Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Nickel Boys, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma and Repression
Unity, Support, and Hope
History, Secrecy, and Racism
Civil Rights, Dignity, and Sacrifice
Power, Fear, and Upward Mobility
Summary
Analysis
The white boys at Nickel Academy call the torture building the “Ice Cream Factory” because of the multicolored bruises that students earn inside the small white structure. The black boys, on the other hand, don’t think the building needs a special name, so they simply refer to it as the White House. When students get in serious trouble, Spencer and Earl—another supervisor—fetch them at one in the morning and bring them to the White House. That night, a brown Chevy arrives for Elwood, Lonnie, Black Mike, and Corey. Elwood doesn’t know what exactly takes place in the White House, but Desmond told him before falling asleep that it’s best to stay still once the punishment begins, since the leather switch has a “notch” in it that will cut through skin if a person struggles.
When Elwood is taken to the White House in the middle of the night, the nature of Nickel finally becomes clear—this is a place where even the smallest infraction leads to violent punishment. Worse, this punishment is shrouded in a strange sort of secrecy, as Spencer abducts the children at night and drives them to the unmarked building, thereby adding a sense of drama to the depraved ritual, one that no doubt heightens its power and keeps the students in a constant state of fear. This, it seems, is an attempt to intimidate the boys into submissively following the rules.
Themes
The White House used to be a simple utility shed, but now it’s used exclusively for beatings. Still, no random passerby would ever guess its true purpose. When Elwood enters with Spencer, Earl, and his fellow students, he’s hit by the building’s putrid aroma, which smells of bodily fluids. Spencer leads the boys into an empty room and takes Black Mike across the hall into yet another room, from which that strange industrial sound issues once more. Elwood listens carefully, but can’t hear anything over the mechanical sound. After waiting for a moment, he starts counting in his head, thinking that his own beating will be more bearable if he knows how long it will last.
Part of what makes this experience so unbearable—aside from the mere fact that Elwood is about to endure a beating—is the uncertainty surrounding the entire event. Not only does Elwood have no idea what’s about to happen to him, but he doesn’t know how long it will last. Worse, nobody—not even his fellow students—is willing to tell him what to expect. In this regard, it becomes clear that the staff at Nickel has created an atmosphere of fear that uses secrecy and silence to assure that the students remain in a state of frightened confusion. Furthermore, that the boys are unwilling to talk to each other about this shared sense of fear isolates them from one another, making the experience even more unbearable since each of them has to suffer alone.
Themes
Spencer and Earl take Black Mike to the car after Elwood counts up to 28. Next, they bring Corey into the small room, and the little boy cries the whole way. When the mechanical sound begins again, Elwood counts to 70, mystified by why Corey—the smallest of them all—would receive a harsher beating than Black Mike, his bully. He wonders if Spencer perhaps lost count while beating Corey, but then he begins to worry that there’s “no system at all to the violence.” When it’s his turn, he enters the room and sees a blood-covered mattress and a pillow caked in saliva from where the previous boys have bit into it. Above the mattress is a large fan, which has apparently covered the sound of the beatings ever since the state of Florida banned corporal punishment.
If there is “no system at all to the violence” at Nickel Academy, then students like Elwood will never be able to fully avoid punishment. After all, Elwood must understand the institution’s underlying policies if he wants to figure out how to keep out of trouble and follow the rules. Unfortunately, though, fear itself is the only constant at Nickel, as Spencer works to keep the boys in a state of confusion and fright. This, in turn, makes it easier for him to control them.
Themes
Spencer instructs Elwood to lie face-down on the mattress, turns on the fan, and starts whipping the backs of his legs. Holding onto the mattress’s top edge and biting into the pillow, Elwood passes out before the beating ends. Later, when people ask him how many lashes he received, he’s unable to say.
In alignment with Elwood’s idea that there’s “no system at all to the violence” at Nickel, the details of his very first punishment are vague and hazy. Passing out before the beating ends, he’s unable to fully grasp the nature of his punishment, a fact that makes it even harder for him to wrap his head around the institution’s disciplinary policies.
Themes
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