The Nickel Boys

by Colson Whitehead

The Nickel Boys: Frame Story 1 key example

Frame Story
Explanation and Analysis—Keeping History Alive:

In The Nickel Boys, Whitehead uses a frame story to weave his singular narrative through multiple time periods. In the Prologue of the novel, readers learn that university students in Florida have excavated the anonymous remains and graves of boys who once attended the infamous Nickel Academy. The reform school has since shut its doors, but during the mid-20th century, it exposed hundreds of students—particularly young Black men—to violence, psychological trauma, and death. Now, a real estate company wants to build offices on the grounds, but the unearthing of former Nickel students who died at the academy has become "an expensive complication."