Societal Expectations In 'Everything I Never Told You'

Calliope, Bruce Professor DePesa American Literature and Composition 5 June 2024 Societal Expectations and Character Behavior How can Societal expectations affect the behavior of characters? In the novel Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, the effects of societal expectations are reflected through the behavior of a 1970s housewife and Asian-American college professor. Similar effects on behaviors are seen in characters in The Crucible, as Puritan women are convicted in the 1692 witch trials due to societal expectations. Additionally, the painting series “Course of an Empire” by Thomas Cole reflects societal expectations through the depicted rise and fall of a sophisticated society. The pressure societal expectations exact on characters
These pieces of literature therefore both contain fear caused by desires to conform, as seen with James, and a need to be safe, as seen with Tituba and Abby, because of the pressures of societal expectations. Additionally, the pressure societal expectations exert creates a hierarchy. Ng represents the hierarchy of 1970s American society throughout her novel, in which intersectionality allows for both Marilyn, who is white but a woman, and James, who is a man but Chinese to experience the effects of social pressures. Marilyn’s social standing as a woman is often illuminated through how she is expected to serve her husband, not dissimilar to Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, who serves as an obedient housewife to her husband John Proctor. Ng places emphasis on Marilyn’s role as a housewife with notes left by Marilyn’s mother in her cookbook, one of which reads “The man you marry will know the way he likes his eggs [...] it behooves a good wife to know how to make an egg behave in six basic ways.” (pg. 83. This is equatable to Miller’s writing of Elizabeth Proctor serving her husband in the