Nina Burgess Character Analysis

Nina is a young woman from Havendale, an affluent neighborhood in Kingston. She is light-skinned and well-educated, yet despite these privileges she feels that she has no future in Jamaica and is desperate to move to the United States. Before the main narrative takes place, Nina has sex with the Singer and hopes to use this as leverage to help her get an American visa, although this does not end up working out. Nina is remarkably single-minded and goes to extreme lengths in order to achieve her goal of moving to America, mostly by using her sexuality. Nina’s desire to move to the U.S. becomes more urgent after she accidentally witnesses the shooting at the Singer’s house and becomes convinced that Josey Wales is going to kill her in retribution. She changes her identity several times, assuming the names Kim Clarke, Dorcas Palmer, and Millicent Segree, and eventually realizes her dream of leaving Jamaica, choosing to move to the Bronx, New York. Nina has a difficult relationship with her parents, who scold her for sleeping with the Singer, and with her sister Kimmy, who tells their parents that Nina did so. However, the novel ends with Nina (now living as Millicent) calling Kimmy on the phone, suggesting that she might be ready to repair their relationship and reconnect with her home country.