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Part 4, 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
Weeper and Eubie follow Josey into the crack house. They pass one man lying flat on the ground with blood flowing from him, and another sitting on the toilet preparing to shoot up. Josey shoots the second man, followed by another who had been kneeling with a crack pipe. They then find a woman giving a man a blowjob; the woman has a baby on her back. Josey shoots the man. They enter another room filled with people, and when one of the women sees them she starts screaming. Josey sprays the room with bullets and people run screaming before dropping to the floor. He walks through the house and shoots more people, including a pregnant woman.
There is no possible rational reason for Josey shooting up the crack house. As the decidedly abject scenes contained within it make clear, the addicts inside pose no threat to Josey, and killing them won’t benefit him in any way. They are already totally powerless, living a nightmarish existence as a result of their poverty and addiction. Given this, it is safe to conclude that the only reason why Josey shoots up the house is because he is humiliated and angry.
Themes
Eventually Josey walks out of the house into the nighttime darkness; Weeper and Eubie follow. Josey puts the gun to Weeper’s head, pauses, and then drops it and walks away. Eubie turns to look at Weeper but it is too dark to see his expression.
Josey’s gesture in this passage is a particularly insulting way of turning against Weeper. By dropping the gun, he suggests that Weeper is not significant enough to even be worth killing.
Themes
