“The Nickel Boys” is a pivotal but unsettling read

By: Zoe Ohye

Staff Writer

Based on the horrifying true events, “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead is a novel that seeks to tell the story of a reform school for boys in Florida that opened in 1900 and closed in 2011. 

            “The Nickel Boys” begins with a very unsettling scene of local college students discovering human remains in an unmarked graveyard behind the recently closed reform school, Nickel Academy. 

             The novel proceeds to take the reader back in time to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement where it follows the main character, Elwood Curtis.      

             Elwood is portrayed as an extremely intelligent young African American boy, as he excels at his academics, and dreams of an America where he isn’t judged by the color of skin but rather the content of his character. 

Elwold attempts to emulate the actions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom he looks to for inspiration. His intelligence doesn’t go unnoticed by one of his teachers who offers him a once in a lifetime opportunity to attend Melvin Griggs Technical, a college for African Americans, for free. 

Ecstatic at the offer, Elwold eagerly accepts. On his first day of school, he has to hitchhike to get to class. In an unlucky turn of events, the man who he hitchhiked with gets pulled over for stealing the car. 

Although Elwood attempts to explain to the police officer that he does not know the man and is not involved in the theft in any way, the police officer’s prejudice gets in the way as he arrests him under the circumstances of the time. 

Elwood is sent to Nickel Academy to reform his “criminal ways.” The novel recounts Elwood’s time in Nickel Academy, which he views as a prison.     The book attempts to communicate each tragedy the Nickel boys experienced.

“The Nickel Boys” is a relatively short book, at just 200 pages, but it is still powerful nonetheless. Whitehead develops a well thought out plot, and with each character having an individual voice, it creates a truly impressive experience. 

Whitehead makes the reader empathize for the boys who are forced to experience the terrible events the book portrays, and effectively makes the reader enraged at the cruelty and unfairness of the situation. 

He is successful when establishing the scene of Nickel Academy and creates a feeling of dread for the reader, while making the characters seem like they are stuck in a situation with no way out. 

Whitehead also succeeds in portraying the evil of the corporation, employees and the school itself. This is an institution that is extremely corrupt, with the employees of the school doing whatever they please to the boys with no consequences whatsoever. 

            Elwold is a convincing protagonist who is portrayed as mentally strong, smart and naive in a teenager kind of way. As a strong believer in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., he feels a sense of responsibility to expose the dark truth behind Nickel Academy, as a sense of justice for all the boys abused by the school.

            Elwold persists in his efforts, even after witnessing the corruption of the Academy and the town surrounding it first hand. He goes as far as to risk his own life, fighting for the boys’ freedom at all costs. 

           While the book and its subject matter certainly aren’t an easy read, it was skillfully written and one that can educate people on the unsettling true story that the novel is based on.