Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew Up… different than the rest. As a toddler, Kevin would not play with toys like normal children. He was less receptive to outer stimuli. His mother Eva was unable to identify exactly what was wrong with him. They quickly ruled out serious developmental disorders and just went ahead with life, assuming – hoping – everything would work itself out.
Living... under a mountain of teenage angst. It’s not unusual for teenagers to occasionally find cruel ways to take out their anger. But Kevin’s lack of sensitivity and emotional regard for others might lead him to take cruelty to the next level – violence. Although he sometimes shows a soft spot for his sister, Celia, Kevin appears to have no emotional connection with his mother or father, and doesn’t have any real friends from school.
Profession… high school student. Although Kevin is very intelligent, he doesn’t show much interest in his school work, which continues to concern his mother and father.
Interests… archery. Besides archery, Kevin doesn’t seem to have many interests, a strange characteristic that separates him from most teens. But he’s very serious indeed about his bow and arrow.
Relationship Status... single. Kevin also hasn’t begun to show interest in girls, even though he has already gone through puberty. Really, he doesn’t show much affection toward anyone of any sex. Dating seems to be the last thing on his mind.
Challenge... coping with his demons without exploding. Eva has long worried that there is something very, very wrong with Kevin, and he often seems to be drowning in a world of anger, pain, and torture. Hopefully he’s not so far gone that there is no way to come back. But without a great deal of willpower, he may lose sight of any moral compass due to his lack of emotional response to others. Then again, his problems might be more than can be dealt with by sheer willpower.
Personality... unemotional and angsty. Kevin feels no compassion, and it seems like the only emotion he does feel is a dull anger. That anger is usually directed at his mother Eva, and occasionally at his sister and his father. If it were ever re-directed to the world at large, watch out.
Get to Know him in...
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The mother of a teenage sociopath who went on a high-school killing spree recalls her son's deranged behavior during childhood, as she deals with her grief.
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That neither nature nor nurture bears exclusive responsibility for a child's character is self-evident. But generalizations about genes are likely to provide cold comfort if it's your own child who just opened fire on his feellow algebra students and whose class photograph—with its unseemly grin—is shown on the evening news coast-to-coast. If the question of who's to blame for teenage atrocity intrigues news-watching voyeurs, it tortures our narrator, Eva Khatchadourian. Two years before the opening of the novel, her son, Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and the much-beloved teacher who had tried to befriend him. Because his sixteenth birthday arrived two days after the killings, he received a lenient sentence and is currently in a prison for young offenders in upstate New York. In relating the story of Kevin's upbringing, Eva addresses her estranged husband, Frank, through a series of startingly direct letters. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son became, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about both motherhood in general—and Kevin in particular. How much is her fault?
