A Dialogic Study Of Everything I Never Told You From The Perspective Of Polyphonic Theory

Celeste Ng(1980-)is one of the contemporary Chinese-American writers.Everything I Never Told You is her debut novel and was published in the American in 2014.The novel has received rave reviews,won numerous awards since its publication,making it the best book of 2014 in the United States by numerous media.The novel unfolds simultaneously two parallel time clues: one presents a series of events triggered by the suicide of the protagonist Lydia in the present tense;the other is a retrospect of Lydia's upbringing in the past tense,and narrates how she heads for her eventual suicide.Two parallel clues interlace in the narrative,making dialogue the homophony of the novel.In the light of Bakhtin's polyphonic theory,this thesis analyzes the great dialogue from the narrative,characters' relationship and the microdialogue from the protagonist's micro-dialogue with different characters and their conflicts in consciousness,double-voiced discourses.Through analysis of great dialogue and micro-dialogue,this thesis explores the cause of this tragedy and identity crisis and the plight of ethnic minority groups in the United States,and discusses how dialogue may solve this dilemma.In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion,this thesis has four chapters.The Introduction introduces the life of the writer Celeste Ng and her novel Everything I Never Told You,the research status at domestic and abroad and points out the significance of this thesis.Chapter One briefly introduces Bakhtin's theory,especially Bakhtin's polyphonic theory.Bakhtin uses polyphonic theory to summarize the poetic characteristics of Dostoyevsky's novel,calling it a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and conscious-messes,a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices.Bakhtin indicates that the essence of existence is dialogue and dialogue is based on the relationship between self and other.He classifies dialogues into two forms: “great dialogue” and “microdialogue”.The great dialogue focuses on the overall structure of the novel,which is manifested in the narrative,structure and character ideological relations of the novel.Micro-dialogue puts emphasis on the linguistic level of the novel,focusing on the conflicts between the discourse and consciousness of the characters in the novel.Chapter Two explores the great dialogue embodied in Everything I Never Told You.It discusses the overall structure of the novel from three dimensions: relationship between the author and protagonist,the narrative structure of the text and the relationship between the characters in the novel.The author traces the family tragedy back to the overall background: namely of the era,social environment and race relations,and explores the factors that lead to the family tragedy from a macro level.Chapter Three analyzes the micro-dialogue embodied in Everything I Never Told You.Through the perspective of the protagonist Lydia,the narrator shows us her dialogues with different characters and their conflicts in consciousness,her inner monologue and the double-voiced language displayed in the dialogue level of the novel,and explores the process of Lydia's internal collapse and the deep reasons for the failure of dialogue within this ethnic family from a micro perspective.Chapter Four specifically explores the dialogue between the reconstruction of self and other.On the basis of dialogue and reflection of others to find the self,from the heart to accept and reconstruct the identity of self,and actively build a dialogue between self and other.The minority groups represented by James Lee try to accept their ethnic identity and actively seek dialogue.The female groups represented by Marilyn get rid of the stereotypical cognition of women,dare to express themselves and pursue their dreams.At the same time,they should strike a balance between career and family and actively seek for self-development.The Conclusion indicates that Everything I Never Told You is about the family tragedy caused by Lydia's suicide;it also reflects the identity crisis and survival predicament of minority families in the mainstream American society.In general,Everything I Never Told You takes dialogue as the keynote,providing the possibility for the potential dialogue of various narrative structures and characters' relations.The study of the novel based on the theory of dialogue is of enlightening significance for the construction of a good dialogue mechanism,the re-examination of the living conditions of ethnic minorities,especially the model ethnic minorities,and the positive construction of ethnic identity confidence.