Abstract

There has been growing interests in studying feminism in recent years. Female self-realization, as an important element of feminism, however, hasn’t been paid much attention to. Everything I Never Told You, written by Celeste Ng, which is a New York Times bestseller, has discussed many profound topics, in which female self-realization is vitally significant. Set in 1970s America, the time background coincides with the breakout of the second-wave feminism. It tells of a story happened in an interracial family in Ohio. The mother Marilyn was a representative of 1970s’ women, struggling for self-realization. This paper will explore the external and internal reasons that lead to Marilyn’s defeat of self-realization by using some feminist theories of the second-wave feminism, which mainly are liberal feminism and Marxist feminism. The significance of this study includes three aspects. Firstly, this paper will bring a new interpretation of Everything I Never Told You, so people will be more familiar with this novel. Secondly, this paper tries to employ the theories of feminists to analyze the text, so it will not only enrich the research on this novel, but also enlarge the application of the theories of feminists in the literary field. Thirdly, this paper explores women’s self-realization in a male-dominated society, which intends to arouse women’s self-consciousness and help them treat themselves and other women with appropriate attitudes in modern society.

Keyword:  female self-realization; the second-wave feminism

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction

1.1 Celeste Ng and Everything I Never Told You

1.2 Literature Review

1.3 Thesis Statement

2. The second wave of feminism and female self-realization in 1970s

3.The development of Marilyn’s self-realization

3.1 Sprout of self-realization in Marilyn’s girlhood

3.2 The failure of Marilyn’s self-realization

3.2.1 The first period of failure in Marilyn’s self-realization

3.2.2 The second period of failure in Marilyn’s self-realization

3.2.3 The third period of failure in Marilyn’s self-realization

4. Conclusion

5. Reference