J
James is disappointed and somewhat mad at Nath for James’ past and ethnicity is a huge burden
being like him as a child (page 91 - 92).
throughout the novel. We see how he hated his
childhood, never fitting in and being bookish, and
now he’s disappointed in his son for being like
him purely because of the fact he reminds him of
his childhood. At the end of the novel, James says
to himself to try and amend the rocky relationship
between him and Nath, to see Nath as Nath, and
not as a younger version of himself, a version he
hated so much.
C Lydia makes dozens of promises in order for her to
amend all the bad that was happening in her life
(page 275).
Lydia progresses as a character over the course of
the novel. We first know absolutely nothing about
her and why she had drowned in the river, but as
the novel goes on, we learn that Lydia had a lot of
childhood trauma, how she carried on her
shoulders her parents extreme expectations, how
she never really was a kid due to her mother. We
also learn that how she died was extremely tragic.
She had planned to fix everything wrong in her
life, and to do this she had to gain courage by
swimming across the lake, but she drowned doing
so. Her death was an accident.
F For now, when he opens his eyes at last, he focuses
on the dock, on Jack’s hand, on Hannah. From where
he floats, her upside-down face is right-side upm and
he dog-paddles toward her. He doesn’t want to dive
underwater and lose sight of her face.
I loved the ending of, “Everything I never told
you.” I loved the ending due to how realistic,
possible, and happy things turned out to be. It’s
ending wrapped up everything. How James’ affair
ended and Marilyn forgiving him, Marilyn’s
blindness and narrow-mindedness, Hannah finally
receiving love, and Nath’s and Jack’s feud ending.
I wouldn’t change a single thing.
E “Then an older girl - maybe 10 or 11 - shouted, “
C---k can’t find China!” and the other children
laughed” (page 90).
The setting influences the story, or rather the
characters, by being put in the mid or late 90’s and
having to deal with racism and stereotypes. It
influences it by the family in general never
seeming to fit it. James never could fit in, since
his family was from Asia, Nath experiencing the
same as a child, and Marilyn being treated like
glass and expected to know how to do chores.
M The family is stressed with the disappearance of
Lydia (pages 12-19).
This is an answer to M because of the way it
enhances the situation. With the author using 3rd
person perspective, you can see what the whole
family is thinking about with the disappearance of
Lydia. Everyone is thinking differently, with
Marilyn looking back at the old days with her,
James thinking about if the friendships she had
were real, Nath thinking if a kid named Jack had
anything to do with it, and Hannah reminiscing
with Lydia’s book. Everyone has their own
dilemma.
D “She will keep searching until she understands how
this could have happened, until she understands her
daughter completely” (page 120).
The secondary characters matter because the story
focuses on them and how they deal with the death
of Lydia. They are all their own characters with
lots of backstory and their own methods of
dealing with Lydia’s death. They also all have
their own lives and things to deal with, like
Hannah sneaking out, Marilyn’s determination to
find out what happened, James’ affair, and Nath’s
suspicion toward Jack.
K “It’s not until early Thursday morning, just after
dawn, that the police drag the lake and find [Lydia]
(page 24).
This part reminds me of my life and how you
never really know what’s going on with someone.
It’s almost identical with my experience, where
you can’t really tell what that person is thinking,
and what that person is doing, and what that
person might do next. There was an incident with
a boy I knew that fell into the same fate. He was
loved by the teachers, was a straight A student,
and seemed so confident with what he was doing
in life, but then he was hit by a train. I don’t know
if it was an accident, a suicide, or something else,
but I hope he rests in peace.
H Marilyn and James have a nice but kind of bumpy
and awkward conversation (page 33 - 35).
This is an answer to H because of the authenticity
of the conversation. Marilyn came to apologize to
James about nothing that was her fault, using it as
an excuse to get to know him more. James was
aloof at first, but then came out of his shell after
seeing Marilyn was genuinely just trying to get to
know him. The dialogue between the two showed
that Marilyn is smart and confident, and James is
questioning at first but a genuine guy.
B James and Marilyn get into a big argument about
James’ affair.
I believe the author’s intended audience is
families experiencing grief. Throughout this
whole story, you see how a family grieving looks
from an omnipotent perspective. You see how
stupid your actions can be when grieving and how
you’ll regret it later, but you also see the answer to
that grieving, which is time and the support of one
another, to work together to get through hard
times.
N James is having an affair with Lousia (page 118)
The central theme that is set throughout the entire
book would be secrecy. The author is saying how
secrecy benefits no one. She conveys this by
having the characters keep secrets to themselves
and not telling anyone else. I also believe that the
author didn’t put much dialogue into this book for
a reason. She instead, with fully knowing what
she was doing, put a lot more thoughts of the
characters than actual words, to also convey the
theme of secrecy throughout the entire book.