Analysis Of Lionel Shriver's 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'

Public debates on school shootings seeking answers to the question of “why” often place singular blame on the shooter’s mother. Lionel Shriver’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” told from the eyes of one such mother, Eva, resists this mother-blaming. In this paper, I will argue that Eva is not to blame; rather we must blame the mask of motherhood and the wife role, which force her to engage in inauthentic parenting that is harmful to her and her son’s relationship. I will show this by examining how she plays the wife role, by discussing the presence of the mask in her life, and then by looking at the effects of inauthenticity on Kevin.

Firstly, I will argue that Eva, constrained by the wife role, wears a mask to maintain the performance of the

While Franklin does fun activities with the children, he never has to do the actual work of mothering; his wife carries that burden for him. Consequently, his imposition of the wife role on Eva forces her to engage in deception to maintain his fantasy of a happy family. Controlled as a wife and a mother, Eva’s repressed resentment builds unabated. Through the cracks of her mask, it leaks into all aspects of her life, including her attitude towards her son. Franklin’s possessive control makes her feel as though the baby is not truly hers, as though it had been “appropriated” (Shriver 62).

Secondly, I will utilize Maushart’s theory of the mask of motherhood to analyze its presence in Eva’s life. This theory argues that there exists a conspiracy of silence, which obscures the realities of motherhood (462). The mask of motherhood is the visible symptom of this conspiracy, existing as a “repertoire of socially constructed…fronts…that [mothers] use to disguise the chaos and complexity of [their] lived experience” (Maushart

Although Eva and Franklin were both unprepared for parenthood, the wife role allowed Franklin to keep living his fantasy, while she had to confront the gruelling reality. The mask of motherhood she wears minimizes the enormity of her work (Maushart 461). Eva describes how she had to disguise her true feelings about motherhood, though she “daily…faced…insatiable fury while rehearsing to [herself]…I’m supposed to enjoy this” (Shriver 93). The mask of motherhood silences and represses her rage (Maushart 463). Describing her routine visits to Kevin in prison, she admits, “there may…be an element of theater” (Shriver pp. 39-40). At first, she plays the role of the “loyal mother,” asking him about the food and how he’s being treated (Shriver 40). Kevin, aware and contemptuous of her inauthenticity, throws this back in her face: “You may be fooling the neighbors… but you’re not fooling me…I hate you” (Shriver 43). While the mask of motherhood and the wife role erode Eva’s personhood, so too is her relationship with Kevin