At the right time, a flap of a butterfly wing can create a hurricane. People would oversee the power of the insignificant flap, but the destruction it would cause would leave people shocked. This idea is also represented in the novel 'Everything I Never Told You' by talking about how even the smallest detail can impact the final ending. Celeste Ng sets the setting in Ohio, where a Chinese-American family lives. The community does not see nor treat them as normal Americans. Lydia, the favorite daughter of the family, chose to suicide, leaving the rest of the family crumbled. Throughout Lydia’s life, she made many sacrifices hoping to keep her family together to the point where she became overwhelmed with her hidden frustrations, which caused more harm than good.
The meaning Lydia derived from her experiences affected the decisions she made in the future. When her mom, Marilyn, came back after leaving her family for several months, Lydia decided to do “everything her mother wanted” just to ensure Marilyn would never leave again (Ng, 137). Lydia is willing to sacrifice her freedom to make her mom stay. This is important because what Lydia doesn’t realize is that this allowed Marilyn to be overly insistent on fulfilling her lost dream of becoming a doctor, which loses her daughter emotionally. Other people’s actions could impact Lydia’s way of thinking. During the present opening, Lydia receives a book from her father that teaches her how to “win friends” and “be popular” (Ng, 176). James obsesses about Lydia’s social life, wanting her to be just like any other teenager. The only effect of this action is further distancing Lydia from her father, who later accepts that she will never be the person her parents want her to be.
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Lydia’s own mistakes allowed her to see what impact she had had. Her brother Nath was there with Lydia when she needed comfort and attention. She realized that only her brother had “made it bearable” after Nath left the family to create a new life (Ng, 137). Lydia was extremely dependent on her older brother, she needed her brother’s support and comfort. Lydia drove Nath away because she was a burden to Nath. Now she realized that she could not lose him to college. All the influence Lydia has inflicted on other people adds up in the end. During Lydia’s last moments on the lake, she tells herself that “it will be alright” and jumps into the water, knowing that she can’t swim (Ng, 276). Lydia had an illusion of proving herself that she could survive on her own, but ended up killing herself. The effects of all her decisions led to this very moment when she died.
After countless efforts to keep the family together, the choices Lydia negatively impacted their relationships, resulting in her suicide and the family breaking apart. Her experiences described in the book concluded that every decision would influence the ending of the story. Even the smallest action, like the flap from a butterfly wing, could cause more damage than a hurricane to a person’s life.
Work Cited
- Ng, Celeste. Everything I Never Told You. Penguin Books, 2015.
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