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Part 2, Chapter 21
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
Bam-Bam tries to scream, but his mouth has been gagged. Hs hands and feet are bound. Weeper and Tony Pavarotti pick him up and throw him into a grave, face-down. Bam-Bam realizes with horror that they are going to bury him alive and internally begs Weeper to just shoot him. Josey urinates on him and Pavarotti begins filling the grave. As the dirt pours in, Bam-Bam’s thoughts become more nonsensical. He thinks about sex, his parents, and superpowers. He begins to lose the ability to breathe, and in his final moments think of images associated with childhood: toys, lollipops, and nursery rhymes.
Bam-Bam’s death is arguably the most disturbing scene in the whole novel, and its impact is made all the greater by the fact that it is the last chapter in Part Two. It shows the capacity for total cruelty and sadism on Josey and Weeper’s part, as Josey has used Bam-Bam to help him with his dirty work and now murders him in an excruciating and degrading manner. Part of what makes Bam-Bam’s death so haunting is the fact that, in his final moments, he reverts back to a state of childishness. This reminds the reader not only of the innocence that was robbed from Bam-Bam when he was young, but also that he is still a child when he dies.
Themes
