69 pages • 2 hours read
Fredrik BackmanThe Winners
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Jersey 16
Jersey 16 is Benji’s jersey number. He wore this number through the first two books in the series, both while playing with Kevin and without him. When he returns to Beartown, it becomes clear that Coach Zackell has been reserving the jersey number for him. No one has played with it since he has left, and although she never approaches him or asks him to rejoin the team, the narrator shares that the only time in her coaching career that she lets another person play with 16 on their jersey is the first time Alicia plays for the national team.
The jersey, and the legacy it gains after Benji’s death, symbolizes how important Benji was to the people who knew him. It represents that he is constantly in the thoughts of his loved ones even as they heal from the trauma of his death. By holding his jersey number from being selected by another player, Zackell makes a symbolic space for Benji on every team she coaches.
In some ways, this holding of the jersey number is like the retirement of numbers that occurs in some sports leagues. Some sports organizations “retire” a player’s jersey number after they stop playing or after their death as a reflection of an impactful career. For example, the first ever retired major-league baseball number was that of Lou Gehrig (number 4), which was retired after Gehrig left the game because of his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diagnosis.
Butterflies
Butterflies are associated with Ruth: She had a butterfly tattoo, and later Matteo draws a butterfly on the box containing her ashes and her headstone. To Matteo, the butterflies represent Ruth and her need for freedom. By getting a tattoo, she rebelled against her religious upbringing, pushing back against the ideologies that attempted to suppress her individuality. The tattoo is destroyed during her cremation, but Matteo gives it a second chance at life by copying it twice—once in ink, and once in stone. Butterflies also show how difficult it is to survive in Beartown, which is further reflected in Ruth’s eventual death, because butterflies are fragile creatures that cannot thrive in frigid, northern climates. They migrate to avoid the worst weather, just as Ruth migrated to other countries for her own survival.
There is an unquestionable parallel between Ruth’s butterfly tattoos and Maya’s gun and guitar tattoos. Where Ruth’s tattoo was aspirational, Maya’s are historical and memorial. They symbolize her relationship with Ana and her own perseverance. It is yet another way that the two girls emerge from their trauma as changed beings.
Peter’s Bread
Bread baking becomes Peter’s hobby in the years between Us Against You and The Winners. He bakes often and receives praise from his loved ones for doing so. In fact, his skills seem to extend to include pastry making, as later in the novel he is seen making croissants, a very difficult pastry to perfect. Kira internally comments on his bread baking as part of his desire to create something, but her assessment does not fully encompass all of what this new hobby is.
The process of baking bread is an arduous one that is often dependent on a variety of factors for its success. Peter engages in something that takes a lot of time and skill because his previously mastered passion, hockey, no longer has a place for him. Hockey similarly requires lots of time and energy, making bread baking a place filler for something that previously consumed most of his time. Additionally, baking bread is not just about creation; it is also about nourishing. He is creating something to be consumed by his loved ones. As food is vital for survival, he is attempting to make himself necessary through the production of food, an effort that falls flat with the knowledge that other food is available.
Baking is traditionally a quintessentially domestic act. Peter himself acknowledges that he was not around very much during his children’s youth, having devoted himself to hockey. He now immersed himself in the culture of domesticity as overcompensation for his past negligence. He does this even though his baking is the source of some mockery from his loved ones, hoping to recover from past mistakes.
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By Fredrik Backman
