The Boys from Biloxi

Part 2 shifts the focus from the boys to Jesse, following his attempts to become DA of Biloxi. Jesse’s initial unsuccessful campaign for DA proves just how deeply ingrained the corruption in Biloxi is, speaking to how corruption is often driven by greed (as exemplified by Fats, who ignores crime in exchange for payment from gangs). Not only criminals are corrupt in The Boys from Biloxi. Politicians and everyday people are prone to temptations, like money, and thus prone to corruption.

Even Jesse himself later takes a corrupt path, resorting to extortion in his efforts to put Lance in prison. The narrative foreshadows this ironic twist—the good-guy crusader getting his hands dirty—when Rex tells Jesse, “There’s nothing clean about politics around here, Jesse. You’re being naive. It’s a dirty game,” and Jesse replies, “It doesn’t have to be” (114). Jesse may believe this now, but he inevitably enters the “dirty game” and proves just as ruthless as the rest of the people involved.

The first hints at Jesse’s willingness to play dirty are evident in his initial DA campaign. When he is affected by a smear campaign executed via direct mailings, Jesse responds in kind and sends out a direct mailing to Biloxi citizens calling out Lance and the other club owners’ corruption. This marks a turning point in the relationship between Jesse and Lance: “Once, many years ago, [Lance] had considered [Jesse] a friend. Those days were long gone. The new battle lines were clear and the war was on” (116).

In addition, these chapters highlight the increasing danger that Jesse’s mission to “clean up the Coast” (61) puts him in, foreshadowing his demise—he’s killed in a hit orchestrated by Hugh. The first hint of this violence comes when his campaign manager’s tires are slashed—which scares the campaign manager enough that he quits. Keith’s desire to take the campaign manager’s place, despite the risks, speaks to his love for and loyalty to his father, emphasizing the book’s theme of Familial Identity and Legacy.

The Hurricane Camille storyline emphasizes how corruption negatively impacts everyday society. While everyday people are unable to get payouts from the corrupt insurers because of legal technicalities (the question of wind versus water damage), criminals like Lance use their ill-gained resources, connections, and cash to recover quickly—and even profit from the incident. Lance sees the opportunity, thinking “The time was right to spend big and establish a monopoly” (142). The narrative later notes that “vice was perhaps the first industry to fully recover after the storm” (175).

Meanwhile, Jesse sees an opportunity of his own in Hurricane Camille’s aftermath: By representing the many people negatively impacted by the insurance companies’ unwillingness to settle claims, Jesse bolsters his “good guy” reputation and gains support for a future DA campaign. Although Lance and Jesse are on opposite sides—bad versus good—both benefit from the hurricane that wreaks havoc on the coast. The narrative thus disputes the childish concept of good and evil, like one might find in a fairytale. In the real world, it’s not that simple or “black-and-white”; there are a lot of gray areas. Jesse does upstanding work as a lawyer but still recognizes the benefits for himself personally and uses the situation to his advantage, revealing a self-serving element to his character: He’s not a saintly, selfless hero. The narrative underscores this fact later when he turns to extortion to help put Lance in prison.

Although these chapters focus largely on Jesse, “The Crusader,” and his rise upward in the ranks, they mention Hugh and Keith, who are the story’s ultimate focus. Keith has graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi. Meanwhile, Hugh has slipped into the criminal underworld, as confirmed by character dialogue between Denny, Joey, and Keith, when Denny and Joey tell Keith that “[Hugh’s] a total thug” (169). This same chapter concludes with a shocking direct statement that foreshadows what lies ahead for Hugh: “Career gangsters like Lance Malco went to prison, or took a bullet, or they died in prison. That was Hugh’s future too” (170). This blatant prediction about both Lance and Hugh might break the book’s narrative tension; however, the author doesn’t reveal details about Hugh’s future, leaving it open-ended whether Hugh will die in gang violence or die in prison (or simply rot away there).