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Chapter 15: January 17, 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
After Eva throws Kevin across the room, she goes to him and sees that his arm is bleeding and that the bone is protruding. She immediately apologizes, but she secretly feels pleased to have hurt him. Still, Eva tries to be a good mother. She hugs Kevin and tells him she loves him every day, but she feels like her actions are never aligned with her true feelings. Throwing him made her feel true to herself, and closer to Kevin. She thinks that love is closely related to hatred. Kevin doesn’t cry—in fact, he seems almost to smile. Eva and Kevin go to the ER, and Kevin doesn’t let Eva in to see the doctor with him. Eva is terrified that he will tell someone what happened, but he doesn’t. Kevin has surgery, and he and Eva go home. Eva apologizes again, and Kevin doesn’t respond.
There are many factors that contribute to Kevin’s later crime, but at this point the correlation between Eva’s actions and Kevin’s personality is very clear. Even though Eva doesn’t like being around Kevin, it’s shocking that she feels pleasure when she sees her son’s broken bone protruding from his arm. It’s not a coincidence that Eva and Kevin both find satisfaction in others’ suffering. Perhaps Kevin inherits from Eva a genetic predisposition to this personality trait, or maybe Eva’s and Kevin’s respective upbringings led them to feel this way. Most likely, it is a combination of both factors.
Themes
Eva doesn’t know what to say to Franklin. She thinks that this incident might end their marriage. When Franklin sees Kevin, he immediately asks him what happened. Kevin replies that he fell off the changing table onto a toy truck while Eva was getting wipes. Eva marvels at how well constructed the lie is. It was true that the incident involved the changing table, that Eva had gone to get more wipes earlier that day, and that the truck was on the floor next to the table. Eva thinks that the most robust lies incorporate elements of the truth. After talking to Franklin, Kevin goes to use the bathroom. Eva thinks Kevin finally using the bathroom is his way of rewarding her.
Kevin’s expert lie is evidence that he may be exceptionally precocious and conniving. It also may suggest that Kevin doesn’t actually hate Eva or want to make her life miserable—the lie protects Eva, after all.
Themes
After this incident, Eva becomes powerless to Kevin. He is not traumatized or afraid of her, and he knows that she will never hurt him again. One day, he demands homemade pizza. She spends hours making it, and instead of eating it, he folds it up and throws it around.
Kevin and Eva are now fully immersed in a power struggle that will never end. Kevin tries to control Eva, and he taunts and aggravates her just for fun.
Themes
After the incident, Kevin becomes bored of Eva’s attitude and begins to push her away. He doesn’t let her dress, bathe, or hug him. Eva feels that her lie to Franklin about Kevin’s arm comes between her and Franklin, and she starts to feel distant from him. She misses being alone with him, and she’s envious of Kevin’s relationship with him.
Kevin’s becoming bored of Eva’s attitude mirrors Eva’s own boredom. Eva constantly seeks out novelty to cure her chronic boredom, and Kevin does the same—the difference is that he seems to draw excitement purely from human suffering.
Themes
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Later that summer, Eva and Franklin’s neighbor Roger comes angrily to their door. Roger says that his son Trent fell on his bike, and the only explanation is that Kevin loosened the brake on Trent’s bike. Franklin defends Kevin, but Eva thinks Kevin is guilty. They argue about it after Roger leaves, and at this point the argument is commonplace. Franklin says that Eva blames Kevin for everything, and Eva thinks Franklin never sees a problem with Kevin’s behavior. In the middle of the argument, Eva says that she wants to have another baby. She shocks both Franklin and herself with this outburst, but she is certain it’s true.
Again, Franklin refuses to acknowledge that Kevin has any behavior problems despite clear evidence of Kevin’s misbehavior. Kevin being a “problem child” would ruin Franklin’s mental image of his perfect American family, and Franklin is unwilling to give up this dream, however idealized and unrealistic it may be.
Themes
Franklin is angry with Eva because she seems to hate motherhood. He can tell that she is constantly trying to get away from Kevin. Franklin accuses Eva of antagonizing Kevin and being bothered by everything he does. Franklin feels that Eva deprives Kevin of love, and he doesn’t want that to happen to another child. He thinks that Kevin’s potty training issue was a “psychological problem” that Eva exacerbated. As Franklin and Eva talk, they can see Kevin outside wrapping a tether ball around its pole over and over. Eva tells Kevin that Trent had an accident, and Kevin responds dismissively, mentioning Trent’s bike—even though Eva hadn’t said anything about a bike being involved.
At the center of Franklin and Eva’s argument is the question of whether Eva’s aversion to Kevin is due to the way Kevin innately is or if Eva has simply developed a poor relationship with her son. Of course, Franklin’s argument completely disregards what role his own parenting may have played in Kevin’s disturbed behavior. Kevin’s unprompted mention of Trent’s bike suggests that Kevin knows more about the incident than he's letting on and that Eva was correct to blame Kevin for Trent’s injury, but Franklin doesn’t seem to recognize the significance of this.
Themes
