African American Literature Annotation: The Nickel Boys

The Nickel Boys

by Colson Whitehead

Synopsis

Before his life gets upended after being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Elwood Curtis is known as a good kid.  As a teenager in the 1960s living in Tallahassee, Florida, Elwood was a budding social justice activist, responsible employee, and good student who was set to begin early college classes. However, in a cruel twist of fate, he ends up sentenced to time at The Nickel Academy, a reform school for boys (based on the real-life Florida Industrial School for Boys, later known as the Dozier Academy).  Elwood quickly finds out that corruption and racism run rampant among the staff members at Nickel Academy and punishments are severe with several boys being sent “out back” never to be heard from again.  Elwood battles throughout the story with his desire to seek justice and his need to survive. 

Elements of Appeal

-          Story Line: The story begins by establishing Elwood’s character as that of a good teenage boy who excelled in his studies and stayed out of trouble. When he is arrested and sentenced for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he is sent to a reform school rife with corruption, The Nickel Academy.  With separate campuses for the white and black students in the Jim Crow era, it becomes apparent that staff and administrators are often racists and the black students are thus subject to harsher punishments.   The story tells how Elwood and his fellow students adapt to survive their time at Nickel.  There are chapters that flash forward to show Elwood in current day and how his time at Nickel affects his current life.

-          Tone: The introduction to the book tells the story of the real-life inspiration for the Nickel Academy, the Florida Industrial School for Boys, where mass graves were found upon the closure of the school.  This creates a foreboding sense of doom for the characters knowing that there were many students who didn’t make it out of the school alive and most who did left with physical scars from being whipped.  Many of the students at Nickel Academy were from broken families, if there was any family at all, and there was little hope for their futures which added to the desperation and doom felt throughout the story.

-          Characterization: The main character, Elwood, is a teenage boy being raised by his grandmother after his parents abandoned him.  Elwood is inspired to join social justice movements after being gifted an album of a Martin Luther King, Jr. speech, and that motivation to right what is wrong means that he puts himself in danger at Nickel Academy.   Secondary characters are boys who have already been in trouble with the law at a young age, many who have been orphaned or abandoned by their families, and those characters show the struggles the boys faced as they tried to survive on their own at a young age.

-          Frame/Setting: The story is set during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s in the American South.  Framing elements include many references to Martin Luther King, Jr., particularly his famous speeches and quotes.   

-          Language/Style: The language used reflects the culture and the times with staff including racial slurs and demeaning terms aimed at minorities.

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