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
A few mornings later, Parvaneh lets herself into Ove's house and runs for his bathroom. Ove remembers Sonja saying, "hell has no fury like a pregnant woman in need" and says nothing. The neighbors have been talking about how engaged Ove has been the last few days, but Ove insists he's just never "engaged" in their business before. He's spent the last few nights in Patrick and Parvaneh's kitchen with Jimmy, Mirsad, Adrian, and Anders, formulating a plan to help Rune. After a few nights, Ove made a phone call.
Ove's thought here confirms that he and Parvaneh get along because Parvaneh also shares similarities with Sonja, which provides him with a real person to begin taking the place of her memory. Ove finally chooses to engage with his community, which allows him to change for the better and also follow his principles of doing rather than just speaking.
Themes
Parvaneh comes out of the bathroom and the two head out Ove's door. As she passes Ove's living room, Parvaneh stops and stares at the blue crib. Ove explains that if Parvaneh has a girl, he can repaint it pink, though he adds that boys can have pink too. He tells Parvaneh she can't have it if she cries but when she starts crying, he just sighs and walks out.
Ove's strict ideas about gender have been challenged since meeting Mirsad, which makes this moment even more touching. He's not only releasing the memory of his unborn child by passing on the crib, he's also already accepting Parvaneh's child regardless of sexuality.
Themes
Half an hour later, the man in the white shirt knocks on Rune and Anita's door. Anita opens it and he tells her it's time to take Rune. She tells him no. They argue and he asks who's going to take care of him, and Ove, Parvaneh, Patrick, Jimmy, Anders, and Adrian appear behind her and say that they will. The man looks suspicious. Lena walks up to the house with a recorder, introduces herself as a journalist, and pulls out a stack of papers. The man meets Ove's eyes.
All assembled, the community is a force to be reckoned with: Ove has his principles, Parvaneh her forceful personality, Anders can take care of those who drive in the residential area, and Patrick can rally the neighborhood to action. The reaction of the man in the white shirt suggests that this is not something he expected to deal with; he was betting on a fractured or unengaged community.
Themes
Lena explains that the papers are records of the man in the white shirt's patients over the last few years who have been improperly placed in assisted living. The man keeps staring at Ove as Patrick explains that they also have his bank statements, email records, and web history. The man turns white and stays silent for minutes. He angrily asks where they got all this information, and Ove angrily yells "the internet." Lena points out that there's nothing technically illegal in what they found, but the documents could lead to a years-long legal investigation. The man leaves, much to Ove's surprise.
Finally, Ove calls the one person in his greater community that he truly doesn't want anything to do with in order to help Rune. What she finds shows that Ove is right: rules are extremely powerful, and breaking them has major consequences when others find out rules have been broken. Ove's development is also obvious when he asserts that they used the Internet, something he's distrustful of (and something that, at its core, is based on community).
Themes
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Lena reminds Ove of what he promised her—an interview—and asks if he's read the letter yet. He hasn't. Ove spends an hour sitting with Rune before he goes home.
In order to save one member of the community, Ove voluntarily gives up his love of privacy and agrees to share his story with the greater community of newspaper readers.
Themes
