58 pages • 1 hour read
Fredrik Backman, Transl. Henning KochBritt-Marie Was Here
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Cleaning Agents
Baking soda, Britt-Marie’s go-to cleaning agent, helps her cope with stressful or unusual situations through cleaning, but it also represents safety. By using baking soda on the mattress, she convinces herself that her sleeping place—a place of vulnerability and a state that is similar to death, which she fears—is safe. In addition, by presenting a clean mattress at hotels, she hopes to avoid gossip from hotel staff that she and/or Kent is a slob, guarding herself from the ghosts of her mother’s criticisms. Spiritually, she equates sodium bicarbonate with the human soul, as the body loses both after death. Therefore, by constantly surrounding herself with baking soda, she also wards off death, and perhaps subconsciously preserves her dead sister Ingrid. It is not until the rat knocks over Britt-Marie’s baking soda at the end of the novel that she no longer needs its protection.
Britt-Marie has a similar attachment to Faxin window cleaner. Ever since discovering Faxin in a newspaper ad after Ingrid’s death, Britt-Marie has clung to it as a representation of her worldview, much as it was advertised. She often narrows her worldview to a limited focus in her isolated environments: her mother’s disdain, Kent’s condescension, her own perceived incompetence. When she leaves Kent, her worldview begins to change, symbolized by the lack of Faxin when she goes grocery shopping. In Borg, she must shift her perspective again and is similarly dismayed to learn that Faxin is unavailable, this time for good, signaling that her new worldview is both permanent and unavoidable. While she initially shields herself from this change with baking soda, she gradually adjusts to her new life and community in Borg. As she does, Faxin reappears, both times as gifts when her worldview shifts: when she learns not to feel shame when paying with credit and when she accepts that Ben’s father is imprisoned for financial desperation. Both changes are imperative for Britt-Marie’s quest for self-actualization and independence. By the end of the novel, Britt-Marie no longer needs Faxin, declaring she can clean windows “with any old brand” (239). This signals her ability to comfortably adjust and adapt, a skill that goes hand in hand with self-actualization.
Balconies
Britt-Marie seeks comfort in seemingly small, domestic pleasures. For her, and to a certain extent Sami, balconies represent privacy and a safe space separate from the rest of her unhappy life. Britt-Marie’s dreams and desires have often been eclipsed by others. Ingrid, the favored child, received their parents’ affection and took it with her when she died. Britt-Marie’s dream was to be seen, loved, and acknowledged. In Britt-Marie’s marriage, Kent’s desires overruled hers. Eventually, her dreams shrank to “a balcony and a husband who did not walk on the parquet in his golf shoes” (48). Kent takes up space all over the house; the only place he doesn’t venture is the balcony, which becomes Britt-Marie’s space by default. Like her, it is a satellite, only tangentially attached to the main structure, but it is here she finds peace. It is the one part of her home she truly misses when she leaves.
Being alone is stressful for Britt-Marie, made worse by the fact that her hotel and later, the recreation center, has no balcony. Her balcony boxes tide her over, but it is not until she moves to Bank’s house that she has a private balcony again. Her relief is palpable, and she spends many of her anxious moments there. It is on the balcony that Britt-Marie can process her feelings and the changes she experiences, and it is there that she feels safe. It is also where she and Sami bond—he shares his tragic backstory and she advises him.
Her path to independence is also reflected via balcony when she accidentally purchases IKEA balcony furniture. She intentionally assembles it, to spite Kent, but also because she, an independent person, can and is fully in her rights to do so. In this way, Britt-Marie ekes out a safe space for herself via balcony, signaling her ability to survive despite her trauma and unhappiness.
Soccer
Soccer symbolizes Borg’s hope and resilience and is a major part of Borg’s social activity: the villagers watch and drink through televised matches together, enact various superstitions, and use one’s preferred team as a metric of personality traits. They are also active participants, mostly among the youth, who keep their team alive even after their previous coach died. Soccer symbolizes their hope for the future, both for themselves and as a beacon for the adults, who dream of better days. Vega admits that playing soccer negates her pain from the hopelessness of her daily life. Sami and Magnus feel similarly: despite the burdens of looming adulthood, they still find joy in playing soccer and rejuvenating their hope for the future. Ben finds hope and acceptance through soccer, as no one seems to care that he’s gay or that his father is in prison. Even Bank overcomes her cynicism and returns to soccer as a coach. While Britt-Marie initially dislikes soccer, by the end of the novel, she, too, is sucked into the joys of the game, regaining her own hope of finding community and realizing her dream of freedom.
Hope is realized through the revitalization of Borg. It begins with Max, the “wealthier” boy whose father laid off much of the village. Considered an outsider, Max loves soccer and Borg; by joining the Borg team, he signals the town’s rejuvenation. The whole town comes together to support their team in the challenge cup, demonstrating solidarity in the face of terrible odds, much like they supported each other through the devastation of the financial crisis. By the end of the novel, Borg boasts not just a new soccer pitch, but a soccer club as well, and brings in participants from the neighboring town that once disdained Borg. As Britt-Marie is told, “People like soccer just because they like soccer” (118). Much like hope, which is an inevitable and sustaining feeling, soccer keeps Borg afloat in their darkest days.
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