EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD

YOU ,CELESTE NG
CHARACTERS

LYDIA LEE :Lydia is the middle daughter of James and Marilyn. At the beginning of the
book, she has just died at the age of 16; after a few days, her body is discovered at the
bottom of a nearby lake, and the rest of the narrative describes her family’s unfolding
understanding of the cause of her death. To her parents, Lydia is docile and easy to
please. Marilyn believes she wants to be a doctor and James thinks she has a close
group of girlfriends—in reality, Lydia is a loner who struggles in her classes. She is the
only non-white girl in her school, although she has inherited her mother’s blue eyes.
Her only real friend is Jack Wolff, with whom she skips school and smokes cigarettes
and who she (unsuccessfully) tries to persuade to have sex with her. Lydia has a close
(if tormented) relationship with her older brother, Nath; once, Nath almost drowned
her by pushing her into the lake, and when Nath gets into Harvard Lydia hides his
acceptance letter. Officer Fiske ultimately rules Lydia’s death a suicide, though it is
difficult to determine whether Lydia intended to die. Rowing out into the lake, she tells
herself that she intends to return to the shore, yet she jumps in knowing that she can’t
swim.

MARILYN LEE: Marilyn is the daughter of Doris Walker and was born and raised in
Virginia. Growing up, Marilyn is disdainful of her mother’s perfect housewife
performance and her vocation as a home economics teacher. She dreams of becoming
a doctor and she excels in her studies at Radcliffe (the women’s college within Harvard
University), where she meets James. On discovering that she is pregnant with Nath,
Marilyn and James quickly marry, and the family moves to Middlewood, Ohio, where
James has been given a professorial position. After giving birth to Nath and Lydia,
Marilyn becomes increasingly restless and dissatisfied with her life. When Marilyn
learns that her neighbour Janet Wolff is a doctor, Marilyn abandons her family to finish
her undergraduate degree in Toledo, with the intention of finally realizing her dream
of attending medical school. However, in Toledo Marilyn discovers she is pregnant with
Hannah, and she decides to return home. Marilyn ultimately projects her obsession
with becoming a doctor onto Lydia, aggressively encouraging her daughter to enroll in
advanced science courses. After Lydia’s death, Marilyn is forced to reckon with the fact
that she did not understand her daughter as well as she thought.

JAMES LEE: James is the son of Chinese immigrants. Before their deaths, both of his
parents worked in the cafeteria of Lloyd Academy, a prestigious prep school which
James attended for free after passing the entrance exam. Although James was born in
the United States, he never feels like he fits into American society. As an
undergraduate and then graduate student in the history department at Harvard, he
doesn’t have any friends. The subject of his research, cowboys, is rather ironic,
considering that he feels racially marginalized and excluded from American culture. At
the time James meets Marilyn, he is hoping to be hired as an assistant professor in the
Harvard history department; despite being the best graduate student, James is
rejected from the position, likely because of his race and social unpopularity. James’
consistent experience of racism and isolation affects his career, family, and personal
happiness. While Marilyn relentlessly pressures Lydia to become a doctor, James
projects his own deepest insecurities onto Lydia in the form of pressuring her to be
popular at school.

NATHAN LEE: Nath (whose full name is Nathan) is the eldest son of James and Marilyn.
Academically gifted, he enjoys studying and dreams of a career that involves outer
space. Shortly before Lydia’s death, he is admitted to Harvard and is excited about the
prospect of escaping his hometown and family. Nath is convinced that his neighbor
Jack Wolff is responsible for Lydia’s death; he questions Jack aggressively and punches
him at the end of the novel before being pushed by Hannah into the lake. He remains
unaware that Jack had no romantic interest in Lydia and is secretly in love with Nath
himself.

HANNAH LEE: Hannah is James and Marilyn’s youngest daughter. She is extremely
quiet, so much so that sometimes her family forgets that she exists. She has a habit of
stealing “treasures” that belong to members of her family and hiding them around the
house. Although she doesn’t fully understand the events that take place around her,
she is highly perceptive and is arguably the moral center of the novel.

DORIS WALKER: Doris Walker is Marilyn’s mother. Doris’ unnamed husband leaves her
when Marilyn is three, yet she continues to perform the role of a perfect housewife,
wearing makeup at all times and cooking elaborate meals and desserts. She is a home
economics teacher at Marilyn’s high school and is obsessed with the Betty Crocker
cookbook. When she meets James at his and Marilyn’s wedding, she tells Marilyn not
to marry him because he is Chinese; after this point, she and her daughter never see
each other again. After Doris dies, Marilyn notes that Doris’ house bears no trace of
Doris’ existence.

JACK WOLFF: Jack Wolff is a boy who lives on the same street as the Lee family. He has
a reputation for taking the virginity of teenage girls, and Nath worries about the fact
that he and Lydia spend time together. After Lydia’s death, Nath is convinced that Jack
is somehow to blame; in reality, though, Jack is Lydia’s only real friend and he is
secretly in love with Nath.

OFFICER FISKE: Officer Fiske is the police officer charged with investigating Lydia’s
death. He is fair and patient with the Lee family, though he ultimately ignores the
beliefs of both Marilyn and Nath and rules Lydia’s death a suicide. When Nath drinks
so much whisky that he throws up, Fiske is kind to him and brings him safely home.

SYMBOLS