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Eggs
When Lydia dies she is 16, right in the middle of the charged transitional phase between childhood and adulthood. To some extent, Lydia is still a young girl with an irrationally childlike way of thinking and little experience of adult matters. At the same time, she is also being introduced to activities associated with the loss of innocence during adolescence, such as smoking and having sex. This contrast of innocence and maturity is symbolized in Lydia’s perfume, which is called “Baby Soft.” As perfume, it is designed to make Lydia more attractive, and thus it is inherently linked to sexuality. On the other hand, the perfume’s name suggests purity and infancy. The combination of these two conflicting ideas illustrates the way in which teenage girls are placed under pressure to be simultaneously “innocent” and sexy, and that for many 16-year-olds, the binary between innocence and maturity becomes confusingly blurred.
Lydia’s “Baby Soft” Perfume Quotes in Everything I Never Told You
The Everything I Never Told You quotes below all refer to the symbol of Lydia’s “Baby Soft” Perfume. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Upstairs, Marilyn opens her daughter's door and sees the bed unslept in: neat hospital corners still pleated beneath the comforter, pillow still fluffed and convex. Nothing seems out of place. Mustard-colored corduroys tangled on the floor, a single rainbow-striped sock. A row of science fair ribbons on
the wall, a postcard of Einstein. Lydia's duffel bag crumpled on the floor of the closet. Lydia's green book bag slouched against her desk. Lydia's bottle of Baby Soft atop the dresser, a sweet, powdery, loved-baby scent still in the air. But no Lydia.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Lydia’s “Baby Soft” Perfume Symbol Timeline in Everything I Never Told You
The timeline below shows where the symbol Lydia’s “Baby Soft” Perfume appears in Everything I Never Told You. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...with their parents without their parents realizing. Nath watches one of the officers touch Lydia’s “Baby Soft” perfume “as if cupping a child’s head.” The officers advise them that most teenage girls come...
(full context)
Chapter 3
...but can’t. Eventually, she walks into Lydia’s room, which still smells of her—not of the Baby Soft perfume or the cigarettes Lydia used to claim Karen smoked, but of Lydia herself.
(full context)
Chapter 7
...including Lydia. At 15, Lydia wears lipstick to school to seem grown up, but her Baby Soft perfume means she still smells like a little girl. Over the years, Nath has felt inextricably...
(full context)
