Us Against You

Hockey is the symbol that both brings an entire town together and propels violence. Backman’s narrator assures the reader several times that even though everything is about hockey, at the same time nothing is about hockey. Hockey is the sport in which the players and the fans can project all their worries and manifest all their desires. Hockey provides the opportunity for a low-income, struggling town to win and therefore earn respect. Hockey is the solid ground for people whose lives are in perpetual conflict; it is a shared interest that brings different people together, and therefore makes lonely people feel included. The townspeople in Beartown love hockey because of how it feels to have a game to watch, a team to root for, and a space for community. 

The narrative is often punctuated with a rhythmic, italicized “bang bang bang.” The “bang” represents a noise, and it is a motif because it happens often and is symbolic of the inner and outer realities of the people in Beartown. The bang is a consistent motif, but it symbolizes something different depending on the context. Sometimes, the bang represents a thumping heartbeat that characters experience when they’re dealing with trauma or their own nerves.