This contrast is very effective in showing the impossibility of remaining composed in situations such as is.Įva recalls the decision to have children was not easy.
This outburst of emotion is rare for Eva because the tone of the early parts of the book is almost impassive and out of the body. This makes the reader feel just how much strain Kevin and his actions have put on her life and how his picking and berating finally forced her to snap and no longer be able to stay civil. This harsh response finally gives closure the Eva, however, because all throughout the novel she had debated whether she really had wanted Kevin. There is a very heavy sense of regret throughout the novel, seen in the response to Kevin’s question, “you never wanted to have me, did you?” which was “I thought I did”. As she is writing these letters, Eva is living alone and without much money and many of the letters are littered with flashbacks of a time when she was successful, happy, married, and childless. The focus of many of the earlier letters is on the judgment from other people, and how it appears to make her feel like a “fugitive”. The first letter or chapter is especially effective because it does not disclose what the incident is, the connection of the deaths and Eva is shown through the overlying sense of guilt shown in the language, such as “she lacks incentive these days”. In these letters Eva describes the life of Kevin form before he was conceived to the events that led up to Kevin’s shooting spree. The novel is presented in a series of letters by Eva Katchadourian to her estranged husband Franklin, whom the reader is led to believe is reading these letters, however at the end of the novel it is uncovered that he in fact died ”that Thursday”. The novel We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver is a chilling depiction of the actions of a son and the effects that it has on his mother, however under the surface, the true story depicts the dark side of motherhood.
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