Analyse af William Boyds novelle 'Killing Lizards'

‘’Killing Lizards’’ is a short story written in 1981 by William Boyd.

In the short story we meet the young boy named Gavin, who lives with his father and mother in Africa. Through the text Gavin seems to be neglected by his parents and when Gavin is about to reach puberty, he gets a lot of negative and violent thoughts about his family and him.

The main character is a twelve-year-old boy named Gavin, who is about to get closer to maturity. Gavin is filled with jealousy and anger, because his sister Amanda prefers to spend her time with their mother when she is home.

It’s very clear that Gavin misses his old play friend and he is really aggressive in his thoughts of her: “he felt that he hated her. Sometimes he wished the plane that was bringing her out to Africa would crash and she would be killed” (p 2, ll 17- 18).

One of Gavin’s fantasies involved his father and sister dying in a car crash, so that he would able break the news to his mum whilst stroking her hair (p 2, ll 26- 27). Gavin wants to be the mature and grown adult by his mother’s side and replace his father’s role.