Keeper

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal death.

An important symbol in the novel is the spider’s web, which represents the soccer goal and the complexities of goalkeeping. The first time the web is introduced, Gato sees a spider catching a fly in the corner of the goal in the forest. He describes how “one of the flies that storms conjure up was struggling in the sticky threads of the web, and the spider was making her way swiftly toward it”; Gato then thinks, “I wondered whether I was the spider or the fly” (45). Initially, Gato is not sure whether he is in control of the situation, as the spider is, or whether he is more of a fly caught in the Keeper’s game. 

However, as the novel unfolds, the goal itself becomes represented by the spider web and it becomes clear that Gato is the spider. The Keeper tells Gato, “[I]f you can make this goal, this web, your own, you can make any goal your own” (46). Later, Gato tells Faustino, “I had made that goal web my own. My eyes were good at knowing where the ball was and where it was going to be” (58).