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
John-John is in New York, and “everything is motherfucking ace.” He had to flee Chicago after a particularly “sloppy and messy” shooting. In Miami, John-John went to a club where he saw Donna Summer. There he ran into a man named Baxter who warned him to leave because the club was about to get shot up. The next day John-John returned to New York. As soon as he touched down, he was abducted by four men, three of whom were wearing tropical shirts. John-John told them that if “she” wanted to kill him, she should just let these men do it. The men took him to a street in the suburbs and brought him inside a house, where he could smell bacon and pancakes.
At this point it is unclear who John-John is and how he is connected to the rest of the narrative. His repeated involvement in shootings suggests that he is implicated in gang activity somehow, although from this passage he does not appear to have any particular affiliation. The multiple references to nightclubs highlight that nightlife is now an important part of the novel because of the increasing prominence of drugs and the drug game.
Themes
