對(duì)《無(wú)聲告白》中莉迪亞悲劇的分析

1、AcknowledgementsThanks for giving me this chance to achieve this paper and to make the conclusion for my four years education. Through writing this paper, I have gained more knowledge than I supposed.My sincere thanks are due to my supervisor, Mr. Wang for helping me to clarify my thought and sharpe

2、n my thinking.Here, I also want to give my thanks to other teachers and my classmates who gave me much help. Thank you!AbstractEverything I Never Told You is Chinese American woman writer Celeste Ng took her six years to debut, with high reputation; she pulled ethnic and cultural conflicts of the Un

3、ited States under the eaves of a family. Once published, the book had received wide public attention. The book tells a tragic story of a child who born in a cross ethnic family named Lydia; she finally towards death due to the unbearable love and expectation of the parents. The novel is divided into

4、 two lines; one is the family guess, and the other is Lydias recount by herself. Celeste Ng portrays a family which attempt to conduct in the torrent of history, and a young girl who tries her best to integrate into society. This paper is divided into four parts. The first part introduces the author

5、 and the works in detail; the second part expounds on the internal factors of Lydias tragedy, which were caused by her characters and self-consciousness from the respective of Lydia; the third part is an analysis of the inevitability of Lydias tragedy from the external factors of family education, f

6、amily members and social contradictions. The fourth part is the summary of this thesis. Through the analysis we know that the real cause of this tragedy is the failure of family education and the influence of social environment. The author thinks that people should be rid of others expectation to fi

7、nd their true self in the process of growing up.Key Words: tragedy; self-consciousness; family education; social environment摘 要無(wú)聲告白是華裔女作家武綺詩(shī)耗時(shí)六年的處女作，滿載盛譽(yù)，她將華裔在美國(guó)面臨的種族和文化沖突拉到用一個(gè)家庭的屋檐下。此書(shū)一經(jīng)發(fā)表便得到社會(huì)的廣泛關(guān)注。該書(shū)講述了一個(gè)出生在跨族裔家庭的孩子莉迪亞因不堪承受父母過(guò)分的愛(ài)與期待而走向死亡的悲劇故事。小說(shuō)分為兩線，一條是家人猜測(cè)，一條是莉迪亞的自述。伍琦詩(shī)用深沉飽滿的文筆，描繪了一個(gè)在歷史洪流中企圖立身的家

8、庭，與一名為融入社會(huì)而竭盡全力的年輕女孩。本文共分為四個(gè)部分，第一部分將對(duì)作者與作品詳細(xì)的介紹。第二部分從人物自身出發(fā)，闡述了主人公性格和自我意識(shí)導(dǎo)致悲劇的內(nèi)部因素。第三部分將從家庭教育、家庭成員間關(guān)系、社會(huì)矛盾所構(gòu)成的外部因素來(lái)深入剖析莉迪亞悲劇的不可避免性。第四部分主要對(duì)本篇論文進(jìn)行總結(jié)。最終得出造成此悲劇發(fā)生的真正原因是家庭教育的失敗和社會(huì)環(huán)境的影響。筆者認(rèn)為人在成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程中應(yīng)擺脫他人眼中的自己找到真正的自己。關(guān)鍵詞：悲劇；自我意識(shí)；家庭教育；社會(huì)環(huán)境Contents TOC o 1-3 h z uHYPERLINK l _Toc478736137 1. Introduction 1HYP

9、ERLINK l _Toc478736138 2. The Internal Reasons of Lydias Tragedy 2HYPERLINK l _Toc478736139 2.1 The Character of Lydia 2HYPERLINK l _Toc478736140 2.2 The Self-consciousness of Lydia 4HYPERLINK l _Toc478736141 2.2.1 The Lack of Self-consciousness 4HYPERLINK l _Toc478736142 2.2.2Awakening of Her Self-

10、consciousness 5HYPERLINK l _Toc478736143 3. The External Reasons of Lydias Tragedy 6HYPERLINK l _Toc478736144 3.1 The Education of Family 6HYPERLINK l _Toc478736145 3.1.1 The Education of American Mother 7HYPERLINK l _Toc478736146 3.1.2 The Education of Chinese American Father 8HYPERLINK l _Toc47873

11、6147 3.2 The Relationship among Family Members 9HYPERLINK l _Toc478736148 3.3 Social Contradiction 11HYPERLINK l _Toc478736149 4. Conclusion 13HYPERLINK l _Toc478736150 Bibliography 14The Analysis of Lydias Tragedy of Everything I Never Told You1. IntroductionCeleste Ng is the second generation of i

12、mmigrants in Hong Kong, grew up in Pennsylvania and Ohio who engaged in writing for many years, and worked in various journals. Everything I Never Told You is the first full-length novel which Celeste Ng took six years to write. The experience of her immigration has given her a unique perspective to

13、 arrange the story carefully, and the style of writing was calm and reserved. Once published, this book is well received by the community, and becomes the dark horse of 2014 year of the most popular and powerful. It not only jumped to the New York Times best-selling book, but also accessed to the be

14、st book of the year 2014, which were selected by numerous media including the Amazon website of United States, National Public Radio best book of the year, Buzzed best fiction books, “Huffington post” and “Oprah” best books of the year 15 for the year to read literature and fiction books and many ot

15、her honors.The novel narrates a tragic story of a mixed race family in a small town in the United States in 1970s. Around the death of the second daughter, Lydia in this family, the author shows the surface of the harmonious family problems and secret buried in the hearts of everyone in this family

16、from different levels. In the novel, Lydias father, James wanted to integrate into the environment; her mother, Marilyn was eager to escape out of the ordinary people; her brother, Nath got away from family regardless of personal danger. Lydia bared the dual love of parents, little daughter Hannah e

17、xisted like air. Finally, the death would show all the problems, everyone had to face the cruel reality. Until the end of the novel, Lydias death was a mystery. How she died? And how should every living man continue to live after her death.The author abandons the identity of Chinese Americans and th

18、e identity of Native Americans as an outsider to explore the achievements of life, race, gender, family and personal path, giving full expression of the familys stress and burden which is caused by the society. She represented some valuable things that transcend nation and culture. That is the unive

19、rsal life experience of peoplefamily, love and loss, everyone can find their own shadow more or less from the characters in the book.Since the novel was published, many scholars have used different theories to explain the novel from different perspectives. However, most of the studies are focused on

20、 womens consciousness, parent-child cycle and the writing of marginal characters. This thesis is for the purpose of analyzing the causes of Lydias tragedy. Through the analysis of its internal and external factors to reflect the importance of family and social environment for personal growth, and th

21、e author hopes this will attract attention of everyone in society.2. The Internal Reasons of Lydias TragedyLydia is Lees second child. She is the only child in the family to inherit the mothers blue eyes, so she could get more attention and love from her parents. They thought that Lydia would be abl

22、e to fulfill their wishes and meet their expectations. Because of this special concern, Lydia depended on his parents from childhood. When she was five years old, the sudden disappearance of her mother made Lydia lose her balance and fear the life without her mother. Lydia made up his mind that if h

23、er mother came back, she would do everything her mother wanted. From then on, she lost herself and struggled in her mothers dream, becoming a person who her parents wanted to see.2.1 The Character of LydiaPersonality determines a persons later development. Lydia was a clever and sensible child, but

24、she was very independent. Lydias submissive personality made her could not find her own position in the highly anticipated environment of parents, which led to the tragedy. Some people have strong independence in life, vulnerable to the impact of the external environment, easy to go to extremes. “In

25、 order to get others warmth or psychological satisfaction, people will give up their own hobbies, even compromises. Therefore, this kind of psychology will gradually limit and hinder their initiative, independence and hobbies.When the relationship ends, there is an unusual sense of hopelessness or a

26、 sense of doom.”(Yang 93). This kind of performance from the view of psychological point is a dependent personality disorder. This symptom often came from a childhood experience. The main behavioral characteristics of dependent personality were obedience and attachment, and fear of separation. Lydia

27、 in the novel was a typical patient with dependent personality disorder. Her symptoms were absolute obedience to her mother and attachment to her brother. As a pearl in the palm of the parents, Lydia depended on his parents since she was young. After the disappearance of her mother, she began to hav

28、e nightmares every night and thought that her mothers departure was due to her failure to meet her expectations. So Lydia determined that she would meet every request of her mother and never let her mother down as long as her mother could go back. Lydia began the life against her will after her moth

29、er returning to the family. “Every night a small promise extracted from her mother: that she would be there in the morning. And in return, Lydia kept her own promise: she did everything her mother asked. ” (Wu 145-146).Lydia used her holidays to have lessons in exchange for her parents happiness, al

30、though she was not interested in those courses. As time went by, Lydia had to take more and more lessons, and her mothers increasing demands made Lydia unhappy. She knew clearly that she could not have a life apart from a doctor. Although Lydia had no desire for the life which was arranged by her mo

31、ther, she never said no, but chose to keep her promise to her mother. For the fathers expectations, Lydia had to meet her fathers request with numerous lies because she lost the opportunity to make friends when she was satisfied with her mother. And she never said anything about this to her parents.

32、 Even in each festival when her parents gave her a gift she did not like, she would endure the mood to accept it with a fake smile, and then put it aside. She knew that every gift was carried the expectations and love of her parents, which made her breathless. However Lydias submissive personality m

33、ade her accept these pressures again and again. Despite the inner struggle, cowardice made Lydia could not resist her mother. And let the irresistible pain swallow her already numb soul.Lydia was the universal center of the whole family and takes on the responsibility of uniting the whole family eve

34、ry day. She forced to carry out the dream of parents, repressed the bitter bubble constantly raised in the privacy of her hearts. Only her brother could give her some comforts when she was depressed. So she began to rely on her brother. She even hid the letter of admission of her brother in order to

35、 prevent his departure, and also deliberately played with Jack who was hated by her brother to express her dissatisfaction to his brother. Weakness and dependence had made her lose her mind. If Nath is the only life-saving straw of Lydia, she had lost the last support now. If Lydia was not depended

36、on her parents and her brother, but to exercise her independent living ability step by step, and now this was not going to be a big blow to her. “Something wobbled inside Lydia and tumbled into her chest with a clang.” (Wu167). Lydia, who had lost his support, could no longer stand the weight of his

37、 body. She fell into the abyss of tragedy under the heavy love of her parents.2.2 The Self-consciousness of LydiaSelf-consciousness refers to the individuals understanding of the state of mind and body, experience, and desire, and also the understanding of the relationship between them and their sur

38、roundings. It plays an important role in the formation and development of personality and affects the forming speed, nature, initiative and autonomy of personality.2.2.1 The Lack of Self-consciousnessThroughout all our lives, people will be rid of other peoples expectations, and find the true self.

39、Lydia had been living in his parents expectation, lacked of dominant self-awareness, so she couldnt understand herself clearly. The lack of self-consciousness of Lydia was caused by many factors. First of all, when Lydia was young the sudden disappearance of her mother brought spiritual injury to he

40、r. The development of Lydia self-consciousness was hindered under the influence of fear of losing the sense of family security, so she would try to satisfy when her parents raised a claim to her, and she knew nothing about the real needs of her heart. Secondly, Lydia didnt have any friends as the on

41、ly white girl in school. And her distinctive made her hard to reach the social environment. Only in the human social environment could a person grow and develop,and understand the world around them in a growing environment;at the same time they also have their own understanding. Lydia spent all his

42、time in school and family. Although her father wanted her to be able to integrate into the circle of friends, she didnt have a friend and cant be integrated in a normal social environment. With the growth of age, Lydia was still strange to the world around her, so that she was difficult to realize t

43、he role of the society and also could not give herself a clear positioning. Finally, the most important is the objective impact of the family. The family played a key role in the formation and development of her individual self-consciousness. “Parents satisfaction, education, interest, attitude and

44、way of dealing with children were significantly related to self-concept.” (Hattie 181-189). Lydia found that she could get hug and kiss from her mother when she answered the questions raised by her mother, so she begged to answer more questions. When her mother gave her advice, Lydia could find that

45、 her mother would hold her breath until she answered “yes”. Her mother would breathe again, and this restricted the formation of Lydias self-consciousness fundamentally. Lydia did not think about her real needs of heart, in addition to meeting the expectations of parents. If one cannot recognize one

46、s own needs, he would become a body without soul and at the mercy of other people. Lydia was an unconscious supporter and just a depositor of her parents dream. Her life was stressful and painful; an adolescent girl should have happiness, but she never had it. Lydia endured the pressure of her paren

47、ts and could not get rid of it since she was young.2.2.2Awakening of Her Self-consciousnessEach persons self-consciousness is not innate but formed gradually. When we make friends with other people, we develop self-consciousness which according to idea and evaluation from others. Lydia was the victi

48、m of unconsciousness and self-consciousness. She used to lack self-awareness and just wanted to play her part in the family to please her parents. Lydias self -consciousness began to come back to life when her brother who was the only spiritual pillar of her would leave for a new life. Lydia hid his

49、 brothers notice because she did not want to lose her spiritual sustenance. She had a close relation with Jack deliberately in order to revenge her brother and wanted to become a mean girl. When her mother presented the academic help to Lydia, she revolted it for the first time. “I told you, I dont

50、need your help.” (Wu 268). It was the first time that Lydia had cried angrily to her mother and this means she is starting to know what she needs; she did not want to cater her parents anymore. Lydia was eager to change after years of struggle, and she did not want to express her feelings falsely as

51、 she used to. When Lydia failed to pass the drivers license for the beginner, her father hugged her and comforted her but Lydia felt the weight of his body as a blanket, so she threw off his arm. Lydia pulled the necklace off immediately when Hannah wore it which was supposed to be a shackle Lydia t

52、hought to be. Every time she saw this necklace, her fathers voice always echoed in the ear, “Whenever you see it, dont forget what is really important”. (Wu 257). Lydia satisfied her father all the time; she had been experiencing the inner struggle, so she would never make Hanna follow in her footst

53、ep. And she came to realize that she was no longer able to bear the excessive love of her parents. Lydias self-awareness awakening thoroughly until she heard jacks words. “At least I dont let other people tell me what I want. I know who I am and what I want. What about you, Miss Lee? What do you wan

54、t? At least I dont let other people tell me what to do all the time. At least I am not afraid.” (Wu 266). Lydia wanted to answer but only to keep silence, and she realized that she was wrong thoroughly. And to re-examine her own lives and years of inner struggle, Lydia did not want to be the one who

55、 was living under others arrangement; she just wanted to listen to her heart and be true to herself. But it was too late that darkness had surrounded her already and licked up the light over her head bit by bit. Finally, Lydia sank into the lake; the tragedy took place in this family of five. Howeve

56、r, Lydias death was a rebirth for her or for the whole family.3. The External Reasons of Lydias TragedyIn addition to its own internal factors, Lydias tragedy cant be separated from the external environment factors. Lydias father was the second generation of Chinese immigrants, grew up in the United

57、 States. However, the racial discrimination was not eliminated in that era, so he was eager to integrate into the crowds. Lydias mother was a white girl with a lot of hope and ambitions; she wanted to be equal to men and to be different. This family combination in the era of the environment was part

58、icularly special. Lydias parents received education in the original family and their different experiences and pursuits in life determined the difference of their educational ideas. However, the imbalance between family members also made the existence of crisis in this seemingly happy family with th

59、e social environment at that time inevitably which led to the tragic ending of Lydia.3.1 The Education of Family“Family education is the earliest education in life, is the foundation of all education; parents are the childrens first teachers, but also are life-long teachers.” (Chen 152). Family education is an education which is the parent-child relationship centered with the life, which is more ass