The Wasp Factory and We Need to Talk About Kevin - Coursework Example

?The Wasp Factory and We Need to Talk About Kevin The Wasp Factory and We Need to Talk About Kevin In the support of the fact that” the disintegration of the family unit is to blame for the increase in child deviance in contemporary society”, the novels The Wasp Factory and We Need to Talk about Kevin shall be used in relation to similar arguments in other social cultural criticism works. Lain Banks, published novel The Wasp Factory in the year 1984. Banks narrated his novel in a person perspective where a sixteen year old Frank Cauldhame describes his childhood that reminds him of evil things he committed in that tender age (Banks, 1998; p. 25). According to Frank Cauldhame, he did observe numerous shamanistic rituals that he was forced to commit just before the age of ten, Cauldhame perpetrated the three deaths of his siblings (Banks and Kenny, 2008; p. 68) actions that indicates rotten behaviours within families come the society. Additionally, the novel develops and describes how his brother’s escape from a mental hospital and impends return; thereby, leading to a violent ending of the novel thereby undermining all the trust and believe that people or the readers had on his narration (Carroll and Gibson, 2011; p. 57). Moreover, it should be noted the harshness of the society tormented Eric (Franks elder step brother) following his unjustified actions; the king to city dogs. Therefore, from the novel, it true to that” the disintegration of the family unit is to blame for the increase in child deviance in contemporary society”. On the other hand, Lionel Shriver wrote the “We Need to Talk about Kevin” in the year 2003 and it was published by Serpent’s Tail and it narrated a fictional school massacre a problem that is seen to be increasing in the society as per Cuddon and Habib (2013; p. 12). The novel is written form Eva Khatchadourian, killer’s mother perspective who documents on how she is trying to accept on how her son Kevin’s actions of murder. This nation can be related to Carroll and Gibson’s (2011; p. 17) contributions where they insist that the mostly affected by the decay in the family norms are especially parents particularly mothers. According to Shriver (2003; p. 56) both novels are written in the first person with latter being in a series of letters from Khatchadourian to her husband and he notes that the use of the first person shows how these evil behaviours often affect a family as unit. Moreover, Shriver’s the novel is structured as a thriller to indicate the extent of the moral decay in the society; thus, it evidential to note that the novel, “We Need to Talk about Kevin,” also supports the notion that” the disintegration of the family unit is to blame for the increase in child deviance in contemporary society”. Just like it is evidential in the novels, The Wasp Factory and We Need to Talk about Kevin, the immoral characters and behaviours of children in these novels seem to be contributed by some uncaring or absenteeism of mothers or and fathers in the lives of their children that leads to early childhood identification and correction of some ill behaviours. Additionally, according to Shriver (2011; p. 155) siblings and other external environment including persons to whom the child interacts also contribute to these ill morals among children. For instance, according to the novel 'We Need to Talk about Kevin’ the narrator doubts on the concerns of mother in parenting the character, Kevin. Therefore, the ill character traits of Kevin are strongly pegged on the unconcerned nature of his mother in Kevin’s life. Moreover, Cuddon and Habib (2013; p. 24) note that Khatchadourian resents Kevin right from the moment of birth and she even resists delivering him at the pregnancy level and these might have been the emotional constrained that led to Kevin’s brutal nature. On the other hand, it is clear that Frank’s mother did not live with him during his childhood years and this must have contributed to his ill behaviours. According to Banks (1998; p. 15) Frank separated from his mother when he was only three years old. This is an indication that he lacked guidance from the mother who could have given him childhood discipline and moral guidance among other life virtues that could have guided him off the hook of immoral behaviours such as having the courage of killing three people as reported by Banks and Kenny (2008; p. 88). Form Downing’s (2013; p. 34) perspective, from these analyses it convincing to state that, mothers often play significant roles in shaping the characters and values in their children; hence, any kind of disconnect and uncaring character traits and lack of their presence in the lives of their growing children place a profound role in the increase in child deviance in contemporary society. From the same analyses, it emerged that fathers also play significant roles in modelling the lives and behaviours of the growing children; therefore, according to Podnieks and O'reilly (2010; p. 168), if they are lacking in the lives of their growing children, they are uncaring, or providing poor parenting/fathering traits, they often affect the character traits of these children intensively. Apparently, from the novel The Wasp Factory, Frank lived with his father, but in an isolated house (Carroll and Gibson, 2011; p. 128). Moreover, the narrator notes that His father was a dissembled man who had lots of secrets and he was a brutal person who involved in ritual activities. According to Hurter (2009; p. 179), these traits of Frank’s father certainly contributed to Frank’s ill or evil behaviours. It should be noted that the narrator’s father had set up some personal religion that seems to be quenched by blood (Banks, 1998; p. 125), Frank though (may be) that it is a normal thing to slaughter human beings thereby killing three of his siblings. On the other hand, fathers poor parenting traits seems to have been the major factors that affected his son, Kevin and according Hurter (2009; p. 179), these are some of the contributions that parents often initiate towards spoiling their children. Some of the cited poor parenting traits in the novel “We Need to Talk about Kevin” is the father siding with his some in most cases even when the son is on the wrong. Moreover, Frank‘s father cheats him thereby instilling some ill behaviours in him; therefore, Cuddon and Habib (2013; p. 251) state the lack of unity and poor parenting traits portrayed by these two father is common among the contemporary families thereby leading to ill behaviours among children in the society; hence, leading to” the disintegration of the family unit is to blame for the increase in child deviance in contemporary society”. According to Podnieks and O'reilly (2010; p. 168), We Need to Talk about Kevin presents a family that is broken and lacks harmony especially a rotten relationship between parent, for instance, the novel is introduced with the first letter in which the narrator describes her wanting relationship with her husband. Banks and Kenny (2008; p. 163) notes that such poor family relationship, contributed for by the father often creates disunity in the family that make children to picked poor traits due to lack of unity and harmonized guidance from their parents. It should note that disunity and other external factors also play major roles in affecting relations in the families as well breeding ill behaviours in children thereby affecting the entire society. Some of these factors can be traced from the novel The Wasp Factory where it is clear that there is lack of amicable or friendly relations between the siblings in this family or novel and the outside family relationships. The effects of the outside world on the character traits of children are clearly depicted when Frank notes that he is afraid of the outside of the world due to what it did to his brother. Therefore, to protect himself and his island form such fear, Frank keeps array weapons in his locality (Banks, 1998; p. 75). Downing in his contribution to the role of siblings and other external factors in shaping the behaviours and traits of children in the society, he notes that “if it could have not been the volatility of the outside world” (Downing, 2013; p. 96), Franks could have never had the hatred and weapons the he once used to slaughter his step brothers as reported in the novel The Wasp Factory. Downing notes with concern that Siblings’ relationship plays a vital role in shaping norms in any family setting as well as the roles and behaviours of persons in the entire society (Downing, 2013; p. 96). The same claims are in the novel ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ where the relationship between siblings is also worse. It is apparent that the deteriorating relation between siblings as is demonstrated for example, in the We Need to Talk about Kevin” may be contributed for by the partial love of parents to the children in the family. For instance, it seems that Kevin’s mother needed someone to relate with in the family after the relationship between her and her husband and Kelvin is sour, she opted to confine in her younger daughter Celia. According to Carroll and Gibson (2011; p. 27) Celia being loved by her mover made her brother to hate her and the novel notes without proof that (Banks, 1998; p. 234) Kevin might have been the parson responsible in the destruction of her sister’s eye on the pretence that he cleaned her face with liquid plumr. Family relationship plays a significant role in shaping the characters of children in a family setting as well as in the entire society. Therefore, it is true to say that the disintegration of the family as a unit is to blame for the increase in child deviance in contemporary society. Hence, the contemporary families should aim at consolidating the relationship among the family members towards having a consolidated unit. Parents play crucial part in nurturing the norms and behaviours of children in their families; thus, divide parents either in opinion or single parenting contributes majorly in the deteriorating behaviours in children with the same being reflected in the whole society. Therefore, for the society to be safe and free from evil behaviours, it is vital that families work has single harmonious unit in all activities and decision makings that shapes families. List of References BANKS, I. (1998). The wasp factory: a novel. New York, NY, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. BANKS, I., & KENNY, P. (2008). The wasp factory. London, Howes. CARROLL, N., & GIBSON, J. (2011). Narrative, emotion, and insight. University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press. CUDDON, J. A., & HABIB, R. (2013). A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. Chichester, West Sussex, Wiley-Blackwell. DOWNING, L. (2013). The subject of murder: gender, exceptionality, and the modern killer. HURTER, M. (2009). Fractured identities in Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory. Thesis (M.A.)--James Madison University, 2009. PODNIEKS, E., & O'REILLY, A. (2010). Textual mothers/maternal texts: motherhood in contemporary women's literatures. Waterloo, Ont, Wilfred Laurier University Press. SHRIVER, L. (2003). BOOK CLUB SET We need to talk about Kevin. SHRIVER, L. (2011). We Need to Talk About Kevin. New York, Counterpoint. Read More