Fight Night

Grandma is an avid supporter of Toronto-based sports teams, particularly the Raptors basketball team, though she also uses baseball metaphors to illustrate points. The family’s doorbell is set to the tune of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” The family’s connection to sports, particularly local teams, represents both their rootedness to their home (as opposed to Grandma’s aversion to her old religious community) and their attempts to create a family unit.

This motif runs throughout the book, with references to everything from Larry Bird to a fictional team called the Zombies in which Swiv participates. Connected to the theme of The Good Fight: Finding Joy, sports provide a symbol of what the family aspires to be. As Mom puts it, “We need teams. We need others to fight alongside us. She said the reason the Raptors are so good is because they’re collectively trying to win” (71). The support of others may be the sole reason that one can win; in the case of Mom and her family, this is a matter of life and death. When Swiv makes up her team of Zombies, she states, “We could never die” (84).