![]() When Eva relates the story of the massacre itself, it is finally revealed that Franklin and Celia are dead. This accusation leads Franklin to ask for a divorce, intending to take custody of Kevin Kevin overhears them. Eva is certain that she put the cleaner away and Kevin attacked Celia with it. While Kevin is babysitting Celia, she supposedly finds the cleaner and accidentally destroys her eye and scars her face. When Celia is six years old, her pet rodent disappears, and shortly after the sink in the children's bathroom becomes clogged, which Eva clears with a caustic drain cleaner. Kevin is often aggressive towards Celia and takes advantage of her affectionate nature. They have a second child, Celia, whom Franklin believes Eva favors. Eva's apparent dislike for her son and the equally apparent distrust between Eva and Kevin, as well as the mounting distrust between Eva and Franklin, create a rift between the married couple. Kevin plays the part of a loving, sensitive son whenever Franklin is around. In high school, Kevin, Leonard, and two other boys accuse their drama teacher of sexual abuse Eva is convinced he orchestrated the false accusations.Īs Kevin's behavior worsens, Franklin defends him, convinced that his son is normal and instead just often misunderstood. ![]() He unsettles his peers, expresses his disdain for convention by wearing uncomfortably undersized clothes, and follows news of school shooters and mass murderers. As he grows older, he also takes an interest in manipulating his sycophantic friend Leonard, engaging in vandalism, and collecting computer viruses on floppy disks. Eva reads Robin Hood to him, and he takes pleasure in learning archery after he recovers, yet he seems otherwise unable to relate to human passion. When Kevin is severely ill as a child, he briefly accepts Eva's care for the first time and rejects that of Franklin, seemingly too tired to put on an act of apathy. Kevin resisted toilet training, which Eva reveals led her to lash out and break Kevin's arm Kevin told Franklin this was an accident and has since used the secret to manipulate Eva. Eva perceives him as deliberately antagonistic, with his behavior ranging from seemingly petty sabotage of Eva's belongings to possibly encouraging a girl to gouge out her eczema-affected skin. Kevin seemingly regards everyone, especially his mother, with contempt and hatred, yet pretends to be manageable when Franklin is around. She regularly visits Kevin in prison, wherein they have a cold relationship.Įva reluctantly stepped back from her career to raise Kevin, and the two have long been locked in a battle of wills. Eva sold the family home to pay for legal expenses, but in order to be near Claverack Juvenile Correctional Facility where Kevin is incarcerated, she still lives in the same town in which she remains shunned by the community. She also relates her current life: she was involved in both her son's criminal trial and a civil action against her (for parental negligence) brought by the mother of one of her son's victims. She reflects candidly on the history of her relationship with her husband and the events of Kevin's life up to the killings. In the wake of a school massacre committed by the 15-year-old Kevin, Eva begins writing letters to Franklin in November 2000. As the situation turns catastrophic, Eva tries to figure out where she and Franklin went wrong. Something has gone wrong, however, because her son has developed sinister psychopathic traits, though his father, Franklin Plaskett, refuses to acknowledge the problem. Owing to the fact that Kevin was a difficult infant and child, she gave up her successful career as a writer and publisher of travel guides in order to concentrate on raising him. In 2011 the novel was adapted into a film.Įven before her son Kevin was born, Eva Khatchadourian struggled with parenthood and a sense of ambivalence about becoming a mother. ![]() The novel, Shriver's seventh, won the 2005 Orange Prize, a UK-based prize for female authors of any country writing in English. It is written from the first person perspective of the teenage killer's mother, Eva Khatchadourian, and documents her attempt to come to terms with her psychopathic son Kevin and the murders he committed, as told in a series of letters from Eva to her husband. We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver, published by Serpent's Tail, about a fictional school massacre.
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