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Chapter 13: January 6, 2001
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 goes to visit Kevin in prison. In the waiting room, Eva notices a young Black woman and assumes the woman is a mother, too. Black women in the prison’s waiting room always seem calm and resigned, whereas white women seem anxious and accusatory. Eva thinks this is because white people feel entitled to pleasant lives. Eva also notes that Black people always seem very patient. The woman in the waiting room asks Eva for a dollar for the vending machine, and the women begin to chat.
Eva is quick to accuse others of being entitled, but she doesn’t seem to be very aware of her own entitlement (she is white and American). She often blames and criticizes others, but she struggles to recognize her own selfishness.
Themes
Eva reveals that Kevin is there for murder, and the woman quickly realizes who he is. She asks Eva why Kevin did it. Everyone asks Eva this question, and she is tired of it. The burden of figuring out the motivation behind Kevin’s actions is too much to bear. In the prison waiting room, Eva replies that she wasn’t a good mother, so it’s probably her fault. The woman says that if that’s true, then Eva can blame her mother, who can blame her mother, and so on. Eva doesn’t understand—she feels responsible for Kevin. The woman tells Eva that people always blame a child’s mother for the child’s mistakes. People don’t blame fathers or consider that a child is just inherently flawed. The woman says that Eva is trying her best and tells her that the murders aren’t her fault. She holds Eva’s hand, and Eva cries.
Eva is moved by the woman’s words because the woman seems to understand, and, in a way, forgive Eva. Eva seeks forgiveness from the public and from Franklin because the burden of her guilt is difficult to deal with. Most of the public hates Eva, blaming her Kevin’s murders, but the woman Eva meets in the waiting room is able to empathize with Eva and forgive her.
Themes
Later, Eva is embarrassed that she revealed her identity to the woman in the waiting room. She did so because she is lonely and has no one to talk to, and she knew she could draw the woman into conversation. Eva used to impress people through her work and her travel, but now her identity is reduced to being Kevin’s mother. She recognizes that she told the woman in the waiting room who she was for attention, which is the same reason Kevin committed his murders.
As she reflects throughout the novel, Eva realizes more and more how similar she and Kevin are. Just as they both seek out excitement and novelty, they both also seek attention. When Kevin is young, Eva looks to him to provide her with affection and love (she admits earlier that she always wanted Kevin to be proud of her), but in turn she deprives Kevin of those very things.
Themes
There is no dress code at Claverack, Kevin’s prison. Kevin wears clothes that are so small they barely fit, which he started doing when he was 14. Kevin’s tiny clothes defy the present 1990s street style, which favors baggy clothes. Eva considers that Kevin dresses this way because he’s stuck in childhood somehow, though he didn’t seem to enjoy his childhood. Wearing small clothes makes Kevin look bigger, and his clothes are so tight that they’re revealing in a sexual way. His clothing makes him look uncomfortable, and it also makes people around him uncomfortable. Eva thinks this is intentional.
It doesn’t occur to Eva that Kevin may be stuck in childhood precisely because he didn’t enjoy it—perhaps Kevin is unable to develop into a healthy adult because he never received the nourishment he needed to grow out of childhood. Eva may be correct, however, that Kevin wears tight clothes simply because he wants to make others uncomfortable. Eva may sometimes unjustly accuse Kevin of malice, but it is also clear that Kevin does often try to hurt and inconvenience others, even if he does so to deflect his own internalized hurt.
Themes
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When Eva visits Kevin this time, Kevin’s style and mannerisms seem vaguely effeminate. The two of them never have anything to talk about, and Kevin doesn’t mind sitting in silence. Eva asks Kevin if he blames her for what happened, and he asks why Eva should get credit for his murders. She asks why Kevin refused to use the toilet until he was six, and Kevin responds by mocking Franklin and calling him an “asshole.” Eva snaps at him angrily. She is starting to notice how Kevin resembles Franklin, and she hates it.
It's not clear if Kevin truly is proud of the murders or if he just doesn’t want to show remorse and vulnerability. When Kevin was younger, Eva resented how he seemed to favor Franklin over her, but now it angers her to hear Kevin disrespect Franklin. This suggests that Kevin’s relationship to Franklin changed over time.
Themes
Eva asks Kevin if he remembers how he finally started to use the bathroom, and he says that he does. He touches a scar on his arm. Kevin asks why Eva kept the ink-covered maps up in her study for years. She says that it was to remind herself of how badly Kevin treated her—that way, she wouldn’t start to think she was imagining it. Kevin touches the scar on his arm again and replies that he knows what she means.
Kevin seems to imply that Eva caused the scar on his arm. Eva seems to imply that Kevin intentionally treated her poorly, failing to consider that he may have just been difficult to raise through no fault of his own. Kevin, after all, is not even six years old when he sprays ink in Eva’s study. Eva feels like a victim in her relationship to Kevin, even when he is a young child, and she is an adult. She expects too much from him, and she doesn’t acknowledge how big a role she played in shaping his behavior during his critical formative years.
Themes
