A Study Of Negative Affects In Everything I Never Told You From The Perspective Of Affect Theory

Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You depicts the tragedy of an interracial family in America in the 1970 s.The novel has attracted critics’ attention for its combination of socially heated themes such as parent-child conflicts and cultural clashes.Focusing on the Lees’ negative affects,this thesis intends to explore the answers to the following questions: how does the tragedy happen? What are the manifestations and stimuli of the Lees’ negative affects? What are their responses?By analyzing the Lee family’s “affective scenes”,the causes,and their strategies of response in the light of the affect theory,this thesis uncovers that the interracial family suffer from the shame,the anger and the fear under the racial discrimination and the gender prejudice in the mainstream American society.The evasive and radical resistance strategies adopted by the Lees trap them into mental predicaments like self-denial,which leads to the elder daughter’s death.Apart from displaying the dilemma of the interracial family in America,this thesis also reveals the constructive power of the negative affects in establishing the individual’s subjectivity and strengthening the social interaction through the interpretation of the protagonists’ development.This thesis provides readers with further insight into the plight of the interracial family in America by interpreting the novel from the perspective of the affect theory.Everything I Never Told You,a reflection on the interracial family’s living situation and an exploration of a way out for them,presents a new trend of interracial interaction and communication in a multicultural environment.Furthermore,through the analysis of the responses and the constructive power of the negative affects,the thesis enlightens people to confront the negative affects and inspire the constructive power of them,so as to build the individual’s subjectivity and to promote the development of a harmonious society.