Rainbow (allegory)
Sonja is an allegory of the rainbow. She is so cheerful and sincere person that radiates bright beams of multi-colored paints. Ove consists of two colors – black and white. However, when Sonja appears in Ove’s life, she paints his inner world. She gives him all the other colors of the rainbow that save him from the gray and dull everyday life.
Time, life (motifs)
Reading the book, the reader learns the whole life of the protagonist Ove – his childhood, youth and old age. Time is also a strange thing. Ove’s life depends on time and vice versa. Ove does not think what will happen to him today, in a day, in a week, in a year. However, suddenly, this painful day comes, when he realizes that he has lived to the age, when there is not so much life ahead. Much of his life is already behind him. Now, when he has so little time ahead of him, Ove needs to look for something new, for the sake of which he must live.
Instruments of death (symbol)
A rope, a hose with exhaust fumes, and a gun – it is like a self-murderer’s kit. These instruments symbolize death as the protagonist Ove tries to commit suicide each time. He wants to hang himself, then he wants to poison himself with exhaust fumes, then he decides to shoot himself. However still, death abandons Ove. Perhaps Ove is given a chance to change his personality.
