63 pages • 2 hours read
The Snowman
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Themes
What Makes a Father
Although The Snowman is primarily a murder mystery, author Jo Nesbø delves deeply into the emotional lives of the characters, including the killer himself. Very early on, he prioritizes the topic of paternity when Harry is listening to the radio and hears a statistic stating that “between fifteen and twenty percent of all children born have a different father from the one they—and for that matter the postulated fathers—think” (19). As it turns out, the issue of fatherhood is the driving force behind Mathias’s career as the Snowman—he sees himself as avenging these “postulated fathers.” And although Arve Støp is the biological father of three children in the novel, he feels nothing for them. Nesbø uses the characters of Harry and Filip, and their relationships with their sons, Oleg and Jonas, to show the reader that fatherhood is not about biology, but a sustained and intimate connection.
With Harry and Oleg’s relationship, Nesbø shows the reader how a man can be a father, even if not biologically related. Although he has difficulty with personal relationships, Harry takes his connection to Oleg seriously. He struggles to be stable and reliable in nearly every aspect of his own life, but prioritizes his relationship with Oleg; in fact, Harry notes that when Rakel broke up with him, “he didn’t know whose loss had been greater” (36). Oleg is quiet and reserved, and yet forms a close connection to Harry: “The boy with the closed, wary nature whom Harry had reached, the boy with whom he had gradually developed bonds that in many ways were stronger than those Oleg had with his own father” (36). Even after Harry is no longer a part of Rakel’s life, Oleg follows Harry’s advice and denies Mathias the same intimacy.
At the end of the novel, Oleg’s faith in Harry as a father figure is validated as he utilizes several pieces of Harry’s sound advice to keep himself alive. When Harry opens the freezer, Oleg is armed with a skate that is only in the freezer because Harry trained Oleg to keep his skates cold. In fact, Oleg is only in the cellar because Harry has helped him face his fear of the dark, and he has gone down to prop a chair against the doorknob, another piece of Harry’s advice, in order to protect his mother. Oleg chose Harry as his father, and despite Mathias’s best efforts, in Oleg’s mind, Harry remains his father. Harry’s relationship with Oleg supports Nesbø’s contention that fatherhood is not a biological state, but a personal connection. He further explores this by tracing Filip Becker’s changing relationship with his son, Jonas.
When Birte Becker disappears, Filip Becker discovers her little black book, and uncovers her numerous sexual relationships with other men. He struggles with this discovery and with the suspicion that Jonas is not his biological child. In the beginning, the fact that he is not biologically Jonas’s father is all that counts, and he feels separate from Jonas, saying, “All I wanted to say was that…I have no son” (303). Filip struggles with this relationship throughout the novel, even testing Jonas’s DNA to confirm that he is not his biological father.
However, by the end of the novel, his perspective has changed; Birte’s body has been discovered, and Filip has been accused and cleared of the killing. His feelings about Jonas and their relationship shift as he gains a different understanding of family and fatherhood. At the end of the novel, he tells Jonas, “I love you so much. You’re the dearest thing I have. You’re my boy. Do you hear? My boy. And you always will be” (484). Although he has struggled with the revelation that Jonas is not biologically his child, in the end, he and Jonas are bound together by love and their experience. With this shift, Nesbø draws the issue to a close; he has shown, through the relationships of Harry and Oleg, and Filip and Jonas, that fatherhood involves much more than biology, and these men are true fathers to these children, regardless of their biological connection.
Truth Versus Public Perception
One important feature of the Nordic noir genre is its focus on what lies below the surface; in addition to solving mysteries, the novels often comment on corruption, brutality, racism, sexism, and other unethical influences that exist in institutions that present themselves as beyond reproach. In The Snowman, Nesbø delves below the surface of law enforcement and media to explore the way that the police journalists deal with scandals and politics, specifically using the character of Arve Støp to highlight the corruption and hypocrisy of those who claim the moral high ground.
The character of Arve Støp exemplifies hypocrisy and corruption in the novel. He is an example of moral superiority—his publication, Liberal, polices Norway’s institutions and well-known figures, rooting out corruption and hypocrisy. Yet Arve lives a double life, secretly engaging in numerous affairs with married women who have children. He specifically seeks these women out and doesn’t even understand why himself, thinking, “He didn’t have the answers, and what would he do with them anyway?” (359). These affairs have resulted in children that are at risk of inheriting a genetic disease from him, and yet, even knowing this, Arve continues with his lifestyle.
In an interaction with Harry, Arve dismisses integrity altogether. When Arve tells Harry that he didn’t give the police information because he was afraid of the damage to Liberal’s label, or brand, Harry responds, “I seem to remember that you said the only capital was your personal integrity” (364). Arve responds, “Integrity. Label. It’s the same thing” (364). When Harry pushes him further, saying, “So if something looks like integrity, then it’s integrity?” Arve replies, “That’s what sells Liberal. If people feel they’re given the truth, they’re satisfied” (364). This exchange exposes Arve’s hypocrisy completely.
Arve is a popular media figure who holds himself up as an example of high moral standing. His publication, Liberal, justifies its work by saying that the corruption that lies under the surface should be exposed. However, when Harry threatens to do the same to him, he is outraged, saying “That…would crush me” (352). Harry responds, “More or less the way Liberal crushes someone every week on its front page?” (352). Arve is stymied, as if he is only now seeing the hypocrisy of his position and quickly agrees to tell Harry the entire story in order to keep his secrets secret. Nesbø uses the character of Arve Støp to expose the hypocrisy of institutions considered beyond blame, an issue that he explores through Norway’s police system as well.
Nesbø explores how the truth is often manipulated through both the Bergen and the Oslo police departments. In Bergen, Gert Rafto is genuinely guilty of stealing from crime scenes; however, because of this, the department takes the opportunity to scapegoat him for police brutality as well. As Nesbø points out, “everyone knew that the inspector had been made a scapegoat for a culture that had permeated the Bergen police for many years” (57). While Rafto is guilty of brutality, the truth is that the entire department is guilty, making their accusation of him hypocritical. By pinning a department-wide offense on a single officer, they avoid accountability and only appear to resolve the corruption.
At the Oslo police station, the chief superintendent and his peers are willing to take credit for successes throughout the Snowman investigation—often announcing conclusions before investigators are even sure. However, when they are faced with scandal and humiliation, they, like the Bergen department, decide to pin the blame on a scapegoat, Harry Hole. Both Harry and Gunnar understand the motivation behind the department’s decision and recognize that, as underlings, they cannot escape the blame the way their superiors can. However, even though Gunnar is susceptible to the politics of the job, such as when he asks Harry, “If we still haven’t got the murderer after three months, who do you think will have to answer questions about the unit’s priorities?” (116), Harry stays true to his ideals. To Gunnar, he replies, “‘I’ve thought about how we’ll catch this guy, not about how I’m going to justify not catching him’” (116). Nesbø uses Harry’s high moral ground to contrast against how even an upright person like Gunnar can fall prey to the need to politick.
How to Catch a Killer
In Harry Hole, Jo Nesbø has created a smart, driven, yet troubled investigator. Harry knows that he is consumed by his work, calling it the Great Obsession, “which was everything at once: love and intoxication, blindness and clear-sightedness, meaning and madness. Colleagues spoke now and then about excitement, but this was something else, something special” (132). Although Harry knows the way he engages with his work isn’t healthy, his obsession gets results. Although his superiors may not like the way he works, they reap the benefits of his success and so give him the latitude to run the investigation his way. Although the novel honestly depicts Harry’s flaws, ultimately his work catching killers is privileged above the sacrifices of mental health and institutional policies (the institution has been shown to be corrupt anyway). Thematically, How to Catch a Killer represents a righteousness to certain kinds of work that is not beholden to social or institutional limitations.
Harry is considered the preeminent detective in Norway, partly due to his overwhelming and public success. His methodology is unconventional, but many aspects of it have to do with perspective: maintaining, shifting, broadening, or narrowing it, depending on the needs of the case. For example, his insistence on having a small team, unencumbered by administrative busywork, is an effort to maintain a broader perspective on the case. He explains it to Gunnar by saying, “Free thinking functions best in small groups” (113). When Gunnar responds in disbelief, “What about standard police work? Following up forensic evidence, questioning, checking tips?” Harry explains further, “I don’t want to drown in all that” (113). Although he compromises with Gunnar and expands the team, it is with the strict understanding that the satellite team will operate independently to follow up on all of those details that Gunnar mentioned, leaving Harry and his small team free.
Open-mindedness is hallmark of Harry’s approach. As he tells Filip Becker, “‘Sometimes you don’t know what you’re looking for until you find it’” (50). When he undertakes mentoring Katrine, he shares his unusual methodology as they search Gert Rafto’s cabin: “‘We search,’ Harry said. ‘What for?’ ‘That’s the last of our thoughts.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because it’s easy to miss something important if you’re searching for something else. Clear your mind. You’ll know what you’re searching for when you see it’” (198). In the same way, he decides not to talk to the Bergen police about their old cases, preferring to approach the files with a clear and open mind, unaffected by other detectives’ interpretations.
Harry applies his principles of perspective and open-mindedness to every murder investigation; however, in the Snowman case, his specific experience with serial killers also comes into play. His methodology shifts slightly because he understands, as Gunnar does not, that a serial killer investigation is different: “No one out there knows anything, so the calls that come in won’t help up, they’ll just delay us. And any possible forensic clues we uncover have been left there to confuse us. In a nutshell, this is a different kind of game” (114). Harry’s experience with the FBI affected the way he approaches any investigation, but it specifically trained him to recognize the differences between a killer and a serial killer.
Harry understands that, to the Snowman, the investigation is a game, and therefore, he is an adversary—the Snowman challenges him on a personal level. In fact, Mathias also recognizes this when he kills Rafto and discovers “the satisfaction of having taken the life of the hunter” (438). He becomes intrigued by this new pleasure and notes that “this Herostratically famous Hole appeared to have something of Rafto about him, some of the same offhandedness and anger” (438). Harry knows that, in this game, he has to make himself vulnerable to draw the Snowman out, facing Mathias, alone, at the ski jump, and even giving him his gun. In the end, Harry is successful because he keeps his perspective and an open mind, and understands that, to the Snowman, it is all a game.
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