Symbols My Friends Fredrik Backman

The Symbol of Skulls in My Friends

What Are the Skulls?

In Fredrik Backman’s My Friends, the skull is a quiet, persistent visual motif. It first appears as a personal stamp drawn by the homeless janitor Christian, then is adopted by the young artist Kimkim (later known as C. Jat), and eventually becomes part of the painter’s signature on his world-famous work, The One of the Sea. The skull recurs in murals, sketch pads, and even traced in the air by a teenage finger. It is never presented as gothic or frightening; instead, it embodies the novel’s meditation on death, the thin line between life and oblivion, and the protective power of friendship.

Where the Skulls Appear

The skulls emerge in several key moments across the narrative:

  • The janitor’s mural (Chapter Twenty‑Seven) – Christian, a twenty‑year‑old janitor with a heart condition, paints skulls alongside butterflies and angels on a school wall while mentoring the fourteen‑year‑old artist. The boy joins him, filling the wall with skulls “everywhere, beautiful and alive.” This mural is later whitewashed by the school after Christian’s sudden death.

  • The artist’s teenage notebooks (Chapter Six) – During the summer when he turns fifteen, Kimkim draws skulls first with his fingertip in the air, then in his sketch pad, and finally next to his signature on the painting that will make him famous. The skulls mark his private confrontation with mortality.

  • Louisa’s discovery (Chapter Three) – When Louisa breaks into the church to see The One of the Sea, she notices “tiny, tiny skulls” drawn next to the artist’s signature. She carries the image in her memory as a defiant secret.

  • Ted’s explanation (Chapter Twenty‑One) – On a stalled train, Ted tells Louisa that the artist “stole” the skulls from Christian, the janitor. He explains that art is coincidence: a painting is the sum of a person’s blessings and curses.

  • The final painting (Chapter Fifty‑Nine) – After Kimkim’s death, his friends hang the original painting in a museum. The skulls remain as a permanent signature, linking the artist’s legacy to Christian’s friendship.

How the Meaning Changes

The skull’s meaning shifts across the story, always rooted in the characters’ experiences:

  1. Christian’s skulls: mortality as a quiet companion. Christian knows he is dying; his hands shake, his nose bleeds. He paints skulls not to frighten others but to acknowledge that death walks beside him. When he invites the teenager to paint alongside him, he passes on the skull as a way of saying: I see the fragile light in you, and I know it can be blown out.

  2. Kimkim’s skulls: from despair to defiance. As a boy, Kimkim believes he is worthless. He steals pills and thinks about ending his life. Painting skulls becomes a way to externalise his inner darkness. After Christian’s death, the skulls take on a new layer: they are a memorial to the friend who saved him. Later, when he signs his masterpieces with a skull, it is no longer a cry of pain but a badge of survival—a reminder that he chose to live.

  3. Louisa’s skulls: hope in hidden detail. Louisa, a grieving teenager who has lost her best friend Fish, sees the skulls on the painting and feels they are a secret she shares with the artist. For her, they represent the idea that beauty can exist alongside death. She later paints skulls herself, alongside hearts and cockroaches, on the church wall with Christian. The symbol becomes a bridge between her loss and her tentative steps toward connection.

Connections to Characters and Themes

  • Christian (the janitor) – He physically paints skulls and literally hands the motif to Kimkim. His mother later quotes Tranströmer: “You’ll never be complete, and that’s as it should be.” The skulls echo that acceptance of imperfection and mortality.
  • Kimkim / C. Jat – The artist makes the skull his personal emblem. It appears in his most intimate work and becomes his signature. Through it, he acknowledges that his art emerged from the same fragile body that Christian’s did.
  • The friend group (Joar, Ali, Ted) – They understand what the skulls mean because they have been “full of holes” since childhood. Joar’s pragmatism (“When we’re grown-up, I don’t think we’ll all be alive”) aligns with the skull’s truth.
  • Louisa – She inherits the skull motif by painting one on a church wall. Later, she becomes a famous artist herself and recognises another “one of us.” The skull connects her to the legacy of art born from vulnerability.
  • Theme of mortality – The skulls force both characters and readers to sit with the fact that life is short. The novel does not flinch from death: Christian dies of a heart attack, Ali dies at eighteen, Kimkim dies at thirty‑nine. The skulls mark these losses.
  • Theme of art as redemption – Kimkim’s skulls begin as a symptom of despair but transform into a source of identity. Christian’s act of painting with the boy is an act of saving him.
  • Theme of friendship – The skulls are never painted alone. Christian paints with Kimkim; later, Kimkim paints with his friends watching. The motif becomes a shared language among people who have lost everything.

Study Questions

  1. How does the meaning of the skull change from Christian’s character to Kimkim’s character?
    Answer: For Christian, the skull is an honest admission of his mortality; he is dying and chooses to paint what he knows. For Kimkim, the skull initially represents his desire to die, but after Christian’s death it becomes a remembrance of survival and a signature of belonging. Christian paints skulls to say “I am dying”; Kimkim paints them to say “I am still alive.”

  2. Why does Ted tell Louisa that the artist “stole” the skulls from the janitor? What does that reveal about Kimkim’s view of art?
    Answer: Ted says the artist believed that “art is coincidence” and that a beautiful painting is the sum of a person’s blessings and curses. By stealing the skulls, Kimkim acknowledges that his art is built on what Christian gave him—not just a symbol, but a reason to live. It shows that Kimkim sees his own work as a patchwork of borrowed influences and personal pain.

  3. In what ways does the skull motif connect the teenage Louisa to the teenage artist?
    Answer: Both are lonely, grieving young people who use art to express what words cannot. Louisa paints skulls alongside hearts and cockroaches on a church wall after Christian invites her; later, she sees the skull in the artist’s signature and recognises a kindred spirit. They share the understanding that beauty and death can coexist, and that art can be a shelter from fear.

  4. Why do you think the skulls are described as “beautiful and alive” in the mural, even though they represent death?
    Answer: The skulls are painted alongside butterflies, dragons, and angels—images of transformation, protection, and flight. By calling them beautiful and alive, the novel argues that acknowledging death can make life more vivid. The mural is a celebration of existence precisely because it is fragile. The skulls remind the characters (and the reader) that life’s brevity is what gives it meaning.

Further Exploration