Everything I Never Told You is an excellent work which fills in the blank of Chinese American writers in European and American mainstream literature. In this thesis

the author aims to analyze the development and function of Lydia’s self-consciousness systematically and logically and the role of self-consciousness in the growth process of teenagers. This thesis attempts to analyze Lydia’s self-consciousness in Everything I Never Told You through the ways of literature review

explication

comparison

and analysis. Self-consciousness is one of the threads of the whole book

and Lydia is the most profound and moving embodiment in the process of self-consciousness from confusion to awakening. Lydia

unable to bear the hope and pressure her parents put on her

finally decided not to live for the expectations and ideas of others

but to listen to her own ideas

and to live for herself. This thesis will analyze the formation of Lydia’s tragedy from the perspective of self-consciousness

combined with the social environment and characters around her.