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We Need to Talk About Kevin Chapter 14: January 6, 2001 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Eva recalls a few details of her trial, like when the attorney asked if Eva ever worried about what Kevin did in other family's homes.
  • "Frankly, other children rarely asked Kevin over more than once" (14.11), Eva responds.
  • Eva talks about how Kevin never seemed affected by violence, as if he were born desensitized to it.
  • Then Eva tells the story of Kevin's first gun: a squirt gun.
  • During the move, Kevin loves squirting the movers in the pants and making fun of them for peeing themselves. Charming.
  • Eva tries to discipline Kevin, but Franklin undermines her, saying that Kevin is just having fun.
  • In the new house, Eva hides the squirt gun in a kitchen cabinet. When she finds Kevin climbing up to get it, she calls Franklin in because she isn't tall enough to get Kevin.
  • Franklin, of course, thinks Kevin earned the gun back by making such a death-defying climb.
  • Eva gives the gun back. That night, she wears a white dress, and Kevin fills his gun with grape juice.
  • Later, Eva decorates her office with world maps she has collected.
  • Kevin doesn't understand why, so Eva tries to explain that the maps are special to her. Kevin thinks they're dumb junk, and that she's dumb for putting them up.
  • Eva leaves to answer the phone, and when she returns, Kevin has ruined the maps by squirting them with red and black ink.
  • "Now […] it's special," he says (14.92).
  • Eva snatches the gun and stomps it to bits.