52 pages • 1 hour read
Fredrik BackmanUs Against You
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “Beartown Against the Rest”
Richard Theo tips off a journalist that Beartown Ice Hockey is coming back with a new woman coach and new sponsor. The rumor is immediately announced, and Theo has Tails, a dear friend of Peter’s and the owner of a grocery store in town, sell “Beartown Against the Rest” t-shirts. He sells out with the hour. The sudden twist of events even inspires Kira, who tells Peter that she will yet again put all her support into his hockey club dream. Peter officially confirms the rumor as news, and a new Beartown Ice Hockey team begins.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Smells Blood and Catches Fire”
Richard Theo continues his behind-the-scenes political work, arranging alliances and future conflicts between politicians. He anonymously instigates heated debate about the allocation of Beartown tax-payer money online, he navigates deals with politicians of his opposing party, all while carefully planning a strategy of how to make “us against them” more than a sports slogan.
Chapter 18 Summary: “A Woman”
Peter makes the rounds to some of the boys’ mothers. Zackell wants Bobo and Amat leading the A-Team, with Benji as the team captain. The A-Team plays with and against grown men, not other teenagers like in the junior leagues. Peter needs to convince the families that they can trust their boys with him and Zackell. He tells Fatima and Ann-Katrin first, and they immediately understand the danger but also the potential for their sons. Peter admits to Ann-Katrin that Bobo won’t be good enough to play the following year, so he’ll need to give everything he’s got for this season with the understanding that it will be his last. Ann-Katrin, who is secretly dying, knows that even one more year is precious. Later, Peter visits Benji’s family where he convinces Adri to rein Benji in a bit so that he can be the team captain. Adri reminds Peter not to turn his back on the people who supported him (she’s referring to, they both know, the Pack).
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Same Blue Polo Shirt”
The first day of school arrives and the students gather for a “new term, equal measures of expectation and anxiety, bittersweet reunions with everyone you love and everyone you hate, and the knowledge that there’s no way to avoid breathing the same air as both groups” (165). This turns out to be all too accurate almost immediately, when William and Bobo accidentally run into one another and dive into the first fight of the year. Benji comes to Bobo’s defense, and the other students watch as William Lyt has no choice but to walk away. Maya and Ana hear the fight from their locker, next to a girl who accuses Maya of enjoying all the attention her rape case has gotten her. Meanwhile, a young teacher named Jeanette tries to convince the school principal to let her start a Mixed Martial Arts course to help teach the students discipline. Their conversation is interrupted by a new teacher, a young good-looking man. When the new teacher goes to his classroom to prepare his class, he and Benji are shocked to see one another. The new teacher is the man Benji met at the bar and slept with that night.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Shaving Cream in Your Shoes”
Bobo’s father gives him some helpful tips about what it’s like to play hockey on the A-team. He tells Bobo to wear old shoes, because the older men will fill his shoes with shaving cream. What seems like hazing is actually their way of showing that they respect you. Bobo and Amat are immediately noticed by the older players. Amat is the smallest and stays quiet, but Bobo tries to win the others over with jokes and pranks. Zackell makes the team do hardcore fitness drills one after the other. The men try to thwart Amat, but he is too good and too fast. In the locker room, Amat finds his shoes filled with shaving cream, but Bobo’s are clean. Zackell tells him that when the team believes they need Bobo, then they’ll start respecting him. Bobo buys shaving cream on the way home to put in his own shoes so his father will stay proud of him.
Chapters 16-20 Analysis
These chapters reveal the human nature behind insecurities. Although insecurity is much more heightened in Backman’s adolescent characters, the adults are not free from their own self-conscious anxieties. Richard Theo is the most confident, in part because he can identify other people’s weaknesses and use it to his advantage. However, everybody else is struggling along.
The first sign of insecurity is the fight between Bobo and William. William is so eager to prove himself as superior, strong, and scary that he fights for no reason. The fight occurs so quickly and organically, as if it is William’s instinct to always be on the lookout for a violent confrontation. Living with this edge is stressful, and William can’t fill that role against someone like Benji, who defends Bobo. William acts the part of tough guy more than he embodies it. This foreshadows more conflict to come: In Beartown, no one is honest about how vulnerable they are.
Backman further emphasizes the theme of insecurities with Bobo’s sub-plot. Bobo’s situation at home is difficult: his beloved family is suffering through their mother’s illness that will lead to her death. Bobo helps his father at the garage and bears the responsibility of school, hockey, friends, and being the older brother. Bobo doesn’t show his sensitive and empathetic side to the rest of the town; instead, he tries to make the other teammates of the A-team laugh at him. He says he wants to be respected, but the dramatic irony here is that Bobo is a good, thoughtful person. He succumbs to the pressures of wanting to make his father proud, his own reputation as a teenager on a team of men, and his insecurities about being a young man in search of self-worth.
Backman interweaves the focus of his narration between adults and teenagers alike to point out that even though dealing with insecurities appears more painful as a teenager, insecurities do not go away with adulthood. Peter Andersson is a former hockey professional, a devoted father, and well-loved husband. Yet, even Peter feels shame over the current state of Beartown hockey, a shame he internalizes as his own fault and weakness. Peter is almost embarrassed to approach the families of the teenage players about playing on the A-team, too cognizant of his responsibility and reputation in the town.
Backman highlights the issue of insecurity in teenagers and adults to emphasize an even bigger concept. The characters in Us Against You all want to believe in something bigger than themselves, as if their own selves are not enough. However, Backman uses the sports metaphor aptly: A team is made up of diverse individuals. It is true that they have to come together to become an “us,” but believing in one’s own contributions to that team will make the team more confident. This point is embodied by Amat, who believes in his own talent and his dreams so much that he doesn’t let the older teammates get the better of him, thereby earning their respect.
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