Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Man Called Ove, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory and Grief
Rules and Order
Love, Family, and Community
Principles, Fairness, and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Ove replaces the pink flowers at Sonja's gravestone and then tells her that life has been mayhem as an apology for being late. The narrator says that Ove doesn't know what happened to him after Sonja's funeral. His routine was entirely upended. He and Sonja stayed up late watching TV on Fridays and got ice cream on Saturdays. On Sundays they went to a cafe and then one Monday, Sonja wasn't there anymore. Ove doesn't know when he got so quiet and wonders if he's going insane. He runs his fingers over Sonja's gravestone and realizes that he misses having things the same as usual.
Ove is very conscious of the fact that his engagement with the community has kept him from dwelling on Sonja (though he might choose different or more positive terminology, like remembering). It's telling that he misses his routine and misses Sonja. It suggests that if Ove can find a new routine that includes his community, he might find happiness and comfort again.
Themes
Ove bought his Saab thirteen years ago. Not long after he bought it, GM acquired Saab. Ove spent the day cursing, and Ove never bought another car.
Saab's sellout to an American company is understandably offensive to Ove; he'd rather drive his Saab forever than drive something that isn't really a Saab.
Themes
Sonja always said there was a time for everything. The narrator says she got her cancer diagnosis four years ago. Sonja forgave the world, while Ove fought the men in white shirts for insurance and assistance. Sonja gradually reduced her workload and finally quit in her last year, telling her students to visit. Most of them did, and Sonja told Ove that God took a child from her but gave her thousands in return. She died not long after. Ove takes a deep breath and tells Sonja's gravestone that he'll see her tomorrow.
Again, Sonja chooses to see the good in what happened to her. She's able to conceptualize the thousands of children as a reasonable tradeoff for not getting a child of her own, and it seems as though her students truly loved her. Ove again turned to fighting bureaucracy, since fighting the cancer was a lost cause. His promise to see her tomorrow foreshadows yet another suicide attempt; he still hasn't fully decided to remain alive.
Themes
Parvaneh is waiting in the car for Ove and asks if she could help Ove put Sonja's things away. Ove cuts her off and angrily tells her no.
Ove isn't ready to relegate Sonja to memory. He takes comfort in his grief, as it allows him to think he doesn't have to change.
Themes
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