Based on Foucault's power discourse theory, combining the historical background with the textual study of Everything I Never Told …show more content…
In the novel, Middlewood is a small panopticon under the control of the ubiquitous power net, and Lee's family are all prisoners living in it. Through the exclusion procedures of prohibition, distinction and repulsion, and the contradiction of truth and falsehood, the dominant positions of patriarchal discourse, Ethnocentric discourse and parental discourse are thus formed. Living under the control and discipline of the dominant discourses, females are confined at home to take care of the family following the rules and norms set by patriarchal discourse, Chinese Americans are discriminated and prejudiced under the observation of the white supremacy, while children are transformed into docile bodies lacking diversity and creativity. However,