A Study Of The Spatial Narrative In Everything I Never Told You

Everything I Never Told You is written by Celeste Ng,a young Chinese-American writer,whose debut in the literary world has attracted wide attention from Chinese and foreign media because of its complex ethnic issues,gender issues and the education issue of the mixed family.The novel describes a tragic story of a mixed-raced family in a small town of Ohio in the 1970 s.Instead of praising the success of the model minority in other ethnic creations,the novel starts with the death of Lydia,the second daughter of the Lees,revealing the spiritual crisis and social life dilemma of the successful model family of Chinese Americans,and thus disclosing the huge racial and social pressure as well as their identity problems that they have faced.From the perspective of the spatial narrative,this paper analyzes the topographical space,the social space and the textual space in Everything I Never Told You.In doing so,this paper reveals the identity crisis implied in the space.Narrative space appears repeatedly in literary works,projecting the subjective feelings of the author,interweaving between “history” and “present”,“there” and“here” in the space,and thus breaking the frame of traditional narrative time and providing the whole work with a sense of depth.First of all,the topographical space includes a series of physically spatial images,which are unified in the space of the“house” in the novel.The Lees are trapped in the house,from which the father,the mother and the three children are all oppressed and restrained,unable to get rid of the identity label imposed on them.Secondly,the social space contains a variety of social relations,and the mismatch of social relations is reflected by the complex interpersonal relationships among these characters,including the inappropriate marriage and the distorted parentage,all directly resulting in the identity crises that these characters have endured.Finally,the unique narrative techniques of the textual space strengthen the sense of tragedy,in which the selection of language,the non-linear narrative sequence and ingenious narrative perspective metaphorically reveal the identity crisis of the characters.The topographical space,the social space and the textual space establish a three-dimensional structure of space in the novel.All the characters are trapped in the space: James,a Chinese American,desires to integrate into the white society throughout his life;Marilyn is an aggressive woman who dreams of becoming a doctor and leading an independent life,but finally surrenders herself to the family;and the three mixed children are subjected to different kinds of pressures from their family and the society and live under the shadow of their given identity.By unfolding the identity crisis that hidden behind the space,this paper suggests that even though all the characters are under a given identity—whether the Chinese American seeking to integrate into the white society,or the white female attempting to stand still in the patriarchal society,or the mixed children failing to realize themselves—they attempt to remove from their given identity labels,but still fail to identify themselves.But only when they recognize the identity dilemma and choose to accept or change it on their own can the so-called identity crisis be settled.