As we all know, the climax of Margaret Drabble's story "The Gifts of War" occurs when Kevin's mother is confronted by Frances and Michael in the toy store. We discussed in class the possible reasons for why Kevin's mother reacts the way she does. The most obvious answer is that after saving up so much money for the gift and feeling so proud of being able to get him what he wants the most, she is upset by Frances' argument that it is a poor choice of a gift. We also suggested that maybe Frances has actually convinced her that it is a violent toy and gifts of that nature only perpetuate violence in our youth. While both explanations could certainly be true to a certain extent, and the second one seems to be the most logical within the context of the story, I would argue that it does not provide the whole answer. However, there are a few brief sentences earlier in the story that do.
For example, consider this quote from the description of Kevin's mother's inner thoughts as she is riding the bus into town: "as she thought of the gift she was going to buy him, her eyes lit on the bombed sites, and the rubble and decay of decades" (2827). Even earlier, there is another mention of "the waste lands of the city's rubble" and how Kevin had "shed some light" on them (2824).
From these, one can likely infer that Kevin represents to his mother one of the few or only good things that can distract her from the bleakness of the city. She knows that the gift she is buying him is a toy object of war, maybe even a bomber, but this does not concern her. All she cares about is making her son happy through buying him the gift. So when she listens to Frances' argument, she realizes that the gift only represents all of the rubble and bleakness that her son seemed to serve as a salvation from.
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