Silent confession-Everyone has a Tower of Babel in his heart.

? Everyone has something in his heart that he can't tell others and hides a part of himself. "Everything I never told you" and "silent confession" are things that "I" want to tell you, but I can't say.

? The story begins with "Lydia is dead, but they don't know yet", setting suspense, focusing on the social status quo such as son preference, racial discrimination and family expectations with a heavy burden, and telling it from different angles until the truth comes out, with an unexpected and plausible ending.

? Lydia's family is an ordinary family living in the United States, saying ordinary is not ordinary. Mother Marilyn was born in an American family. She is very talented and has excellent grades in science. She wanted to be a doctor, different from others, and didn't want to make a living like her mother, although the society at that time was discriminatory and unfair to women's employment. His father, James, was born in an immigrant family and his family was poor. Even though he grew up in America, studied in America and even taught in American universities, he never integrated into society. He seems to be in all walks of life. In this way, the two men came together and established a family, but fate did not meet their expectations, but became more and more entangled and almost suffocated. They gave birth to three children, the eldest son Ness, the eldest daughter Lydia and the youngest daughter Hannah. Only the eldest daughter Lydia inherited her mother's blue eyes, so she was loved and expected, thus sowing the seeds of tragedy.

Lydia's family is not only an ordinary family, but also a twisted family. Mother is eager to be different, to be free and successful, and father is eager to integrate into American society and become one of them. They pinned all their unfulfilled expectations on their daughter Lydia and had no choice. The other two children, Ness and Hannah, are often ignored, and Hannah even tries to weaken her sense of existence to avoid her parents' anger. They strive to live in American society, gain status and attention, and live like normal American families, but in reality they are severely whipped by people. Life is not as good as their wishes, and their children are still repeating their tragedies, without friends, unable to integrate and not recognized.

? Everyone in the family wants to escape from this suffocating life. Mother Marilyn ran away from home and wanted to start over. In order to get rid of mental stress, his father James had an affair with his colleague Louis. His son Ness was admitted to Harvard and successfully left home. And daughter Lydia chose the heaviest way, sank to the bottom of the lake and left forever. Lydia's death, like a thunder, woke up all the paralyzed people in the family and made them face up to the reality and realize the abnormality of this family. Although it is an irreparable tragedy, it is the most thorough and sober, saving everyone who is struggling on the cliff of despair with the power of grief.

What killed her? What killed them? It is pressure, discrimination, inadaptability and despair of life. Although Lydia died, she was most relieved to say goodbye to the world that filled her with despair. It is the living who are struggling. The great oppression of life, coupled with the unexpected death of her daughter, has torn this crumbling family apart. When I lost the belief that I had always supported, I turned around and thought about it slowly, only to suddenly find that I missed so many beautiful things along the way. Lydia's departure dealt a heavy blow to the family, and also gave it hope and strength to face life again.

? "I want to tell you everything that will happen in the future, he thought." If they had realized that they should not impose their expectations on others, perhaps Lydia's tragedy could have been avoided. If American society treated women and immigrants equally, perhaps the tragedies of Marilyn and James could be avoided. But in reality, there are not so many ifs. Once you make a mistake, the chances of choosing again in the future are too slim. What we can do is to try to get rid of other people's expectations and find our true self.