Identity Search Of Marginal Man In Everything I Never Told You

Everything I Never Told You,the debut novel of Chinese-American writer Celeste Ng,has gained wide attention since its publication in 2014.It has won immense favor and was awarded as the best book of 2014 by American website Amazon.The novel tells a tragic story happened in an interracial family comprised of a Chinese-American professor and an American white female in a town of Ohio in 1970 s,in which some marginal characters are shaped.Based on personal experience of being a Chinese American and her own interracial marriage,through proficient literary techniques,in the novel the author delivers the inequality and cultural conflicts that Chinese-American hybrid family might encounter in multiple cultures and illustrates the dilemma of Marginal Man in 1970s' American society.Therefore,this thesis applies Park's and Stonequist's theories of Marginal Man to analyze the images of the marginal characters and the process of them searching self-identity,trying to find out the relationship in between and to reveal the substance of American dream for the sake of Marginal Man.This thesis is composed by the following five chapters: The first chapter contains the introduction of the research text Everything I Never Told You and its author,brief analysis of the domestic and abroad literature review relating with the novel,and the study purpose and significance.The second chapter taking the definition on Marginal Man as an entry point,illustrates its detailed development and essence of the theory,gives a concrete definition of Marginal Man and then summarizes a series of certain features of Marginal Man.The third chapter elaborates the characters of the marginal men in the study case by categorizing them into three groups – Chinese-American male situated in the margin of the American society,middle-aged female constrained by the patriarchal society,and children raised in ChineseAmerican hybrid family,so that features of Marginal Man can be better demonstrated,hence to explore the existent and spiritual conditions of the American Chinese hybrid family in twentieth century.The fourth chapter firstly defies American dream in the study case;and then analyzes the connection between identity search and American dream of Marginal Man – by explaining the dilemma of Marginal Man,two-level oppressions on marginal group and the responses they have;and finally discusses the disillusion of American dream.The last chapter draws a conclusion on the basis of the whole thesis and then points out that there are marginal men suffering from finding their own places in the melting-pot like America due to diverse barriers.Taking the main characters in the work as study subjects,this thesis analyzes the characteristics of each member of this interracial family and the causes of their marginality;and then explores their inner activity,thereby to confirm their state of Marginal Man and their impediments in identifying themselves and realizing a balanced living state.At some extent,since self-identity is a key step of liberating oneself and the foundation of pursuing equality and happiness as the American dream encourages,the double oppression of existence and spirit on Marginal Man makes American dream more like a perfect illusion.The novel shows deep sympathy for the misfortune of Marginal Man,criticizes their weakness and reveals the disillusionment of American dream at the same time.Meanwhile,the author of this thesis hopes to provide a helpful reference for future study on the theory of Marginal Man,as well as to attract more academic attention on Celeste Ng' works.