Iris, Christa, Yuval, Fitim, Maid and Ajla
Notes on ‘Killing Lizards’ by William Boyd
Theme: MALE ADOLESCENCE
Male adolescence
Puberty is the period of growing up, developing character and identity, having new thoughts,
interests, and aspirations. This period often comes with issues of identity including gender and
sexuality. The male teenager is self-centered, concentrating on his needs, needs a lot of attention and
support.
Gavin is a boy that doesn’t get much attention from his parents. He used to play with his sister but
she grew up and is now a young woman. He is “in love” with his self-centered mother, and is jealous
that she has a special girls’ relationship with his sister and gives attention to older men in the story –
her husband and later, her lover.
The lack of attention leaves him frustrated and leads him to destructive behavior. He smokes, kills
lizards because of his anger, dreaming of his father and sister dying and when he has the chance he is
willing to hurt his mother. He is malicious and violent. We can see the cruelty of kids in this age as
they mock each other for their appearance and for everything in general, like one’s sister, parents,
etc.
1. Neglect during adolescence: Gavin being neglected by his parents and sister.
- Lack of attention which results in Gavin’s destructive behavior.
“She [his mother] seemed quite unaware of Gavin standing behind her, looking on. Then he coughed.
‘Yes, darling, what is it?’ she said without looking round”
2. Oedipus Complex: This is a theory brought by Sigmund Freud of how sons have natural
sexual and emotional attraction to their mothers. The boy would develop a conflict with his
father over the lover for their mother. The conflict is resolved when the boy would realise he
has to find a love of his own. This is actually the process of becoming independent of the
mother figure.
Gavin’s jealousy of other people for his mother’s love. (He would like her to prioritize him.)
- Oedipus Complex involves the elimination of the rival (father) for the mother’s affection - Gavin’s
fantasies about “His father and sister had died in a car crash and Gavin had to break the news to his
mother. As she sobbed with grief she clung to him for support.”
“Gavin stood motionless behind the thick screen of leaves and watched his mother and the man. He
knew at once what they had been doing.”
“Gavin swallowed. His mother’s presence in his life loomed like a huge wall at whose foot
his needs cowered like baggers at a city gate” describing his love for her. He cannot see the
less pretty qualities of her face as he senses her beauty, ignores the sulky turn to her lips and
the hardness in her pale eyes.
Sexually Aware (see characterisation of Gavin)
Jealous: He asks where is she going, paying attention to her actions. He is jealous of whoever
stands around his mother, gets to spend time with her or even talks to her. His mother on
the other hand not only doesn’t give him the love he wishes for but tends to ignore him and
be selfish and self centred. She is not aware of his love or she is and chooses to ignore it.
b) Narration
- The story is told from a 3rd person point of view, emotionally detached. The narrator may identify
with Gavin’s experience. His dissociation from the protagonist develops the theme of the madness.
Now he tells the story retrospectively, form a mature point of view, so he avoids associating himself
with Gavin’s madness. When describing Gavin’s mother, the narration is voyeuristic, scrutinizing the
mother’s female body
- creates mood - serious and foreboding.
- There are three moods in three different parts of the story. In first part there is a sexual atmosphere
created by the slow, voyeuristic narration. In the second part, there is a carefree, childish mood while
the boys go off to kill lizards in order to have fun. This turns into a deeply disturbing mood in the third
part where he seems to be totally losing his mind and becoming vicious.
- The tone – malicious/sinister. (When the other boys are playing and having fun, by killing lizards,
Gavin is never really enjoying himself – it represents much more than simply playing. E.g. ending
when he doesn’t kill the lizard and goes off to see his mother to threaten her with the sunglasses).
Also, bitter: Gavin’s bitterness towards his parents. “Stupid lizard, he thought, sunbathing, head
bobbing like that, you never know who’s around.”
- The use of capital letters in the narration towards the end of the story ”OH MUMMY, I’VE FOUND
YOUR SUNGLASSES” suggests a sinister violence.
Characterization:
1. Gavin
- Sexually aware – see above
–violent and destructive, both in his imagination and in reality (His fantasizes about his father dying
(imagination) and him actually killing lizards (reality.)
- bitter and twisted, from the tone in the narration.
- his appearance: serious and troubled way of thinking and behaving. “He was a thin dark boy with a
slightly pinched face and unusually thick eyebrows that made his face seem older than it was.”
- jealous, troubled, serious, neglected. “Gavin shook his head, blushing guiltily. He didn’t hate his
father – he just got angry with him sometimes – and it made him feel bad and upset that he kept on
imagining him dead.”
- The narrator describes Gavin walking in on his parents naked and asleep. ''Still, he was
cautious as he had once been horribly embarrassed to find them both asleep, naked and
sprawled on the rumpled double bed.'' He’s utterly shocked and embarrassed. He is exposed
for the first time to the human body, to the woman’s body.
2. Family – the quintessential self centered family
The mother is too preoccupied with herself. She is selfish, careless, and not paying any
attention to her son’s problems and behavior.
His father is a professor and not an only a lecturer anymore.
His sister is abroad.
He doesn’t get any of the attention he needs, which he probably used to have.
That leads to his destructive behavior.
3. Mother- indifferent, self-centred, uncaring, content with her life.
- Described as the oversexed/highly sexualised female
- Does not really care about Gavin
- Is having an affair but claims to be a theatre rehearsals. She is probably an actress
- Her looking in the mirror is a suggestion of narcissism or being in love with herself. ”She
held the dress up in front of her and looked at her reflection critically in the mirror. She
laid the dress on the bad, sat down again and began to apply some lipstick.”
-
She goes with skimpy bikinis which attracts men’s attention and embarrass him.
She takes his sister to shopping but doesn’t do much with him . She is self
centred, sitting for a long time and brushing her hair, “She seems unaware of
Gavin standing behind her, looking on’ furthermore, he has to cough to somehow
get some of her attention.
-
“ <<oh well, I'm going out too >> he left it at that. Just to see if she’d say this
time, but she seemed not to have heard”
-
“She went to play rehearsal or something. Drama, drama, you know” Gavin’s express his
dissatisfaction from the role his mother gives to acting instead of him.
4. Father
– serious, compared to Gavin’s mother he was caring and considerate. He entertains Gavin
and his friends by showing them interesting things in the Chemistry laboratory
- Suspicious of his wife ‘What’s your mother doing?’ he asked his son. ‘Left her on her own,
have you?”
- works a lot
- tells Gavin not to leave the dead lizards around the campus to rot – suggests he is worried
about his position in the university, or is generally considerate.
The father does not interfere in Gavin’s life, possibly aware of his anger and trying to
avoid his rage
-
He is preoccupied with his work and doesn’t pay attention to other things. ''In Canterbury
his father had only been a lecturer but here he was a professor in the Chemistry
Department''
-
Its seems like he’s trying to influence and direct Gavin when he tells him not to
leave the lizards out but that is only from practical reason
to rot in the sun in the university, and he gives up any second attempt of
speaking about the subject after Gavin’s response.
''I hope you don't leave them (lizards) lying around... Things rot in this sun very
quickly''
but he doesn’t get any from her, plus we see the father lack of time and attention
for his family.
-
The father is surprised that the mother goes to rehearsal. Possibly, he doesn’t
really trust her, but otherwise he probably is too busy to be involved in her life
significantly and know her schedule.
''Today? Are you sure? His father asked seemingly surprised''
5. Sister
-
She used to play with him as a child, did were a lot closer, but now as she grew up
into a teenager she has other interests, she is bored with him and she doesn’t
have time for “his silly games”.
-
Instead she goes shopping with her mother. That makes Gavin’s even more
frustrated as not only did he lose his sister’s attention but also a big part of his
mother’s attention is dedicated to her. It looks to him, and not without a reason,
like a conspiracy of the girls in the house against him and his father.
-
This makes him even more frustrated and angry and he wishes for his sister’s
death.
6. Lizards
– basking in the sun
- bobbing press-up motion (possibly an allusion to human sexual activity)
- red head male, speckled female (similar to Gavin’s mother who has moles on her haunch)
- stupid.
“They did no one any harm; just basked in the sun doing a curious bobbing press-up motion.” “The
females were slightly smaller than the males and were a dirty speckled khaki colour. The males were
more resplendent, with brilliant orange-red heads, pale grey bodies and black-barred feet and tails.”
(see below)
Characterisation of the lizards is parallel to the characterisation of his mother:
- speckled bodies - mother’s freckles
- red head- red hair
- hunched backs (the shape of lizards’ back).
- They are both lazy, lying in the sun, indifferent to anything else. The physical similarity
and the similarity in behaviour create an analogy between the lizards and Gavin's mother.
- Killing the lizards when he cannot hurt his mother, is emphasizing this point even
stronger.
- When he has the chance to hurt his mother, he spares the lizard’s life.
We see that they were only targets on which he could express his aggression.
7. Setting: The story takes place in Africa, the narrator describes the banana trees and the
local lizards. We know that Gavin has moved there with his parents because of his father’s
new job. This change of environment is possibly another cause for stress for him, as he as to
find new friends, deal with different life style than he used to have and of course his father
has now an important job as a professor so he has a lot less time for the family than he
might have had before, while is mother stays indifferent and self-centred. The name of the
story, the action of ‘killing lizards’ also tell us that the story takes place in Africa, we could
see a connection between his attack against the lizards and his anger about being in Africa.
c) Imagery
-Lizards (metaphor) are coldblooded animals, which represent the coldness of Gavin’s mother. We can
recognize other similarities from the way Gavin sees his mother when she is changing clothes (he
notices her curves and colors, the moles on her back (speckled female) Both lizards and his mother
were sunbathing.
- Sunglasses are a symbol of:
a) skewed perception (they color your vision and make it dark). “Oh, mummy, I think I’ve found your
sunglasses.” In this story they represent both Gavin’s and his mother’s denial of the truth about their
lives. His mother does not realize that the way she treats her son and the family more generally is
wrong.
b) On the other hand, Gavin’s perception is skewed because he does not really understand that the
sunglasses might not help him win his mother. He intends to use the sunglasses as his bargaining chip
but does not realize that he will only harm himself by doing so as it may reveal the true situation and
break up the family.
d) Structure
- The story takes place over one day, which exemplifies Gavin’s entire life leading up to this point.
Every day of his life Gavin was looking for something significant to happen which would change his
relationship with his parents.
- generally chronological; all action in the story occurs within one day - gives it a greater impact to
show how much can change in a day
- some use of flashback and fantasy: When Galvin remembers how it was at the pool, when he was
with his mother and when she was wearing a bikini. Also his fantasy of his father and sister dying
- The story can be divided into three parts based on Gavin’s relationship to his mother or the
development of his Oedipus Complex:
Observation of his mother
 Killing lizards
 blackmailing mother

a) begins with a catapult scene as an exposition to the setting and to Gavin’s behaviour. He is
violent, he steals cigarettes from his parents and smokes when he is only 12.
b) The following scene presents Gavin’s relationship with his parents. His hatred towards his
sister, his love for his mother and his dreams about his father’s death and his own chance of
living alone with her. This is told in retrospective, as a series of flashbacks and gives us a
better idea of Gavin’s destructive behaviour and what causes/feeds it. He walks into his
parents room and sees his mother sexually for the first time. That initiates the development
of his Oedipus complex.
c) The next scene presents the major cause of his anger when his mother is indifferent to
him. He doesn’t show much affection for him or even gives him any kind of attention. He
later goes with his friends to kill lizards. The order of these events are significant as they
reflect the causes of his anger and then his ensuing violent behaviour.
d) Afterwards, they go to visit his father and we get a picture of his father’s obsession with
work and lack of ability to influence or control Gavin. We also get a hint of the problems we
might discover in the relationship of Gavin's parents.
e) Eventually we get to the last scene where he discovers that his mother has been cheating
on his father. He sees her naked with another man. He is mad and his attitude changes. He
finds her sunglasses and becomes a darker figure. He’s changed and now he has the chance
to hurt his mother and therefore he doesn’t feel the need the hurt the lizards.
''Gavin
stood motionless behind the thick screen of leaves and watched his mother and the man. He
knew at once what they had been doing. He watched them caper and kiss and laugh. Finally
Gavin's mother tugged herself free and scrambled round the van and into the front seat.''
Questions
1) Could puberty or the lack of attention alone cause Gavin’s destructive behaviour? Or is it only a
result of several existing conditions? What are some other reasons for his destructive behaviour?
2)Would he have been similarly violent had he grown up in another family?
3) What makes a family functional and healthy and how does Gavin’s family fall short?
Possible answers are: Good communication. Love or at least care for each other, belief in
marriage,commitment and liability.
4) Is the lack of attention from his family enough to justify his actions??
5) Why doesn’t he kill the lizard in the final scene?
6) What is the development in the Oedipus complex following the discovery of Gavin’s
mother’s affair?
7) How do you think the story will end?
Relate answers to the Oedipus Complex – how Gavin believes that he now has power over
his mother in the love triangle.