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Analysis: We Need to Talk About Kevin

In: Social Issues

Submitted By wguadmin
Words 883
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“We Need to Talk About Kevin,” a novel written by Lionel Shriver about a boy who commits a Columbine at his high school. Written in the perspective of his mother, she reflects and analyzes starting from the point prior to Kevin's birth. She questions whether choices she made, how she felt about Kevin, actions that were taken, not taken, was the cause of her son killing his classmates. Or the possibility that Kevin was born with an unstable mindset. Eva, the mother, had a very successful career. She was the CEO and owner of a travel agency. Prior to having children, she traveled a lot and for months at a time. She married Franklin, who was a freelance photographer. They were a slightly older couple in their forties when they decided to have children. Eva loved her career; her life was her work, so why have kids when their relationship seems so peachy? “(She) was absolutely terrified of having children.” (pg. 32 WNTAK) The decision boiled down to having children was for the sake of having something to talk about. This was a huge indication that this couple should not have had children under such pretenses. Eva had Kevin, but did not have that bond that forms between mother and child. She described her pregnancy as “battling the idea of Kevin, the notion that (she) had been demoted from driver to vehicle, from householder to house.” (pg. 58 WNTAK) “Childbirth had left her unmoved.” (pg. 83 WNTAK) On another hand, Franklin embraced parenthood. In the father's eyes, Kevin was a normal and healthy boy. “The formation of a connection, especially a physical bond between parent and child” (pg. 104 LSD) did not occur with either parent. Eva and Franklin had parental role differences. Eva wanted to go back to her intense work schedule, but Franklin believed that her place was at home with Kevin even though Eva made more financially. In the early stages of childhood,

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