Nickil Boys Quotes

Martin Luther kind once said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."Colson Whitehead explores the idea of how our experiences shape us. In the novel, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead Elwood is a young boy who lives in Tallahassee, Florida with his grandmother Harriet. He was what people call a “ good kid”, kind, smart, and hardworking. Even though Elwood is very book-smart he struggles with more straightforward issues. He is always willing to stick up for others and lend a helping hand. But Elwood is sent to Nickel Academy, a “school” for troubled boys, where he takes on a new view of the world and starts to lose his principles. At the beginning of the novel, Elwood is optimistic and caring but starts

When Elwood first arrives at Nickel he needs to adjust to a new perspective on the world. After having been brutally beaten, Elwood begins to change. “ Elwood’s beating at the white house had him scarred all over, not just his legs. It had weeviled deep into his personality”(Whitehead 121). This quote is important because it describes how Elwood tries his best to resist Nickel’s ways and stay true to his morals. But he soon realizes the punishment that comes with it. The phrase “ weeviled deep into his personality” represents how being beaten impacted Elwood both physically and mentally. Elwood had been beaten for sticking up for someone else and doing what he thought was right. From this point on, Elwood slowly loses his pride and starts to go along with the ways of Nickel. Nevertheless, deciding that doing what’s right isn’t always worth the consequences. As Elwood spends more time at Nickel, he continues to change. Elwood has stopped caring about his self-imposed standards. Now that Elwood has been at Nickel for a while, he’s started to notice that he has adapted to this new personality. Elwood realizes, “He was like one of those Negroes Dr. King spoke of in his letter from jail, so complacent and sleepy after years of oppression that they had adjusted to it and learned to sleep in it as their only bed”(Whitehead 156). This quote is significant because it explains how Elwood has become the people he used to look down on. He has changed in a way that he doesn’t like. After having stayed out of trouble at Nickel Elwood had slowly lost his dignity. The phrase “ learned to sleep in it as their only bed”, represents how Elwood has gotten used to keeping his head down and standing down, thinking it was the only way to make it out of Nickel. In conclusion, during Elwood’s time at Nickel, he slowly became less empathetic towards others and gave up on longing for a sense of