Ove loves building and fixing houses because they're fair and predictable: you get out of a house what you put into it. Because of this, houses function as a symbol for Ove's love of fairness and loyalty. Ove and Sonja's house in particular functions this way after Ove rebuilds it to accommodate Sonja's wheelchair. By making it so Sonja can move freely through the house and continue her normal activities, Ove demonstrates his loyalty to Sonja and her quality of life.
Houses Quotes in A Man Called Ove
The A Man Called Ove quotes below all refer to the symbol of Houses. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2
Quotes
Every morning for the almost four decades they had lived in this house, Ove had put on the coffee percolator, using exactly the same amount of coffee as on any other morning, and then drank a cup with his wife.
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Chapter 5
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And if you could just go and buy everything, what was the value of it? What was the value of a man?
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Chapter 10
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He'd discovered that he liked houses. Maybe mostly because they were understandable... Houses were fair, they gave you what you deserved. Which, unfortunately, was more than one could say about people.
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Chapter 14
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She wanted to get married, so Ove proposed. She wanted children, which was fine with him, said Ove. And their understanding was that children should live in row housing developments among other children.
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Chapter 17
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As if the kitchen had been built for a child. Parvaneh stares at them the way people always do when they see it for the first time. Ove has got used to it. He rebuilt the kitchen himself after the accident. The council refused to help, of course.
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Epilogue
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The woman is pregnant. Her eyes glitter as she walks through the rooms, the way eyes glitter when a person imagines her child's future memories unfolding there on the floor.
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Get the entire A Man Called Ove LitChart as a printable PDF.
Houses Symbol Timeline in A Man Called Ove
The timeline below shows where the symbol Houses appears in A Man Called Ove. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
2. (Three Weeks Earlier) A Man Called Ove Makes His Neighborhood Inspection
...puts an improperly parked bicycle into the shed. Then he walks back to his own house and leans down to check if his paving stones smell like urine (they do). He...
(full context)
Ove looks at the house opposite his, where a family with children is moving in. He looks at his ceiling...
(full context)
3. A Man Called Ove Backs Up With a Trailer
...window in his face and backs the car and trailer up perfectly between the two houses. The Lanky One thanks Ove for the help as Ove insults his driving abilities.
(full context)
Ove goes into his house muttering about his new neighbors. He stares at his living room ceiling and loses himself...
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6. A Man Called Ove and a Bicycle That Should Have Been Left Where Bicycles Are Left
Ove gets out of his Saab, locks the garage door, and heads back to his house. As he passes the bike shed he sees a woman's bicycle improperly parked outside. Ove...
(full context)
As Ove stomps back to his house he thinks about all his horrible neighbors. He remembers that the heavy young man's name...
(full context)
When Ove gets close to his house, he notices that “Blond Weed” is yelling violently and throwing stones at the cat, which...
(full context)
...cat seems unconcerned and saunters away. Ove slams his door on the way into his house and decides he's had enough and he's going to die now.
(full context)
7. A Man Called Ove Drills A Hole For A Hook
...of plastic. Ove isn't worried about making a mess hanging himself—rather, he knows that his house will be crawling with real estate agents as soon as he's dead. Ove puts his...
(full context)
9. A Man Called Ove Bleeds a Radiator
...the feud between Ove and Rune had been about a new heating system for the houses in the neighborhood, though it was really about many things and spanned 37 years. Ove...
(full context)
10. A Man Who Was Ove and a House That Ove Built
...realized he wasn't a part of. Ove began receiving letters from the council about his house being on the edge of a municipal boundary. He noticed that the middle class were...
(full context)
...next day. Ove began throwing away the letters from the council and finished repairing his house. He'd learned that he liked houses because they were fair and understandable, unlike people.
(full context)
...Ove gave him some and they ended up sitting in Ove's kitchen talking about remodeling houses for an hour. When Ove admitted to the man that he didn't have house insurance,...
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Ove tried to avoid his neighbors, but several weeks after finishing his house one of the neighbors was robbed. The neighbors figured that Ove stole money to renovate...
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When Ove reached his porch, he realized it was his elderly neighbor's house burning, not his own. The man and his wife were out of the house. Ove...
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By that time, the fire department had arrived and the fire had reached Ove's house. When Ove ran to put out the fire, a man in a white shirt explained...
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11. A Man Called Ove and a Lanky One Who Can't Open a Window Without Falling Off a Ladder
When Ove leaves his house for his inspection the next morning, the ground is covered in snow. Ove notices the...
(full context)
...get the job done. Ove goes inside, puts on his good suit, and prepares his house for his death.
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Ove angrily walks to where the Škoda was parked in front of Rune and Anita's house. He picks up cigarette butts that the driver threw on the ground. Anita appears, greets...
(full context)
12. A Man Who Was Ove and One Day He Had Enough
The night after the house fire, Ove slept in his car. Two days later, two men in white shirts showed...
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14. A Man Who Was Ove and a Woman On A Train
...he wanted to do with his life, and he answered that he wanted to build houses. She angrily asked him why he wasn't doing that. On Monday, she showed up at...
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...He and Sonja married and agreed to have children, so they moved into the row house near the forest. And now, less than 40 years after their first date, the forest...
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15. A Man Called Ove and a Delayed Train
Ove had prepared his house for his death and not noticed the cat-shaped hole in the snow outside his shed....
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17. A Man Called Ove and a Cat Annoyance in a Snowdrift
...cat out of the snow. She yells at Ove to open the door to his house. Ove feels out of breath and thinks of Ernest as Parvaneh yells again to open...
(full context)
Parvaneh strides into Ove's house with the dripping cat and orders Ove to find her blankets. She tells him to...
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18. A Man Who Was Ove and a Cat Called Ernest
...meeting and got in the Saab, she told Ove that they needed to buy a house. When Ove asked why, she put his hand on her belly and told him that...
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19. A Man Called Ove and a Cat That Was Broken When He Came
...day yelling at Parvaneh that he wouldn't keep the cat, the cat is in his house today and Ove isn't dead. Parvaneh had called a vet, who had left Ove a...
(full context)
20. A Man Called Ove and an Intruder
Ove walks towards his house with the cat, goes inside, and sits on his stool. He's shaking with humiliation and...
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22. A Man Called Ove and Someone in a Garage
...shoveled snow, Lena reappeared and tried to talk to Ove. Ove locked himself in his house, but Lena continued to bang on his door and called him a hero. When she...
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23. A Man Who Was Ove and a Bus That Never Got There
Ove rebuilt the house and made it accessible for Sonja's wheelchair. She returned to teacher training the day after...
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25. A Man Called Ove and a Piece of Corrugated Iron
...positioned all the photographs of Sonja so that she seems to follow him through the house. When Ove picks up the pill bottle, the cat looks at him with a horrified...
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28. A Man Who Was Ove and a Man Who Was Rune
...and demanded all residents put out poison, but everyone refused. Someone sprinkled birdseed behind Rune's house, which attracted massive rats, and Rune put out poison. There was then the "Snow Clearance...
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31. A Man Called Ove Backs Up a Trailer. Again.
The man in the white shirt gets out of his car by Rune and Anita's house as Ove yells at him. The man asks Ove what he's going to do about...
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Ove walks to Parvaneh's house and asks if Patrick is home. Parvaneh nods and Patrick opens the door. He greets...
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When the man in the white shirt comes out of Rune's house, he finds his car blocked by a trailer. Ove stands there and insists he didn't...
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...back and win, and that life will go on without Sonja. Ove goes into his house, ignores Parvaneh banging on the door, and cries.
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32. A Man Called Ove Isn't Running a Damned Hotel
...to Spain, which she refused to take down. In the morning, Ove wakes to a house occupied by himself, the cat, and a gay person. He thinks that Sonja would've liked...
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33. A Man Called Ove and an Inspection Tour That Is Not the Usual
...thought he had more time to help, and then strides off to Anita and Rune's house. He bangs on the door and Anita opens it. Ove steps in without being invited...
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34. A Man Called Ove and a Boy in the House Next Door
...The narrator explains that over the last forty years, many different people lived in the house between Ove and Rune. Ove and Rune could always agree that the current residents of...
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...bull neck. Anita and Sonja tried to ignore the shouting they heard coming from the house, but began to notice bruises on the woman. When Ove heard the boy pleading one...
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35. A Man Called Ove and Social Incompetence
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...
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36. A Man Called Ove and a Whiskey
...came over the night before. The narrator says that last night after dinner at Parvaneh's house, Nasanin had asked Ove to read her a story. After Nasanin and the cat had...
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...to her. She explained the game she was playing to Ove, in which she builds houses and then cities. Ove sat with her and they played the game for two and...
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37. A Man Called Ove and a Lot of Bastards Sticking Their Noses In
When the group gets back to their street, Amel is standing outside Ove's house. Mirsad mumbles a greeting and Ove has dinner at Parvaneh and Patrick's house while Mirsad...
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38. A Man Called Ove and the End of a Story
...party. He makes his regular round of the neighborhood and notices someone moving between Parvaneh's house and the house next door, whose residents are in Thailand. Ove hears the someone tapping...
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A Man Called Ove and an Epilogue
...the best man and Amel holds the party at his cafe. Mirsad moves into Jimmy's house and they adopt a little girl the next year. They visit Rune every day, and...
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Within a few years, Ove's neighborhood turns into a city district as they build more houses. One day Patrick shows up on Ove's doorstep with two men who need help restoring...
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...up at 8:15 one morning and sees that the snow hasn't been shoveled outside Ove's house. She runs across the street and into Ove's bedroom, where the cat is lying with...
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Later that evening, Parvaneh shows Ove's house to a young couple. The woman is pregnant and seems to love the house, but...
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