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
Alex is in the car with Mark Lansing, who is a terrible driver. They pull up outside the Singer’s house, but the guard will not let them inside. He says that they’re not letting any cars in except family or band. Lansing parks the car nearby and returns, at which point the guard says that only one person can come in. Lansing tells Alex to wait and goes inside. While he is standing there, Alex realizes he hasn’t prepared any questions to ask the Singer, and that he is “all out of things to say.”
Once again, Alex is shown to be comically incompetent. He has been so obsessed with his goal of getting access to the Singer that he has neglected to come up with any questions to ask him. In this sense, Alex is shown to be something of a poser, someone who is more fixated on the idea of being a journalist than he is engaged in the actual work of being one.
Themes
Alex waits for 45 minutes, until the gate opens and a truck full of men leave. Alex seizes this opportunity to sneak inside. The band is still playing, but the house is otherwise deserted. Alex decides to leave again, thinking: “Fuck this whole place.” As he walks away from the house, he sees a blue car turn into the driveway.
The dark comedy of this moment is created by dramatic irony; while Alex obliviously walks away from the Singer’s house, the reader knows that a major event is about to take place there––one that any serious journalist would want to witness.
Themes
