Essay, Everything i never told you

A lot of children does everything in their power to make sure that they get their parents approval, as they will do everything to make sure their parents are happy. When the parents were young they all wanted to do something e.g be a ballet dancer, professional football player etc. but as we all know not everyone can be a professional football player so several parents live their lives through their children. We see this in the novel “Everything I never told you” by Celeste Ng written in 2014. In where a mother is trying to live her wanted life through her daughter as she couldn’t herself because she got pregnant. With the many themes in this novel, the one that stands out the most is parental ambitions & failures. Marilyn who is the mother in this novel didn’t get to live out her dreams, she gives her mother the blame due to the fact that her mother wanted her to be a housewife. Marilyn wants her daughter to have a different life. She wants to raise her daughter in a way so Lydia knows that she can do everything she wants. However, instead of doing this, she pushes her own dreams on Lydia. But when Marilyn comes home, and her daughter tells her, that she lost her cookbook, the only thing left after Marilyn’s mother’s death, Marilyn reads it as a sign that her daughter should not have the same childhood as her. Her daughter, Lydia, is afraid that their mother will leave her brother again, and she’s willing to do absolutely everything for her to stay home with them. When her mother starts asking questions about mathematics, Lydia sees a way for her to get her mother to stay with them. Every time she answers a question correctly her mother smiles, so Lydia starts begging for more questions even though she doesn’t have an interest in the subject, just so she can keep her mother happy and not have her leave them again. “Whenever her mother stopped, she asked for more, which made her mother glow, as if Lydia had flicked on a light.” ?(p. 150, l. 3-5) “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.” (p. 149, l. 25-28) Lydia is the eldest child of Marilyn and James Lee. She is a flat/two-dimensional character since we don't see her change throughout the story. She is obedient because she doesn’t resist when her mother asks her questions about math. Instead, Lydia asks for more questions to answer, when she answers and it makes her mother happy, she becomes happy and certain that her mother won’t leave. After that, she begins to show and act an interest in mathematics due to the fact that it’s a way for her mother to stay.