Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in When Will There Be Good News?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma, Survival, and Reckoning with the Past
Appearances vs. Reality
Lies and Deceptions
Family
Summary
Analysis
Billy thinks that he’s going to kill his sister. He’d thought his heroin stash was safe; he’d been stashing the drugs whenever he did odd jobs around Ms. MacDonald’s house (“such an enterprising boy,” she’d called him). He figures that at least he’s got the money that “Reggie’s precious doctor” gave him for the Makarov gun. “He couldn’t imagine what she wanted it for. Funny old world.”
Given Billy’s recent reckless behavior and violence toward Reggie, it’s difficult to say whether his threat to kill her is serious, but it’s ominous, recalling Reggie’s and Jackson’s decision to let him go instead of having him arrested—was it a terrible mistake? Adding to the mystery, Dr. Hunter apparently bought a gun from Billy—the Makarov gun that had belonged to Reggie’s and Billy’s dad. A Makarov gun was found with Andrew Decker’s body. This is another tantalizing hint in the story that is never finally resolved—Dr. Hunter was clearly involved somehow in Decker’s death, but how?
Themes
