Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Beartown, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Community Breakdown and Inequality
Culture, Character, and Entitlement
Parents and Children
Loyalty and Belonging
Resistance and Courage
Summary
Analysis
Hog and Bobo are working together in Hog’s garage. Hog is struggling to have a heart-to-heart with his son. He tells Bobo that he should have talked to Bobo more about girls. He explains that Bobo’s immense strength brings responsibility with it. It’s also important to not keep one’s mouth shut about inappropriate behavior. Patting Bobo’s bruises, he tells him that Bobo is already showing more courage than he’s ever done. Pretty soon the conversation turns into a fumbling, awkward conversation about Bobo’s virginity and his sincere desire to wait until he gets married before having sex. Ann-Katrin listens outside the garage door and feels proud of those “idiots.”
Hog has a belated conversation with his son about how to treat girls properly—implicitly acting as a model for what should have been going on in Beartown homes all along. But the scene avoids being too heavy-handed; Bobo’s naiveté and unexpected romantic streak are an amusing touch, a reminder that people aren’t always what they seem.
Themes
Amat and Kevin both give the Hed police their testimonies that day. Later, in her office, Kira gets the news that the investigation is being closed for lack of evidence. When Kira gets home, she and Maya cry together, but Maya tells Kira that she doesn’t want to “live in a permanent state of war.” They have to move on.
As expected, the case against Kevin doesn’t progress very far. Though Kira wants to keep fighting, Maya isn’t willing to keep living that way; she implies that in Beartown, standing up for herself is the same thing as fighting a war. Clearly, the town isn’t yet ready to confront the truth of what happened to Maya.
Themes
Benji is about to go to Hed to meet up with the bass player, whom he’s recently kissed for the first time. Then he gets a text from Kevin asking him to meet on their favorite childhood island. Benji limps all the way there on his broken foot. Kevin happily tells Benji that they can still get everything they want. Benji replies that Kevin always gets everything he wants. Then he turns and limps away, quietly telling his former friend that he hopes he finds “the Kevin you’re looking for.”
The break between Benji and Kevin is final. Presumably, if Kevin had shown any remorse for what happened, Benji might have relented; however, Kevin only seems to care that he’s gotten out of the situation untouched. He’s the same entitled Kevin and appears unlikely to learn anything from the situation. Benji’s loyalty to Kevin has its limits, and his parting words suggest that Kevin’s entitled attitude may eventually harm Kevin himself as well.
Themes
Later, Peter gets home and cries from shame that they’ve had to give up the case. But Maya confesses that she loves hockey and wants Peter to stay in Beartown and build a better hockey club, making the sport better for everybody.
Maya doesn’t want the family to feel pushed out of Beartown. She sees that hockey has been part of the town’s brokenness, but there’s still hope for it to be fixed.
Themes
Get the entire Beartown LitChart as a printable PDF.
