A Brief History of Seven Killings

“Reason is for rich people. We have madness.”

Bam-Bam cites desperation as the defining characteristic of Kingston ghetto life. Where the middle and upper classes have the luxury to pursue education and develop “reason,” Bam-Bam and many of the other participants in the gang war have only anger to get through each day. This principle explains Bam-Bam’s contempt for the Singer, who moved up in social class once he became successful.

“I go back home and walk the street and notice something for the first time. Not a single old man in the ghetto.”

Papa-Lo’s character arc is defined by his desire for peace. This passage contextualizes that motivation by driving Papa-Lo’s desire to grow old in a world that leaves no room for elderly people because of violence.

“Better must come? Better was supposed to come four years ago. Now we have ism this and ism that and Daddy who just loves to talk about politics […] I hate politics. I hate that just because I live here I’m supposed to live politics. And there’s nothing you can do. If you don’t live politics, politics will live you.”

Nina Burgess stays away from politics because of its failure to uplift her society, dismissing the empty promises of idealistic propaganda as “ism this and ism that.” Her depiction of this world as something “Daddy just loves to talk about” reinforces the patriarchal and patronizing nature of Jamaica’s power structures. She finds her participation in and awareness of politics futile because she has little agency to affect change; instead, she feels puppeted by politics that “lives you.”

“But a woman will talk for herself, let her tongue loose in her own backyard, cursing with each wring of the shirt and pant that she washing, saying she tired of the shitstem and the ism and schism and is high time the big tree meet the small axe. But she didn’t say it, she sing it so we know that it’s you. And plenty in the ghetto, in Copenhagen City, in Rema, and for sure in the Eight Lanes sing it too. The two men who bring guns to the ghetto don’t know what to do since when music hit you can’t hit it back.”

This passage exposes the threat the Singer poses to Peter Nasser, Louis Johnson, and the organizations they represent. Where they previously used violence to destabilize the government and barter for power, the Singer presents an alternative form of influence that violence cannot touch. The fact that the Singer belongs to the opposite side of the political spectrum makes it difficult for them to leverage his influence to their advantage. The passage also highlights how James creates different voices and patois for his many narrators. Here, Bam-Bam speaks in a cadence marked by sing-song rhythm, assonance (the repeated sounds of “shitstem and the ism and schism,” and idioms (the adage that it’s “high time the big tree meet the small axe”).

“I said I was good because unlike them I have certain man in particular to kill. Then he said, You good but plenty man good, what I want know is if you hungry. He didn’t have to explain it to me. I did know exactly what he mean […] This is what you need to know. Somebody need to know where me coming from, although that don’t really mean nothing. People who say they don’t have a choice just too coward to choose.”

Demus, whose speech is written explicitly in the idiosyncratic grammar of Jamaican dialect, explains his motivations for addressing the Singer in his narrative. He owns up to his actions, preferring not to be seen as a “coward,” and justifies why he was “hungry” to kill the Singer. This shows how Josey and Weeper weaponized Demus’s resentment towards the social inequality of the ghetto to motivate his participation in the ambush.

“One time the Singer say to me, Papa, how you get to be top ranking when you worry so much? I didn’t tell him that be on top is to worry. Once you climb to the peak of the mountain, the whole world can take a shot.”

Papa-Lo is characterized by his paranoia, which extends to his caution for the Singer. Papa-Lo stresses that being a leader makes you an easy target for anyone willing to “take a shot”—a phrase that has the figurative meaning of seizing a chance, and the appropriate literate meaning of gunplay. This second interpretation foreshadows Papa-Lo’s assassination by the police at Josey’s behest—a betrayal that will be mirrored when Josey gets toppled by one of his own enforcers.

“When you come into the real truth about yourself, you realize that the only person equipped to handle it is you.”

Josey, whose narration is marked by a more elevated register that is the result of his education, outlines his individualist beliefs in this passage, stressing that nobody else can achieve his objectives. This makes him a foil to Papa-Lo, who wants to achieve peace by uniting the ghetto. The passage also hints at one of Josey’s character flaws, which is the fear of losing control.

“An election year commence as soon as the first gunshot buss.”

Papa-Lo’s speech is often full of aphorisms, folksy expressions that are meant to demonstrate the wisdom he has acquired over the years. Here, his quip, which uses the Jamaican patois “buss” to mean “succeed,” describes how political parties use gang violence to undermine one another giving in to Factionalism as a Catalyst for Social Violence. Rather than drive policy platforms to gain support, the ability to leverage violence—and by implication, quell it—becomes the criterion for accessing political power.

“The visa is a ticket out of the hell that this fucking PNP going bring on the country.”

This passage ties Nina’s motivations to the theme of Diaspora and the Promise of Escape. After declaring her lack of faith in the Jamaican political system, she states that the only way to live sustainably is outside of Jamaica. She desires a visa because of the freedom it offers her, not just from social inequality, but from the destruction and death she fears are imminent.

“When puss and dog kill one another the only one who win is Babylon.”

Following the Singer’s ambush, Papa-Lo realizes how the gang violence in Kingston does nothing but perpetuate the social hierarchy of the upper classes. Papa-Lo uses the cultural allusion of “Babylon” to drive this point. In Rastafarian culture, “Babylon” signifies Western society, which the belief system characterizes as degenerate and immoral. The implication is that poised to capitalize on the “puss and dog” violence perpetuated by the gangs are external forces like the US Cold War wagers or drug cartels. By comparing the gangs to unruly animals, Papa-Lo emphasizes their insignificance in the eyes of these external powers and highlights the instinctive pointlessness of their conflict.

“It kinda throws you for a loop because the PNP won the election and this is PNP turf. You’d think their own slum would have come off looking better, but it’s worse than the JLP area. And worse is always relative each day in Kingston.”

In this passage, Alex reflects upon one of the effects of political violence in Kingston. Though the Singer’s concert ensures that the incumbent government remains in power, the PNP does little to effect tangible changes even in the communities that support the party. Alex grants the possibility that the situation could be different on another day, hinting at the ways factionalist violence persists in the ghetto.

“The second you say peace this and peace that, and let’s talk about peace, is the second gunman put down their guns. But guess what, white boy. As soon as you put down your gun the policeman pull out his gun. Dangerous thing, peace. Peace make you stupid […] Good times bad for somebody.”

In this passage, Josey explains to Alex his motivations for withholding support for the peace treaty. Because of all the violence Josey has personally experienced in his life, he does not trust that any peace will last for a significant time. When the gangs decide to set aside their differences, the state moves in to instigate more violence. This resonates with Papa-Lo’s observation about “Babylon” in the previous chapter.

“So when the Singer get shot in the chest with a bullet that was meaning for his heart, you think him take that as just a shot in the chest like any other shot, or he take it to mean something more than that? A literary device.”

Josey explicates the Singer’s function as a narrative symbol in this passage. Because the Singer is less a character than a symbol in the novel, Josey stresses that killing him is a symbolic act akin to a “literary device.” This metafictional reference underlines that the Singer functions primarily as a litmus test for other characters; their views of him drive the novel’s major thematic ideas.

“What is peace? Peace is my blowing a little breeze on my daughter forehead when she sweat in her sleep. This don’t name peace, this name stalemate.”

This passage reveals the complexity of Josey as a character. Thus far he has opposed the concept of ghetto peace, yet in this passage he qualifies how he would define peace: not as the simple absence of violence, which is simply a “stalemate,” but as a pervasive feeling of security. Josey’s dreamy image of cooling off his daughter’s brow as she sleeps is so far removed from any actions he takes in the novel that it is almost fantastical.

“The problem with proving something is that instead of leaving you alone people never stop giving new things to prove, harder things.”

This passage marks a turning point in Josey’s relationship with his Kingston benefactors—the CIA and the Medellín cartel. With an opportunity to kill the Singer once and for all, Josey realizes that he has been used by these larger forces to advance their own agendas. Josey has by this point already committed the ambush, which is enough of a statement that he no longer feels the need to prove himself to anyone anymore. Unlike the men he recruits for the ambush, he is no longer available for others to play on his feelings of resentment or the desire to “prove harder things.”

“That man was thinking about what he would write on his gravestone. What people will say about him long after the last chunk of flesh rotten off his bone. Forget the seven time he go to jail for murder and attempted murder to walk out every time. Forget that before the white man and Doctor Love come along, he was the one who teach every man how to shoot. Forget that both him and Shotta Sherrif operate in boundaries that they mark off. He want his gravestone to say he unite the ghetto.”

In this passage, Josey realizes that Papa-Lo is motivated by the desire to define his legacy as a peacemaker. Josey contrasts Papa-Lo’s ambitions against the history of violence he’s been responsible for throughout most of his life. This drives the illusion of ambition and legacy as a theme.

“Sure things bad, but don’t mess with it if it working for you. This type of bad we know. Good? Sure good is good, but good is something that nobody know. Good is a ghost. You can’t get pocket money from good. Jamaica better off bad, because that type of bad work.”

Josey explains his worldview in this passage, which depends on the premise that the world is essentially unequal and that someone will always suffer for another person’s sake. He indicates that Jamaica is better off in a state of chaos because he can at least take advantage of it for his own survival. From his perspective, an ideal society is impossible to achieve. Josey’s narrative voice delivers these ideas playfully, repeating the words “good” and “bad” in a deceptive simplification of complexity.

“Think like a movie […] Could go back in bed right now, move in under him right arm and stay there for five days […] Today can be the one day that can go by without me.”

In Part 4, Weeper’s character arc is defined by dueling obligations: his loyalty to Josey and his duty to discover sexuality. Weeper idealizes his relationship with his sex partner by likening it to a romantic film. This inspires him to imagine a world in which Josey doesn’t depend on him to make his operation move forward—a day where Weeper could “stay for five days” under his lover’s “right arm” Instead of being Josey’s right-hand man.

“But Weeper is not a thinking man, he only read a few books, whereas Eubie think far and wide […] I know and he know it and Weeper know it too, which is why he still can’t stand him. That man’s brain was making us rich.”

Josey contrasts Weeper and Eubie to emphasize their rivalry. Although Weeper previously stood out from the other gang members through his love for the work of Bertrand Russell, Eubie outdoes him by appearing to be the more intelligent member of their operation. Eubie’s intellect translates to results, which diminishes Weeper’s value to Josey.

“I still can’t stop thinking that Josey going pop up outside the window like Kilroy was here. And you know what, I going say, This is America and me can do what me want so fuck what any of you want to say, or as Americans would say, Kiss my ass.”

Weeper has always feared Josey as his superior. However, living in the United States emboldens him to live out his personal truth away from Josey’s judgment. This passage drives diaspora and the promise of escape in Weeper’s narrative. Weeper’s allusion to the meme “Kilroy was here” refers to a graffiti tag that became popular in the 1940s as members of the US military drew the accompanying character in places they were stationed during WWII. The ubiquity and mysterious meaning of the image echo the unpredictable nature of Josey.

“Don’t sound like much of a life if you’re still watching your own back. Don’t you get tired?

—Tired of what?

—Tired of what indeed.”

In this passage, Ken challenges Nina’s desire to escape her past. When he echoes her response, he reinforces his belief that Nina doesn’t have much of a real life, apart from the one where she focuses on covering her tracks. This drives the final act of Nina’s arc, in which she decides to turn back and reclaim her original identity as a Jamaican.

“People need to know. They need to know I guess that, that there was this one time when we could’a do it, you know? We could’a really do it. People was just hopeful enough and tired enough and fed up enough and dreaming enough that something could’a really happen […] Is not like we never have good times and now have something to look forward to. We did have things going good and then it go to shit. Now is shit for so long that people grow up in shit thinking shit is all they is. But people need to know that.”

Tristan encourages Alex to write his book with the aim of reminding Jamaicans that idealism isn’t entirely futile. Despite the peace treaty’s failure, the brief period of hope with which it began inspires the possibility that better times are still possible for Jamaica. If anything, Tristan wants Alex to remind people that cynicism is not a given.

“But why they bring it here? Why bring it to America? You’d think if you come here you could brush off all of this crap and start over.

[…]

For some man, for plenty man, is that same crap the send them here. Otherwise them wouldn’t have no way to come to America.”

While talking to the Ranking Don’s wife, Nina learns that his associates have brought the violence and inequality she left Jamaica to escape to the US. This drives a complex point about diaspora and the promise of escape, stressing that violence both causes people to leave their home country and can be recapitulated in the new one.