Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Nickel Boys follows a group of Black youths who are forced into an abusive reformatory school. Set in the 1960s, and based off of a real reformatory school, Dozier Academy for Boys, The Nickel Boys tells a powerful and down-to-earth story about the racial injustices prevalent in this time.
The book starts at the end of the story, where the characters dig up the unmarked graves of the students of the academy. The Nickel Boys immediately shows that it will not sugarcoat anything. It is unapologetic in its realism and isn’t afraid to make you uncomfortable to get its point across. The story opens your eyes and makes you ask questions about the real school this happened in.
One of my favorite things about The Nickel Boys is its use of language. The characters use fun language to cover up the horrendous things that are done to the kids in the book. For example, the code for being beaten is “going to the ice cream factory” or “going to the White House.”
The use of perspective is a very crucial part. The two main characters, Elwood and Turner, have very different viewpoints on how to resist oppression and on life itself. Elwood is a very optimistic and uplifting character who thinks he can weather the storm and incite change. Turner is very much the opposite. He believes that there is no point in making changes and that the only thing you can do is survive. This is best shown in the book when Elwood quotes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during a difficult episode he has to endure: “Throw us in jail and we still love you… Be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom.” Elwood firmly believes in this philosophy. However, Turner doesn’t, and states that he doesn’t think that he will ever be capable of making that kind of leap of love.
One thing I didn’t like about The Nickel Boys is that some parts of the novel can be really confusing. There are time skips that will throw you off if you’re not reading super closely. You might have to reread a chapter just to understand what is going on. The book makes the reader have to work to dig up the mysteries.
The Nickel Boys is an insightful and well-written book. While it may cater to a more mature audience, I think everyone should read if they have the chance. The main theme of the book is incredibly relevant even today: you can change the law, but you can’t change the way people think.
