Us Against You

“The worst thing we know about other people is that we’re dependent upon them. That their actions affect our lives. Not just the people we choose, the people we like, but all the rest of them: the idiots.” 

Though the characters all want to exist independently, they still need and want other people. This need disturbs them, because they all know how deeply others can hurt them. Nonetheless, the struggle between independence and interdependence informs much of the inner conflict of the characters.

“The idiots won’t say it was Kevin who killed Beartown Ice Hockey; they’ll say that ‘the scandal’ killed the club. Because their real problem isn’t that Kevin raped someone, but that Maya got raped. If she hadn’t existed, it wouldn’t have happened. Women are always the problem in the men’s world.” 

Backman explores what happens when a community finds a scapegoat for their problems. Maya’s rape becomes its own character, one that divides the town and challenges the heart of Maya’s family. Even Maya sometimes blames herself for what happened, because the ripple effect of her victimization causes even more problems than the trauma of the rape itself. This quote shows that Maya is a girl living in a man’s world. Much of this novel relies on the issue of toxic masculinity in societies that have a difficult time providing unconditional support and love to their boys who become violent men.

“It can be an unbearable sorrow for someone to know that he’s regarded as such a wild animal in other people’s eyes.” 

This quote extends upon the idea that people’s projections on another can control that person. This quote refers to Benji, whose tragedy centers around people placing him in a box. Very few people make the attempt to see Benji for all of his layers, and it is that narrow-mindedness that hurts Benji the most.

“It’s impossible to measure love, but that doesn’t stop us coming up with new ways to try. One of the simplest is space: How much space am I prepared to give the person that you are so that you can become the person you want to become?” 

Love is the real core of what brings characters together in this novel. The characters are also so tied to their own problems that it can be difficult for them to express that love. They don’t often say it explicitly, and their implicit love is usually expressed through violence. It is also complicated to give other people the space to grow in such a small town; everyone seems to know at least something about everybody else. 

“A vibrant club needs to be full of people burning with passion, and you only get fire from friction.”

In this quote, Sune identifies the needs for passion in a club. The description of a club that burns is apt, as it can either be a source of inspiration or destruction.

“Politicians need conflict to win elections, but they also need allies. Richard Theo knows only two ways of getting someone who doesn’t like you to fight on your side regardless: a shared enemy or a shared friend.” 

The dichotomy between enemy and friend is thin in a place like Beartown. People turn from friends to enemies quickly unless they are sworn to some deeper loyalty. Richard Theo identifies those boundaries in other people and uses it to his advantage. However, many of the other characters only see each other as enemy or friend for much of the novel, which leads to misunderstanding and violence. 

“Anyone who feels responsibility isn’t free, Benjamin. That’s why you’re scared.” 

In this quote, Zackell reveals the vulnerability she sees in Benji, which also speaks to a more universal anxiety. It is a big undertaking to be responsible to and for another person, one that a lot of the characters fall short of meeting. Benji has often been disappointed and betrayed by others, so Backman uses this character as evidence for what happens when a child is failed too many times. If a person cannot trust others, then they can refuse the trust of others too.

“He doesn’t mean it as an accusation; he’s just asking his coach to love him. And that’s the problem: love is like leadership. Asking for it doesn’t help.” 

This quote captures how difficult it is for the characters to ask for what they want. In this quote, William has asked his coach David who will be captain, implying his real desire to be the captain. However, what William really wants is to be appreciated and loved, and he doesn’t know how to show this human desire without being judged. The more he asks for it, the more he’s shamed for it, which twists into a tragic cycle of self-hatred and violence against others.

“No one knows exactly where violence comes from; that’s why someone who fights can always find a reasonable justification.” 

Without a deeper understanding of the origin of anger and trauma, violence can be a confusing reaction. Violence scares others away from discovering the root cause. However, the hesitancy to truly discover why someone can push themselves to violence is part of Beartown’s overarching problem.

“That’s the problem with dreams: you can get to the top of the mountain and discover that you’re scared of heights.” 

Many of the characters have dreams, but unlike Kira, they don’t necessarily have goals. When their dreams begin to come true, the characters tend to throw all their faith into them, even if the dreams are unrealistic. The characters in Beartown don’t believe that they have the option to create goals that they can follow to elevate their lives; instead, they believe in pipe dreams that are destined to disappoint them. Their tendency to dream instead of create goals is why they need the hockey club so desperately.

“The men who make up the Pack aren’t extremists; what makes them dangerous is simply the fact that they stick together. Against everything, through everything, for one another. Benji remembers a book he read by some journalist who said on the subject of sport and violence that ‘every large group you don’t yourself belong to is a threat.’” 

Backman arrives at the core of the psychology of sports in Beartown. The characters need a tribe to endure the trials of life in a small town. The loyalty of Beartown to its hockey team is what elevates the tension of the novel; the violence is simply a manifestation of that intense loyalty.

“Benji hates his own reflection. So does Ana. Because they should have been there. They should have stopped it. Things shouldn’t have gone completely to hell for their friends. It should always have been Ana and Benji. Because they aren’t the kind of people who get happy endings.” 

Benji and Ana blame themselves for what happened to their best friends because they come from a home life that is less secure than Maya and Kevin. The important element of this quote is the internalization of blame and status: Benji and Ana believe that they are fundamentally less worthy than the counterparts they discover in their best friends. They have the capacity to hurt others because they hurt themselves.

“Our spontaneous reactions are rarely our proudest moments. It’s said that a person’s first thought is the most honest, but that often isn’t true. It’s often just the most stupid. Why else would we have afterthoughts?”

Many of the characters are prone to spontaneous outbursts and often escalate a situation because they do not control their reactions. This quote highlights the guilt that comes with giving in to original spontaneous thoughts, and how many characters internalize those first thoughts as something bad about themselves. Many characters carry regret and guilt due to this issue.

“Perhaps one day he’ll find words for that feeling of being different. How physical it is. Exclusion is a form of exhaustion that eats its way into your skeleton. People who are like everyone else, who belong to the norm, the majority, can’t possibly understand it. How can they?” 

The context of this quote is that Benji has been outed and rejected by his team and by the Pack. The quote is important because it embodies Benji’s issue of not having the words to understand how he feels. Even though Benji has been a valued member of a group before, his secrets kept him secluded. Now that his secret is out, Benji’s loss of community is unspeakable. Backman suggests that these unspeakable feelings oppress the characters the most.

“There’s a sense of invincibility about deciding to die and then not going through with it. A sense of power over yourself. He walks home with a feeling that his body doesn’t belong to him, without knowing who’s going to inhabit it now.” 

Benji’s out-of-body experience when he meets the bear in the woods snaps him out of his depression and inspires him to continue living. This quote captures the powerful moment when Benji sees something larger than his temporary struggle and achieves “a sense of power” over himself. Backman uses this moment to suggest that all characters need to find a way to have power over their own selves. 

“That was when Vidar realized he was on his own. Everyone is. We are born alone, die alone, and fight alone. So Vidar fought. He thought he was going to die, he watched adults leave the fast-food restaurant, he might have been a child but no one tried to help him.” 

This quote is important for two reasons. The first is that Vidar lives differently than the rest of the townspeople, even within the Pack, because as much as he believes in loyalty and teamwork, he knows that everyone is essentially alone. Vidar therefore sees things more existentially, and has the power to be both individual and a community member. Secondly, the abandonment of a child to violence jars the reader into a deeper understanding of how children are raised to be tough in Beartown. That no one would come to the aid of a child in a public fight is disappointing and further reinforces Vidar’s belief that he has to raise himself and live for himself.

“‘Unfairness is a far more natural state in the world than fairness,’ Zackell says.” 

In this quote, Zackell gets to the heart of what people in Beartown love about hockey: It balances them and provides a refuge of fairness in the middle of an unfair world.

“…children are the only people who don’t have to take responsibility for anyone but themselves. The rest of us have to take responsibility for the things we cause to happen. You’re a leader. People follow you. So frankly, if you can’t take responsibility for the actions of your followers, that makes you nothing but a monster.” 

Here, Ramona holds Teemu accountable for the power he yields in the community. As the events in Beartown become more chaotic, few people want to step up and claim responsibility. Teemu is a leader, but he is characterized here as being on the brink of monster if he doesn’t properly use his role as a leader. Backman uses Teemu as a model for his larger message about choice.

“Small words. A small gesture. But that’s all it takes to say that we live here, too. And nobody messes with us.” 

Small words and small gestures go far in Beartown. Because the characters struggle with open and honest communication, their messaging through small gestures is crucial. It also highlights the close ties of the people in the community: They have their own social codes and mannerisms that they use to communicate larger messages.

“We’re just going to have to find a new normal, that’s all. There are two types of people now. Some of them need more time and some need more sense. There’s no hope for the second group, but we might have to wait to see how many there are in the first group before we start beating it into their heads.” 

Here, Ramona wisely provides a solution for Beartown. Chaos and tragedy have defined the last year, in a town already plagued by unemployment. Now that the drama of the novel is reaching its peak, Ramona sees that Beartown will have to restructure what “normal” means.

“Love and hate. Joy and sorrow. Anger and forgiveness. Sports carry the promise that we can have everything tonight. Only sports can do that.” 

For many people in Beartown, hockey is their venue for the manifestation of different emotions. They may not feel love and joy in their own lives and work, but hockey provides them with an outlet to feel everything their human bodies and minds need to feel.

“At some point almost everyone makes a choice. Some of us don’t even notice it happening, most don’t get to plan it in advance, but there’s always a moment when we take one path instead of another that has consequences for the rest of our lives.” 

This quote highlights the theme that people have a choice in how they react, act, and form their own lives. So many characters are identified by their animalistic inability to use reasoning to control their impulses, thereby propelling violence. However, the plot of the novel develops because of choices, such as Peter’s choice to accept Theo’s offer or the active harassment of Maya and Benji. Even Vidar’s death, his sacrifice of himself to save Ana, is a choice to protect the people he loves. 

“Perhaps none of this would have mattered if it hadn’t all happened during the same autumn and winter. Perhaps it wouldn’t have escalated if there hadn’t been a natural opportunity for all those people to meet in the same ice rink again before the year was out. But of course there was: another hockey game between Hed and Beartown.” 

This quote analyzes the importance of plot timing. Beartown was torn apart in the span of only a few months. The conflict began when Kevin raped Maya, but the ripple effect of the crime escalated to more conflicts, until the whole town finds itself in a chaotic feud with Hed. This raises the narrative tension and allows for a necessary metaphorical collision: one more game between Beartown and Hed.