The Red Fish Symbol in My Friends: Memory, Grief, and the Persistence of Love

What Is the Red Fish?

In Fredrik Backman’s My Friends, the red fish is a small, hand‑drawn image: a tiny fish sketched in red ink on a wall next to a famous painting. It appears in Chapter Two when Louisa, standing in an art gallery, impulsively draws it with a red pen she is holding. The fish is not part of the original artwork; it is a personal, defiant mark left by a grieving teenager. Its color — red — connects it to blood, love, danger, and the fierce urgency of memory.

The literal red fish represents Fish, Louisa’s best friend who died from an overdose. Fish taught Louisa how to break into places, how to curse in multiple languages, and how to love fairy tales. By placing a red fish next to the painting, Louisa makes the artwork a monument to her friend, transforming a famous piece into a shared secret. As the novel unfolds, the red fish becomes a recurring touchstone for the ways the living carry the dead with them.

Where Does the Red Fish Recur?

The red fish is not a repeated physical object across many scenes, but it recurs conceptually and emotionally. Key recurrences include:

• Chapter Two: Louisa draws the red fish on the gallery wall. This is the first and most explicit appearance. The text notes: “she draws a tiny red fish in red ink on the wall right next to the painting.” The gesture is impulsive, born from a heart that wants the painting to know “that she was here. Her and Fish.”
• Memory and retelling: Throughout the novel, when Louisa recalls Fish, the red fish is implied as a mental emblem. For instance, in Chapter Thirty, Louisa remembers Fish’s voice reading fairy tales in the library. The red fish is the visual counterpart to those memories — a symbol that resurfaces in Louisa’s thoughts and actions.
• The final chapters: In the museum heist (Chapter Fifty‑Eight and Fifty‑Nine), the painting itself becomes the central object, but the red fish is not physically present. However, the act of hanging the painting without selling it — and Louisa’s refusal to see art as money — echoes the original impulse to add the fish. Later, when Louisa becomes an artist and spots a teenage artist “one of us,” the spirit of the red fish lives on as a symbol of belonging and recognition.

The red fish therefore recurs not as a repeated object but as a recurring idea: the insistence that the dead remain part of the living world through small, loving acts.

How Its Meaning Changes

Initially, the red fish is a private act of grief. Louisa draws it because she cannot bear that the painting does not know about Fish. It is a scream of love and loss. The meaning shifts as the story progresses:

The red fish begins as a private act of rebellion and ends as a philosophy: art is not valuable because it is famous, but because it can contain a memory. The fish teaches Louisa (and the reader) that beauty can be shared even when the person you love is gone.

Character and Theme Connections

Louisa

The red fish is Louisa’s creation. She is a character defined by loss and a fierce loyalty to Fish. Drawing the fish is her way of refusing to let Fish be forgotten. It also connects to her larger arc: from a girl who feels invisible and angry to an artist who finds her voice. The fish is the first mark she makes on the world — a tiny rebellion that grows into a life.

Fish (the character)

Fish is the red fish’s namesake. She is described as someone who believed in happy endings and was “too easy to hurt.” In Chapter Thirty, Fish tells Louisa, “You can’t trust men … they’re far too easy to love.” The red fish embodies Fish’s vulnerability and her love for Louisa. Even after death, Fish remains the emotional center of Louisa’s world.

Ted and Joar

Ted and Joar are part of Louisa’s found family. In Chapter Fifty‑Eight, Ted calls Louisa “a human who belongs in a museum.” The red fish is a precursor to that idea — Louisa already knows that a museum can be a home for the soul. Joar’s loyalty (his “superpower” quoted in Chapter Twenty‑One) mirrors the loyalty Louisa shows Fish by drawing the fish.

Theme: Persistence of Memory

The red fish is the story’s most direct symbol of memory persisting against time. Louisa’s brain may not choose her memories, but she can create new ones. The fish is a deliberate act of memory-making — exactly what Fish taught her to do when she said, “You can still keep that memory, it’s yours!” (Chapter Two).

Theme: Art as Redemption

Art in My Friends is not merely a commodity. The red fish transforms a famous painting into a personal altar. Later, Louisa’s refusal to sell Kimkim’s painting because she would “then see all art as money” echoes the same principle: art redeems because it holds the weight of human connection.

Theme: Grief and Loss

The red fish is drawn by a girl in grief. Louisa cannot bring Fish back, but she can add a symbol of her presence. The fish is a way of saying “you existed.” This parallels the novel’s broader exploration of grief as an ongoing, active process — not something to get over, but something to live alongside.

Four Study Questions with Answers

1. Why does Louisa choose to draw a fish rather than any other shape?
The fish is a direct reference to her friend Fish. Fish’s name and personality — she was “like a fish out of water” in the world — make the animal a fitting tribute. Drawing a fish also evokes the central painting, The One of the Sea, which is not actually a seascape but a painting about people. By adding a fish, Louisa connects the painting to Fish’s story, turning a piece about human connection into a memorial for her friend.

2. How does the red fish challenge the way adults view art in the novel?
In the gallery, an older couple misidentifies the painting as a simple seascape and fears Louisa is going to vandalize it. The red fish is an act of vandalism in the eyes of adults, but for Louisa it is an act of love. This conflict underscores the novel’s theme that adults often reduce art to investment or decor, while Louisa sees it as a vessel for memory. The red fish is a corrective: art’s true value is personal, not financial.

3. How does the red fish connect to the novel’s epigraph about the new needing friends?
The epigraph (attributed to Anton Ego) states that the world is unkind to new talent and that the new needs friends. Louisa, at the beginning of her journey, is a “new” artist — even if she doesn’t know it yet. She is friendless except for the memory of Fish. The red fish is her first artistic friend: a mark that says “I am here, and I am not alone.” It symbolizes that even the smallest creation can be an ally when the world feels hostile.

4. In what way does the red fish reappear at the end of the novel, even though it is not physically drawn again?
While the red fish itself is not redrawn, its spirit reappears when Louisa becomes an artist and later spots a teenager she recognizes as “one of us.” She calls Ted to say she has found another lost soul. This mirrors the impulse behind the red fish — to mark belonging and recognition. The fish becomes a metaphor for the community of artists and outcasts who survive by making their presence known. In the final scene, Ted considers writing a book; the red fish endures as an idea that stories and marks can outlast their creators.