We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver plays with the deepest fears of the majority of people. This is the fear of parenthood. One may ask how one of the main instincts of every living thing, the need to reproduce, could be frightful. It is true that there is nothing unusual about giving birth to children in order to prevent the human race rom disappearing. It is also true that the recent medical achievements allow people to get as much information about the way a child is going to look and what illnesses he or she might have as possible. However, parenthood presupposes more than a process of birth giving. The most frightful part is upbringing and there is always a fat chance to mess up it.
There is a common misconception that good people have decent children, whose behavior is exemplary. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how kind-hearted parents are, it doesn’t automatically mean that their child is going to be the same. Eva and Franklyn prove this point. They are a nice pair of people, who understand how important it is to be good parents. Still, neither Franklyn’s love nor Eva’s carefulness prevents the tragedy.
Talking about this novel, it is extremely important to pay attention to Eva’s story. Tales about mother’s love present in every culture. There are songs, poems and legends in which mothers usually sacrifice themselves for sake of their children, risk their lives in order to help them or just value their children more than all treasures in the world. We assume that it is really so and I can’t help but admit that in the majority of cases mothers do correspond the above-mentioned description. But it happens so that a mother doesn’t feel all those wonderful and tender emotions, a heart-swelling kind of love towards her own child. One might not believe but it is not a rare thing, the problem is that they are afraid to admit that even to themselves, for everyone, the society, their partners and relatives are going to judge them. The Mother must love her child. Consequently, women start suffering from a feeling of guilt, which doesn’t help to improve the situation. We need to stop expecting more from women than they can actually give. The society should stop blaming them for lack of affection. Eva pays a high price and slowly learns to love her son, just like she was expected.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is a must-read for parents. What do we learn from this story? The first thing is that it is important to be honest, there is no need to make themselves believe that our children are flawless and try to justify everything they do. If there is a problem – behavior, aggression, low self-esteem or too high self-esteem – it should be solved. Parents should pay attention to things their children say, their emotional states and whatnot, but it doesn’t mean that they should violate their right to choose and make mistakes. We are lucky to have a chance to get as much information about our own children as possible. For instance, the social media sites prove to be helpful. We Need to Talk About Kevin is a heartbreaking story which shows how important it is not to take anything for granted and how easily happiness could be destroyed.
