103 pages • 3 hours read
Beartown
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Character Analysis
Kevin Erdahl
Kevin is 17 years old and is widely celebrated as the best player on the Beartown junior team. The following year, he will either be on the A-team or will be drafted into the NHL. Kevin is not happy, however. His parents are detached and never attend his games. They value success and perfection, rarely showing affection for their son. Kevin develops a crush on Maya and invites her to a party at his house after they win the semifinal. At the party, he becomes intoxicated and takes the also-intoxicated Maya up to his room. When she refuses to have sex, Kevin rapes her. Afterward, she tells the police, and Kevin is taken off the bus before the trip to play the final in another town. However, the town rallies around Kevin, and he is exonerated of the crime because he is the prize commodity on the hockey team; his father’s influence helps to bring the investigation to a premature end. Kevin’s release brings him little relief, as his best friend, Benji, no longer wants anything to do with him because he knows that Kevin is guilty. Ten years after the rape, Kevin will see Maya in a parking lot, but she will not tell his wife what happened. He, however, will tell his wife everything.
Amat
Amat is a poor 15-year-old boy from the Hollow. When the novel begins, he is playing on the boys’ team, one level below the juniors, but he is the fastest skater on either team, which the coach, Sune, notices. David gives Amat a chance to play on the junior team, and he quickly proves his abilities. Besides hockey, Amat’s priority is his mother, Fatima, and her poor health. She cleans the hockey rink, and Amat is protective of her at all times. Amat is also in love with Maya. He witnesses what Kevin does to Maya on the night of the rape, and Amat eventually testifies to the police, alienating himself from most of the team. They come to his home one night and beat him badly, but he knows that he did the right thing. When he buys the guitar for Maya, this gesture demonstrates his selflessness and love for her.
Amat is a symbol of perseverance and courage. He has to work harder than anyone else to earn his spot, a fact that David points out more than once. When he makes the team and begins to feel the town’s expectations of him, hockey starts to feel like work to him for the first time. But as the novel ends, it’s clear that he will stay in Beartown and continue playing.
Benji Ovich
Benji is the toughest player on the team, and he also acts as Kevin’s protector and best friend for most of the novel. Benji is also gay and has kept this secret from everyone, although his sisters know. Benji is often overcome by sadness over his father’s suicide, and he is frustrated by Beartown’s anti-gay biases and dislikes the pressure he feels to hide his sexual identity. He smokes marijuana constantly and often gets in trouble for fighting, but he is rarely punished because of his value to the hockey team.
After Kevin rapes Maya, Benji is no longer interested in being Kevin’s friend, particularly after Kevin calls him a virus and accuses him of always taking advantage of Kevin’s family. Benji begins seeing a bass player who plays in a band at a bar in Hed, and whenever he enjoys the company of another gay man, he finds a rare sense of happiness. As the novel ends, Benji makes it clear that he will stay in Beartown to play hockey.
Maya Andersson
Maya is the 15-year-old daughter of Peter and Kira Andersson. She is not interested in hockey but plays the guitar constantly. She is best friends with Ana but misses the old version of Ana who was wilder, more interested in nature, and unconcerned with appearing normal. Maya initially has a crush on Kevin, but when he rapes her, she chooses to tell the truth about what happened to her, even though she knows that doing so will make her the town’s greatest enemy because she is daring to tarnish the reputation of the star hockey player. Due to the town’s obsessive focus on hockey, Maya becomes the target of constant abuse and cannot sleep, as Kevin’s sexual violence has made her afraid of the dark.
After the investigation ends, she decides that either she or Kevin needs to die. However, when she gets the chance to kill him with a shotgun, she instead spares his life, deciding to scare him in order to teach him a lesson. Ten years later, she is playing a sold-out concert with the guitar that Amat bought for her.
In some ways, Maya deals with her assault more effectively than her parents do, taking on a comforting role for her own parents in the aftermath of the rape. She spends a good deal of time comforting others, even though she is the one who has suffered the most from Kevin’s actions.
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