Published Article

“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 fit 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.