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
As Christmas approaches, the students at Nickel Academy prepare various decorations. Around this time, Desmond finds a strange green bottle while cleaning a shed. Another boy tells him that the bottle is full of horse medicine, which is intended to make a horse vomit if it eats something it shouldn’t. Desmond hides this bottle and tells Elwood, Jaimie, and Turner about it later that day. Thus begins a thought experiment of sorts, in which the boys discuss which staff member they’d most like to feed the medicine to. For days, the friends propose hypothetical targets. Elwood suggests a supervisor who apparently punched him in the stomach for talking to a white boy. Jaimie, on the other hand, suggests Earl. Jaimie is the most interested in this discussion, frequently bringing it up and insisting that Earl would be the perfect target, though he won’t say why.
As Elwood, Jaimie, Turner, and Desmond fantasize about poisoning one of the staff members, they grow closer to one another. Although Whitehead has mentioned all of these boys at various moments throughout the book, this is the first time that the four students appear to have formed a group friendship. In turn, readers see that dreaming about standing up to power often gives people a sense of unprecedented unity. In the same way that Elwood felt a sense of camaraderie when he protested outside of the Florida Theatre, he now enjoys talking to his friends about how they could stand up for themselves, even if this conversation is largely hypothetical.
Themes
Jaimie keeps bringing up the idea of poisoning Earl. Eventually, the other boys agree that Earl would be the perfect target, and they realize that the staff’s annual holiday luncheon would be the perfect time to slip the horse medicine into his drink. However, none of them except Jaimie is serious about the plan. One by one, they withdraw their support, leaving Jaimie alone with the scheme. “They’d put us in the ground,” Desmond says.
Although it’s a fun bonding experience to fantasize as a group about how best to take revenge on the Nickel staff members, everybody but Jaimie knows that the plan to poison Earl is too risky. When Desmond says that the Nickel staff would kill them if they ever found out about the plan, he tries to help Jaimie see that the prank isn’t worth the risk. Of course, he’s correct about this, but it’s also worth noting that his refusal to take action out of fear is exactly how Spencer and the other Nickel staff members want the students to respond to the school’s constant threats of violence.
Themes
On the day of the luncheon, Turner and Elwood are in downtown Eleanor with Harper when Harper tells them that he’ll be back soon. Suddenly, then, the boys are on their own. Walking along the streets, they’re stunned by this sense of freedom and start talking about how they would escape if they were to ever run away. Turner, for his part, has thought this out very carefully, saying that he would run south, since nobody would expect an escapee to make that decision. After taking clothes from a clothesline, he says, he would raid one of the empty houses near town for supplies. Finally, he reveals his most important tactic, which is that he wouldn’t take anyone with him, since he thinks his peers would only slow him down and ensure his demise.
Again, Turner presents himself as a fierce individualist, the kind of person who thinks that helping others will only make him more vulnerable. This is an attitude he urges Elwood to adopt, claiming that it’s best to mind one’s own business at Nickel. In keeping with this, he says he would escape alone if he were ever to run away, believing that taking another student with him would only bring trouble. This worldview contrasts sharply with Elwood’s affinity for unity and communal support.
Themes
When Harper returns, he brings Elwood and Turner back to Nickel. Upon their arrival, they learn that Earl has been rushed to the hospital. As Harper rushes off to gather more information, Elwood and Turner find Desmond, who tells them that he doesn’t think the green bottle actually contained medicine. He’s standing outside the dining hall, where chairs have been upturned and a trail of blood indicates the path Earl’s body took across the floor as the other staff members dragged him toward help. Desmond swears that he didn’t do anything, indicating that Jaimie must have stolen the poison from him. As the boys strategize, Jaimie appears, looking a bit out of sorts. He tells them the story of what happened, saying that Earl suddenly stood up from his chair and grabbed his stomach, at which point he sprayed his bloody insides all over the table.
Considering that Elwood received a brutal beating simply for trying to break up a fight, it’s obvious that poisoning a staff member would be a serious offense—one that would inevitably lead a student to the secret graveyard. This is why the boys only ever talked about the plan to poison Earl in a hypothetical way, treating it like a fun thought experiment but nothing more. Now, though, it seems that Jaimie has actually gone through with the idea, thereby putting them all in danger, since each one of them technically helped formulate the plan. This danger seems to support Turner’s idea that unity is dangerous; being friends makes the boys happier, but it also increases the risks in situations like these.
Themes
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Elwood calls Jaimie crazy, but Jaimie claims that he had nothing to do with Earl’s poisoning. Desmond points out that the can of poison has vanished from his locker, but Jaimie says again that he had nothing to do with it. However, a slight smile passes over Jaimie’s face in brief, almost imperceptible intervals as the boys discuss the poisoning, and this gives Turner a strange sort of appreciation for his friend, since he can’t help but admire people who lie even though it’s obvious that they aren’t telling the truth.
Turner appreciates Jaimie’s refusal to tell the truth because it suggests that there’s nothing anybody can do to change the way Jaimie acts, not even people like Spencer. The boys are usually powerless in the face Nickel’s cruelty, but Jaimie demonstrates in this moment that it’s possible to fight back. In other words, this is perhaps the first time Turner feels hopeful or optimistic about his position at Nickel, since seeing Jaimie’s confidence reminds him that nobody can fully control another person.
Themes
Turner silently plans to escape if any of the staff members find out about what Jaimie did to Earl, but the boys eventually hear that Dr. Cooke attributed the event to Earl’s bad health. In the end, Earl recovers, but he doesn’t return to Nickel. Consequently, Spencer replaces him with a man named Hennepin, whom the boys later learn is even harsher.
Although Jaimie’s prank successfully banishes Earl from Nickel, it backfires when Spencer brings on an even meaner sidekick. This once again reminds readers that, no matter what the boys do, they are at the mercy of Spencer and his cronies. However, this doesn’t mean they’re completely powerless, as evidenced by the fact that Jaimie doesn’t get in trouble for poisoning Earl.
Themes
