The Nickel Boys

Elwood has three nights at home before going to Nickel Academy, the reform school a judge sentences him to in the aftermath of his arrest for stealing a car. A police officer picks him up and then drives him and two white boys to Eleanor, Florida. When they arrive at Nickel, Elwood is surprised to find the grounds clean and well-kept. He even sees a group of boys playing football and begins to think that the school might not be so bad after all. Right away, he meets Maynard Spencer, the superintendent, who tells him and the other two boys how things work at Nickel. He explains that Elwood is a Grub, saying that there are four tiers of students at Nickel: Grubs, Explorers, Pioneers, and Aces. Students earn points for behaving well, and this helps them move through the different levels.

Spencer explains that students at Nickel can leave when they become Aces. To do this, Elwood needs to listen to his supervisors, do his work, and complete his studies. Before Spencer finishes his welcome speech, he says that the students are responsible for how long they stay at Nickel. Before he leaves, he warns them against misbehaving, assuring them that they won’t like the results.

After Spencer’s introductory speech, another staff member leads Elwood to a room in a basement, where he dresses in a school uniform, which is in significantly worse condition than what the two white boys have to wear. He then goes to the part of campus where the black students live. On his way, a man named Blakely—who is in charge of his dorm—reiterates the idea that each student is responsible for his own destiny at Nickel. There is an emphasis on work, he says, but the students also have educational instruction every other day. “Not what you expected?” he asks when he sees Elwood’s reaction to the idea of only going to school every other day. In response, Elwood tells him that he was going to take college classes before he was sent to Nickel, but Blakely only tells him to speak to Mr. Goodall—the teacher—about the matter.

Elwood’s dorm building is called Cleveland. When he walks inside, he quickly sees that the interiors of the buildings are in much worse shape than the exteriors. The couches are ripped and dirty, there are initials and curses etched into wood surfaces, and the floors are buckled and weak. Blakely shows him to his bed, which is in a room of thirty bunks, and introduces him to a student named Desmond. Blakely tells Desmond to show Elwood around. Before he leaves, he says, “Don’t think I won’t be watching you.” That night, Elwood wakes up to the sound of a strange whoosh that sounds mechanical and unrelenting. Wondering what it is, he hears a boy across the room say, “Somebody’s going out for ice cream,” and several other boys laugh in response.