Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Brief History of Seven Killings, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Violence vs. Peace
Masculinity, Sexuality, and Homophobia
Jamaican Culture and Identity
Politics, Power, and Corruption
Witness and Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
Josey thinks about Weeper’s uniqueness. Weeper passed three GCE subjects in school and has always read voraciously. Weeper loves talking about the man he had a relationship with prison, and can do so openly because he has a reputation for being a merciless killer. When Weeper was young, he was jumped by the police who charged him with robbing a jewelry store. He couldn’t afford a lawyer, and so was sentenced to five years in prison. After his sentencing, the police tortured him with a technique called the “Electric Boogie,” using an electric cord.
Once again, homosexual desire and violence are shown to be inextricably tied within the world of the novel. Weeper is able to speak openly about his gay relationship because he is so ruthlessly violent, but also because it took place in a broader context of violence: life in prison. The implication is that gay sex is allowed to take place if it is framed as a violent rather than loving act.
Themes
Weeper believes in evolution, which provokes arguments between him and Josey. Josey hates when Weeper does cocaine while they’re “in the middle of business.” It makes him paranoid, and as they talk in a bar he tells Josey there’s a man outside watching them. Weeper begins telling a story about the Singer that Josey’s heard before, but he lets Weeper tell it anyway. Three years into his prison service, Weeper was taken out to chop wood on Port Henderson beach. There, the Singer walked over and told him that he was fighting for Weeper’s rights. However, Weeper then realized the Singer was talking to the man next to him, and he has hated the Singer ever since.
Weeper and Josey’s friendship is one of the most perplexing relationships in the novel. In many ways they are polar opposites. Weeper is an atheist and Josey is religious; Weeper is a cocaine addict and Josey doesn’t do drugs; Weeper is promiscuous (and seemingly gay) while Josey is monogamous, heterosexual, and homophobic. However, they do have one important similarity: both are unusually intelligent and well-educated—and violent.
Themes
