A Study On The Identities Of Celeste Ng Everything I Never Told You From The Perspective Of Post-colonial Theory

Everything I Never Told You is the first work completed for six years by contemporary Chinese-American writer Celeste Ng.The novel has attracted widespread attention once it was published.The issue of identity has always been one of the main concerns of Chinese-American literature.The story of the novel Everything I Never Told You takes place in an interracial family.Within this special family,each family member faces a different identity problem.The novel begins with the death of Lydia,the daughter of a cross-ethnic family in the1970 s.As the story progresses,the family faces many problems while it seems peaceful.In this family,all family members have various identity problems,which are also one of the causes of the family tragedy.This paper explores and analyzes the underlying reasons behind the identity problems faced by family members from the perspective of Post-colonialism and the strategies they try to solve the identity problems.In the end,each family member makes a choice to find his identity.The thesis is mainly divided into six parts: The first part is introduction,which mainly introduces the writer and the work,as well as the domestic and foreign studies of the work.The next part mainly discusses the key theories of the Post-colonial Theory.This part illustrates the “Other” Theory in Post-colonial Theory,Cultural Hybrid Theory and Cultural Location Theory of Homi K.Bhabha.From the second chapter to the fourth chapter are the main chapters of the thesis.Chapter two,according to the theory of the “Other” in Post-colonial Theory,the characters in Celeste Ng’s novel Everything I Never Told You are the main object of analysis,different identity problems faced by the characters are discussed in this chapter.The third chapter is mainly based on the Post-colonial theorist Homi K.Bhabha’s theory of Cultural Hybrid.This part discusses the exploration and strategy of the characters in Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You in order to solve their own identity problems.Chapter four is mainly based on the Post-colonial theorist Homi K.Bhabha’s theory of Cultural Location.This part attempts to explore the characters in Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You.After a series of temptations,how all the members solve the identity problems to maintain self-adjustment and reflection.Eventually all members achieve a state of identity balance.The last part is the conclusion.In this work,there are various reasons for the identity problems faced by the family members living in the inter-racial family,which have caused the tragedy of the family.Fortunately,the family members did not fall apart after the tragedy,but after reflection all members achieve a final reconciliation.Through studying and analyzing this work,we can analyze the identity of family members in this work from multiple aspects and angles.Whether ethnic identity,gender identity or identity in a dual cultural background,it will be explained.Analyze the process from losing one’s identity to choose self-identity to the final identity.It is hoped that these perspectives can provide a new perspective for scholars to understand Celeste Ng and the development of Chinese-American literature.Related research on the work of Everything I Never Told You is still at a primary stage.Over the years,Chinese scholars have mostly conducted text studies from the perspectives of trauma theory,family ethical relations,tragedy analysis,character image comparison and narrative strategies.If we want to further deepen the depth of the text research,we need to conduct text analysis from more angles.The United States,as a multi-ethnic country,is inherently ethnically mixed.In the context of ethnic minority families,Chinese-American,woman,and the next generation of inter-racial family allow us to explore and analyze the identity of the characters in the book from multiple angles.The analysis of the identities of the characters in the book through Post-colonial Theory helps us to have a deeper understanding of Everything I Never Told You from a new perspective,mapping from a small family to a large society,making it meaningful.