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Chapter 44
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Beartown, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Community Breakdown and Inequality
Culture, Character, and Entitlement
Parents and Children
Loyalty and Belonging
Resistance and Courage
Summary
Analysis
From Zacharias’s bedroom window, Amat sees his teammates congregating outside. He knows this is no longer about what Kevin has or hasn’t done, but about the fact that the team is looking for an enemy, and that Amat is a convenient one. He goes outside.
Regardless of what they believe about Kevin, the hockey players are angry about Amat’s disloyalty. Feeling more secure in who he is, Amat doesn’t hesitate to confront them; he doesn’t have anything more to lose.
Themes
Ann-Katrin watches the hockey team speaking to her son outside the house. Lyt is giving Bobo orders. Bobo has only ever wanted to belong to something. Now he stands there alone as the rest of the team angrily disappears. She and Hog say nothing as Bobo picks up a hoodie and scarf to match the rest of the group and leaves.
Like Amat, Bobo has never really felt like a part of the crowd, either—perhaps it’s why he’s fallen back on bullying kids with less power than him. At this moment, it looks like he’s going to capitulate to the team’s expectations.
Themes
Amat knows he stands no chance against the guys, but somehow he’s no longer frightened. Pretty soon he’s being assaulted by several teammates at once, one of them holding a metal pipe. Bobo, ever slower than the rest of the group, catches up after they’ve started attacking Amat. He steps forward and starts throwing punches, sending Lyt to the ground. Eventually, though, they overpower him.
Bobo soon reveals that he’s on Amat’s side after all. It’s obvious that he and Amat can’t hold out against their entire team, but they give it a valiant attempt anyway. It’s a shining moment for Bobo, showing that his character is better than the jokes he’s told and the fights he’s started.
Themes
A car stops a short distance away, illuminating the boys with its headlights. They take off running. Amat and Bobo lie there in silence for a while, then slowly assess their injuries. They start joking about their first encounter on the practice ice a few weeks ago, until Amat’s broken rib makes laughter too painful.
Amat and Bobo survive the attack, although they’re badly beaten up. The ordeal cements their friendship even as it puts them permanently outside the inner circle of Beartown hockey.
Themes
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Two men get out of the Saab that’s still parked a short distance away. It turns out that Ramona sent them. One of the men says that he still doesn’t know if he trusts Amat, but he trusts Ramona. He hands Amat five thousand-kronor notes and tells him to make sure he really does become a great hockey player.
It turns out that The Pack has intervened to stop the fight. Amat gets his money back, as well as winning some respect in the eyes of The Pack. There’s nothing he’d like better than to prove himself as a hockey player.
Themes
