lies in this books omniscient narration and the social diversity of itssubjects and themes.As the novels significance was realized by more readers on the Internet, praising Celeste Ng as the new-born energy in Chinese American literature, the book hasaroused more literary comments from multiple perspectives in the Chinese academiccircles. Up to now,there are 120 or so academic articles and dissertations on Everything I Never Told You from universities and colleges in China，which has broadened and deepened her study in the past five years.The scholars employ a widerange of methods and perspectives to analyze the fiction, including narrative strategies family ethnics, post-colonial theory, comparative literary angle, feminism,existentialist perspective, and trauma theory.As parents, James and Marilyn parents, do not pay attention to their childrens inner world, do not understand their feelings and needs, interests and experience, wishful thinking projected their lost dreams on their daughter Lydia, hoping to make up for it. Mother did not timely detect and capture the daughters subtle psychology, so that the daughter and Jack private meeting for half a year is unknown, and the daughter in the classmate circle without friends is ignorant, to the daughter of those unbearable pain, false happiness and inner struggle unaware.In real life, many parents like James and marlene, because young now not so rich education opportunities and resources, and failed to get high education, so have high hopes for children, to make up for their childhood regret, so too much attention to the ups and downs of children academic performance, ignoring the childs inner world, both childhood or adolescence, children lack independent ability to face learning life pressure, need parents after really understand the children, suitable for the development of care and guidance.How the childs inner world understands, how the childs heart will reveal. In fact, parents are the best role models for their children. According to the American psychologist Bandura, some human behavior is learned by imitation.If parents can truly show their emotions and needs in front of their children in the appropriate way, they will also imitate them imperceptibly and are willing to share their inner experience.James in his interaction with his son Nath, when Nath was teased by other children in the swimming pool; when he saw his angry accusations of Jack at Lydias funeral; when Nath questioned the perfume he had no mention that Nath did not know him, as he did not hurt him, he wanted to embrace and comfort his son, but eventually he acted in the opposite way. Imagine that if James could put his ideas into action, the father-son relationships would be smooth and there was no estrangement.Marilyn to lidia into infinite mothers love, but not in the daughter really express their emotions, every time marlene seems to respect the daughter choice words communicate with Lydia as long as you are interested , as long as you want but every time show very looking forward to get their satisfactory answer tension, let sensitive Lydias perception, so she always please her mother. The false pleasure Lydia acquired learned, in part, from her mother.At the end of the novel, Marilyn and her youngest daughter Hannah reveal their true emotion, It also makes the first time that Hannah feel the warmth of her mothers arms and the sadness of her mothers heart. This is the real side that Marlene failed to give her eldest daughter Lydia.To truly express their emotions and needs, is also a required course for parents in real life, to do a good mirror for their children, parents can have the opportunity to understand their childrens aspirations, and look back at themselves, and their children may have a more positive psychological defense mechanism, so as to have a healthy psychology.Parents in real life, like James and Marily, in the growth of children, overreach, trying to make their children ideal state, ignore or dilute the childrens personality characteristics and psychological needs, and the silent confession, can wake up a lot of sleep or willful parents, let them warning, on the growth of children play a modest guide, rather than arbitrary driver. In this way, even if their children encounter obstacles in the journey of life, their parents can give timely support and help, then it can promote their children to form a positive psychological defense mechanism, effectively overcome the difficulties, and become a better self.What is more, it is worthwhile to study Ngs works from a comparative angle. However，there are merely three theses comparing Everything I Never Told You with Bone, The Joy Luck Club, and Little Fires Everywhere, respectively. Moreover,only one doctoral dissertation mentions this book as an example. Tang Shuzhe (v) maintains this novel has an innovative theme in the development of Chinese-American literature, which is definitely Ngs writing aspiration and creativehope, as she once emphasized why she did not want to be the next Amy Tan.By study this book, parents can get a better understanding of how to educate and love their children. Just like the auther said: In our whole life, we need to get rid of the expectations of others and find our true self. Parents should communicate with the children and the children should have enough to grow up better.

资料编号：[579746]

剩余内容已隐藏，您需要先支付 10元 才能查看该篇文章全部内容！立即支付

以上是毕业论文文献综述，课题毕业论文、任务书、外文翻译、程序设计、图纸设计等资料可联系客服协助查找。

您可能感兴趣的文章