Analysis Of We Need To Talk About Kevin By Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver’s fictional novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin, is a novel told in a series of letters from mother/wife to her estranged husband, in relation to the upbringing of her son leading up to the eventual massacre that he commits at his school. Unreliable narrator Eva Khatchadourian reminds readers that she is writing about her past in the first chapters, due to the dates of the letters, allowing readers to understand that her memories may be slightly incorrect. Shrivers use of chronological order from the past to present.

The statement is a very accurate description of the unreliable narrator, Eva Khatchadourian, in We Need To Talk About Kevin. Right from the start of the novel, it is clear that Eva is confessing that she was going …show more content…
In the critical anthology, according to D. Lodge, ‘the narrator of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel is not an evil man, but his life has been based on the suppression and evasion of the truth, about himself and others’. This is a very similar description of Eva as she appears to have suppressed her own feelings about not wanting children in order to be a part of the norm of society, as well as being unable to prove to others what her son is really like. Shriver’s use of a first-person narrator allows readers to see that although her thoughts are not of the ‘norm’, Eva has justified herself by allowing us to see how she was feeling during Kevin’s upbringing as well as her depression playing an important factor. Alternatively, Eva’s reasons for not wanting children or not feeling connected to her son aren 't necessarily valid. For example, in her fifth letter to Franklin, she states: “You wanted to have a child. On balance, I did not”, indicating that she had Kevin because her husband wanted a family. Shriver also shows Eva as an omniscient third person narrator, making it hard for readers to like her personality. D. Lodge states that ‘an unreliable “omniscient” narrator is almost a contradiction… [and] only occur in a very deviant, experimental text’ which is true to Shriver’s presentation of Eva. Eva’s omniscient personality is …show more content…
Similar to the 2011 film adaptation, Eva is portrayed as a cold, uncompassionate mother who blames her son for her failed marriage and seems to be the only one who sees her son for an emotionless sociopath. The film adaptation allows us to see a more justified side to Eva, as we are able to watch Kevin’s upbringing through our own eyes, without the ambiguity of Eva’s character. Similarly to the end of the novel, Eva appears to accept her son for who he is and come to her own form of forgiveness and understanding