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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in We Need to Talk About Kevin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Guilt and Accountability
Marriage, Family, and Social Norms
Nature vs. Nurture
Idealism vs. Reality
Forgiveness and Empathy
Summary
Analysis
Eva hopes to live in an old, wooden, historic house with many levels and rooms. She doesn’t see the house Franklin buys before they move in. As soon as they pull into the driveway, she is disappointed. The house is a modern, open ranch house made of glass and brick. When she enters the house, Eva thinks that it has “nowhere to hide.” The house’s previous owners designed it themselves, and the house is fairly new. Eva wonders why the previous owners left it so soon. Franklin explains that the couple divorced. When he reassures her that it’s not as though the house causes couples to divorce, Eva intuits that Franklin thinks the two of them are drifting apart. She is bewildered not that he has noticed they are drifting apart but is ignoring it.
Eva’s comment that the house has “nowhere to hide” foreshadows the danger and disaster that will eventually unfold there. Franklin ignores the rift in his marriage just as he tends to ignore many other issues in his life. Franklin is so set on having a perfect American family that he prefers to ignore any threat to this fantasy. But ignoring the issues in his relationship only contributes to the collapse of his family.
Themes
Franklin also seems to ignore the house’s ugly qualities, and Eva thinks that he has a particular talent for ignoring the bad parts of life. She considers this trait of Franklins to be part optimism and part delusion. Eva compares Franklin to his parents, who seem to live exclusively in the physical, material world—they are skilled cooks but don’t eat much, and they have quite a few books but don’t read. They also don’t understand sad movies or art that isn’t aesthetically pleasing. Later, when Franklin’s parents find out about Kevin’s murders, they can’t process it because it’s so irrational. Eva considers that despite Franklin’s parents’ inability to understand Kevin, Kevin is very similar to Franklin’s parents. Like them, Kevin has never seen the point of leisure. The difference between them, however, is that Kevin doesn’t see the point in doing anything at all.
Family and ancestry play a major part in Eva’s contemplation of how Kevin turns out the way he does. She later realizes that if she is responsible for Kevin’s actions, then her own mother is responsible for Eva’s actions, and so by extension she is responsible for Kevin’s actions, too. Eva notices similarities between Kevin and Franklin’s grandparents, suggesting that some of Kevin’s personality traits may have been passed down from them. A complex mix of genetics and experiences all factor into Kevin’s personality and actions.
Themes
Eva, in the present, recalls visiting Franklin’s parents six weeks after Kevin’s murders. Franklin’s mom Gladys opens the door, and since Franklin isn’t there and Eva is no longer her daughter in law, Gladys doesn’t know how to talk to her. Franklin’s father has lost a lot of weight, and he and Gladys both seem lost and depressed. They barely speak. Eva talks to them about the murders. She tells them that she went to a funeral of one boy Kevin murdered, Denny. Eva talked to Denny’s mother after he was killed, and Denny’s mother expressed that Eva was worse off than anyone else. At the funeral, Eva accidentally said “I’m so sorry for my loss.”
It's still not clear exactly why Franklin and Eva are no longer together, but Franklin’s parents appear deeply disturbed when Eva visits them. Denny’s mother treats Eva with compassion even though Eva’s son murdered Denny, which is a sharp contrast to how Mary Woolford treats Eva. The difference is that Denny’s mother empathizes with Eva’s personal loss while Mary Woolford doesn’t seem to consider it.
Themes
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Franklin’s parents stare blankly as Eva talks. When she tells them that she hired a good lawyer, they inquire if Eva wants Kevin to be punished for his crime. Eva responds that she wishes she were never born herself. She adds that it’s impossible to punish Kevin, because he’s indifferent to everything. Gladys asks how Eva feels about the possibility of Kevin getting the death penalty. Eva replies that she sometimes hopes he does get the death penalty. Gladys urges Eva not to blame herself, and Eva explains that she never liked Kevin, though she loved him, and that she thinks this fact affected him deeply. Franklin’s parents later recite everything Eva says in court.
Even though Gladys tells Eva not to blame herself, neither of Franklin’s parents acts warmly toward Eva. The fact that they tell the court everything Eva said suggests that they may blame Eva on some level for Kevin’s murders. Eva tells them that she loved Kevin, but at other points in the novel Eva isn’t sure if she ever did.
Themes
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