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Chapter 18: February 18, 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
In the present, Eva visits Kevin in prison. Kevin talks about other mass murderers in the news. He criticizes some of them for their flawed techniques and seems to idolize others. Eva asks Kevin why he chose to kill the specific students he did. He replies that he didn’t like them. Eva asks specifically about Denny, and Kevin responds that Denny was a bad actor in the school plays. Eva asks about another one of Kevin’s victims, whom the whole school applauded for making a speech about being gay. One student Kevin killed had sent a petition to the government about Bill Clinton’s impeachment, another of Kevin’s victims had a promising basketball career ahead of him, and another (Espinoza) won a prize for academics.
Maybe Eva asks about Kevin’s motives because she hopes that finding answers will absolve her of blame. Regardless, trying to understand Kevin’s mindset ultimately leads her to be able to empathize with him and to help her move on from the tragedy.
Themes
Eva asks Kevin if he wanted to ruin Eva’s life and leave only her alive so that the two of them could get to know each other better. Eva brings up another of Kevin’s victims, Laura Woolford. She was beautiful. Eva says that Kevin must have had a crush on her. Kevin denies this. Eva says that producers are now making movies about the event, and Eva will tell them that Kevin’s motive was that he was in love with Laura, but she rejected him. After all, Eva notes, Laura is the only one Kevin hit right in the chest. Kevin responds that Eva never cared about his thoughts or feelings before the murders. She blows up in anger, saying that she has no pity for him. Kevin mocks her and laughs.
Eva is joking when she asks Kevin if he left her alive to spend more time with her, but it may not actually be too far from the truth— at this point she underestimates how much he cares about her. Eva tries to humiliate and hurt Kevin, which is perhaps justified now that he is a murderer, though Eva has always sought revenge on Kevin when she is upset with him. Kevin is also vengeful, and it stands to reason that he learned this trait from Eva.
Themes
Eva tries to enrage Kevin because she wants him to feel small. She doesn’t actually believe that his crush on Laura was his motive. After studying his victim’s lives, Eva concludes that each of them was highly passionate about something, and Eva knows that other people’s passions have always annoyed Kevin—he has always tried to ruin other’s enjoyment. For example, he purposely walks directly in front of a camera if he sees someone taking a picture of something.
Kevin does seem to want to ruin others’ enjoyment, and this, too, he may have learned from Eva. Throughout Kevin’s childhood, Eva admits to finding satisfaction in upsetting him.
Themes
When Kevin is 14, Eva chaperones his school dance. She watches Kevin from a distance in the school gym. Kevin is with his friend Lenny, and other students seem to try to avoid the two of them. “Stairway to Heaven” plays, and only one girl starts to dance. She wears an unfashionable dress and is clearly a social outcast. She dances exuberantly. Eva watches Kevin approach the girl and whisper something in her ear. Eva doesn’t know what he says, but the girl is horrified. Eva knows that whatever Kevin said to the girl her must have changed her life. The dance takes place in the same gym that Kevin later commits the murders.
The school dance is a perfect example of Kevin finding pleasure in ruining others’ enjoyment. Since Kevin finds so little pleasure in life, perhaps the pleasure he takes in seeing others’ misfortunes stems from his jealousy of others’ happiness. It’s unclear what Kevin said to the girl at the dance, but it could possibly foreshadow some detail about the murders he later commits.
Themes
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