The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You

Ding Shihua

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11

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The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You

Ding Shihua

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 8, Issue 1)

Received: 19 December 2019 Accepted: 16 January 2020 Published: 31 January 2020

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Abstract

“Everything I Never Told You” is a grievous observation of identity crisis that the Lees, an interracial family, are subjected to. Being an essential part of human’s life, identity is often used by people to find their places and constitute relationships among members of the society. People are inherently uncertain about their own identities because it is not only a self-conception existing in each individual, but also a reflected image in the eyes of "others". James Lee rejects some defining parts of himself and makes every effort to construct a self-deceptive identity as he struggles to fix into the mainstream of the United States, but only to obscure the boundary between “self” and “others” and be plagued by his identity crisis. Awareness of the threat to personal identity is not confined to the Lees, but manifests itself at all levels of the population. The study makes serious observation to the mental crisis and social predicament other Chinese Americans like James are facing and further explores the underlying causes of their identity crisis and anxiety. In the binary or mixed cultures, since people can’t always gain recognition from the target society by changing roles or by subjective self-categorization, the change of personal identity ultimately depends on the increased status of the group as a whole.

Published in	International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 8, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11
Page(s)	1-5
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Identity Anxiety, Identity Recognition, Cognitive Context, Abjection

References

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[2]	Li Hongyan. Anxious Identities in Gish Jen’s novels [D]. Suzhou: Suzhou University, 2011: 11.
[3]	Alain De Botton. Status Anxiety. [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2007: 7, 9.
[4]	Celeste Ng. Everything I Never Told You [M]. London: Brown Book Group, 2015: 45, 58, 54, 48, 197, 96, 112.
[5]	Anna M. Kallschmidt. Are lower social class origins stigmatized at work? A qualitative study of social class concealment and disclosure among White men employees who experienced upward mobility [J]. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2018: 1-2.
[6]	Le Daiyun. Cultural Transmission and Cultural Image [M]. Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1999: 332.
[7]	Chen Jing. Class Mobility and Economic Mobility---A Case Study of The Great Gatsby [J]. Masterpieces Review, 2018: 52.
[8]	Charles Taylor. Thinking and Living Deep Diversity [M]. Lanham: Rowman＆Littlefield, 2002: 200.
[9]	Zhang Dongmei. Secrets I Have Never Told You: On Racial and Gender Discrimination in Everything I Never Told You [J]. Chinese Literature, 2018 (145): 62-63.
[10]	Yangjun. Anxiety Study in Western Philosophy and Psychology [M]. Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2013: 34.
[11]	Michael W. Kraus，Americans overestimate social class mobility [J]. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2015: 102.
[12]	Christiwa Julia, Zhangxinmu. Pouvoirs de I'horreur essai sur I'abjection [M]. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2018: 22, 43.
[13]	Stuart Hall. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices [M]. SAGE, 2013: 44.
[14]	Yu Bin. The National Identity Crisis of the International Migration and Mechanism of Ethnic Identity Politics [J]. Ethnic Studies, 2013 (5): 3.
[15]	Zeng Siyi. Identity Anxiety and Identity Recognition-On Notes from Underground [J]. Russian Literature, 2017: 2.

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APA Style

Ding Shihua. (2020). The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 8(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11

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Ding Shihua. The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2020, 8(1), 1-5. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11

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AMA Style

Ding Shihua. The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You. Int J Lit Arts. 2020;8(1):1-5. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11,
  author = {Ding Shihua},
  title = {The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {8},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-5},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20200801.11},
  abstract = {“Everything I Never Told You” is a grievous observation of identity crisis that the Lees, an interracial family, are subjected to. Being an essential part of human’s life, identity is often used by people to find their places and constitute relationships among members of the society. People are inherently uncertain about their own identities because it is not only a self-conception existing in each individual, but also a reflected image in the eyes of "others". James Lee rejects some defining parts of himself and makes every effort to construct a self-deceptive identity as he struggles to fix into the mainstream of the United States, but only to obscure the boundary between “self” and “others” and be plagued by his identity crisis. Awareness of the threat to personal identity is not confined to the Lees, but manifests itself at all levels of the population. The study makes serious observation to the mental crisis and social predicament other Chinese Americans like James are facing and further explores the underlying causes of their identity crisis and anxiety. In the binary or mixed cultures, since people can’t always gain recognition from the target society by changing roles or by subjective self-categorization, the change of personal identity ultimately depends on the increased status of the group as a whole.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You
AU  - Ding Shihua
Y1  - 2020/01/31
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 1
EP  - 5
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11
AB  - “Everything I Never Told You” is a grievous observation of identity crisis that the Lees, an interracial family, are subjected to. Being an essential part of human’s life, identity is often used by people to find their places and constitute relationships among members of the society. People are inherently uncertain about their own identities because it is not only a self-conception existing in each individual, but also a reflected image in the eyes of "others". James Lee rejects some defining parts of himself and makes every effort to construct a self-deceptive identity as he struggles to fix into the mainstream of the United States, but only to obscure the boundary between “self” and “others” and be plagued by his identity crisis. Awareness of the threat to personal identity is not confined to the Lees, but manifests itself at all levels of the population. The study makes serious observation to the mental crisis and social predicament other Chinese Americans like James are facing and further explores the underlying causes of their identity crisis and anxiety. In the binary or mixed cultures, since people can’t always gain recognition from the target society by changing roles or by subjective self-categorization, the change of personal identity ultimately depends on the increased status of the group as a whole.
VL  - 8
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Author Information

Ding Shihua

School of English Language and Culture, Xiamen University Kan Kah Kee College, Zhangzhou, China

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Ding Shihua. (2020). The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 8(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11

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ACS Style

Ding Shihua. The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2020, 8(1), 1-5. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11

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AMA Style

Ding Shihua. The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You. Int J Lit Arts. 2020;8(1):1-5. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11,
  author = {Ding Shihua},
  title = {The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {8},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-5},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20200801.11},
  abstract = {“Everything I Never Told You” is a grievous observation of identity crisis that the Lees, an interracial family, are subjected to. Being an essential part of human’s life, identity is often used by people to find their places and constitute relationships among members of the society. People are inherently uncertain about their own identities because it is not only a self-conception existing in each individual, but also a reflected image in the eyes of "others". James Lee rejects some defining parts of himself and makes every effort to construct a self-deceptive identity as he struggles to fix into the mainstream of the United States, but only to obscure the boundary between “self” and “others” and be plagued by his identity crisis. Awareness of the threat to personal identity is not confined to the Lees, but manifests itself at all levels of the population. The study makes serious observation to the mental crisis and social predicament other Chinese Americans like James are facing and further explores the underlying causes of their identity crisis and anxiety. In the binary or mixed cultures, since people can’t always gain recognition from the target society by changing roles or by subjective self-categorization, the change of personal identity ultimately depends on the increased status of the group as a whole.},
 year = {2020}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Identity Reconstruction of James in Everything I Never Told You
AU  - Ding Shihua
Y1  - 2020/01/31
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 1
EP  - 5
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200801.11
AB  - “Everything I Never Told You” is a grievous observation of identity crisis that the Lees, an interracial family, are subjected to. Being an essential part of human’s life, identity is often used by people to find their places and constitute relationships among members of the society. People are inherently uncertain about their own identities because it is not only a self-conception existing in each individual, but also a reflected image in the eyes of "others". James Lee rejects some defining parts of himself and makes every effort to construct a self-deceptive identity as he struggles to fix into the mainstream of the United States, but only to obscure the boundary between “self” and “others” and be plagued by his identity crisis. Awareness of the threat to personal identity is not confined to the Lees, but manifests itself at all levels of the population. The study makes serious observation to the mental crisis and social predicament other Chinese Americans like James are facing and further explores the underlying causes of their identity crisis and anxiety. In the binary or mixed cultures, since people can’t always gain recognition from the target society by changing roles or by subjective self-categorization, the change of personal identity ultimately depends on the increased status of the group as a whole.
VL  - 8
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download