The unofficial graveyard that a team of archaeologists discovers on the grounds of Nickel Academy represents the many secrets that the institution has kept from the world. For decades, the school beat, raped, and killed its students (especially its black students) without any repercussions, and the only reason it was able to do this was because it shrouded itself in a veil of secrecy. By keeping its horrific policies out of the public eye, Nickel Academy managed to avoid punishment, doing whatever it wanted to its students for decades. When news of the secret graveyard finally spreads across the nation, though, people suddenly realize that the institution was run by evil and heartless disciplinarians—even though the Nickel Boys themselves have known this truth the entire time. Furthermore, the fact that the public discovery of the graveyard is what inspires Turner to confront his trauma suggests that the graveyard itself reflects his own unwillingness to examine his painful history. In this sense, then, the secret graveyard also symbolizes Turner’s repressed emotions and eventual decision to more thoroughly process his trauma.
The Secret Graveyard Quotes in The Nickel Boys
The discovery of the bodies was an expensive complication for the real estate company awaiting the all clear from the environmental study, and for the state’s attorney, which had recently closed an investigation into the abuse stories. Now they had to start a new inquiry, establish the identities of the deceased and the manner of death, and there was no telling when the whole damned place could be razed, cleared, and neatly erased from history, which everyone agreed was long overdue.
Plenty of boys had talked of the secret graveyard before, but as it had ever been with Nickel, no one believed them until someone else said it.
And he had betrayed Elwood by handing over that letter. He should have burned it and talked him out of that fool plan instead of giving him silence. Silence was all the boy ever got. He says, “I’m going to take a stand,” and the world remains silent. Elwood and his fine moral imperatives and his very fine ideas about the capacity of human beings to improve. About the capacity of the world to right itself. He had saved Elwood from those two iron rings out back, from the secret graveyard. They put him in Boot Hill instead.
The Secret Graveyard Symbol Timeline in The Nickel Boys
