Everything I Never Told You

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Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng explores family dynamics through a web of complexities to highlight each character. Specifically, throughout the novel, with the constant contrast of Nath and Jack, Nath never fully completes Maslow’s hierarchy of needs stemming from the lack of support from his parents and the cultural scene around him and demonstrates the universal theme of the pressure to fulfill society’s expectations shapes one’s motives, familial relations, and self-esteem. Universally, Nath’s experience of trying to live up to the presence of his sister is experienced by many. Nath serves as an example of how the pressure to meet society’s standards, or more specifically his parents, shaped his familial relations. The parent's ignorance of Nath when trying to cultivate Lydia is shown when Nath tries to engage in Marilyn and Lydia’s learning session of playing store, “When Nath plunked down a quarter and said, ‘Bet you can’t do that one, their mother shooed him away” (Ng 150). …show more content…
To a certain extent, one could imply that Nath is actively trying to achieve an expectation set by his mother by engaging in the learning game, showing his intelligence, yet the pressure of practically competing with his sister for attention belittles him. Undoubtedly, Nath’s low self-esteem and aggression can be attributed to the unfulfillment of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs through the physical presence of Lydia, but equally proven, Nath is constantly invalidated in the town culturally. Clearly, Nath does not complete the fifth tier of Maslow’s hierarchy, the fulfillment or realization of one's talents. When Nath is accepted into Harvard, his dad replies, “Not bad,” immediately after Lydia steals the attention by expressing that she is failing physics (Ng

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