Stereotypes Of Oppression In 'Nickel Boys'

Gabby Kim
Mr. Frankenfield
AP Literature and Composition–Period 2
15 May 2023
Shades of Oppression Some people believe that the world is black and white, however, some believe the world is a mixture of gray. People become who they are based on the environment they are exposed to. In society, many people come from places of all backgrounds and races, but it is hard for some to accept those differences leading to discriminatory actions against minorities. Colson Whitehead demonstrates how the societal system is the story’s true villain by portraying an oppressive environment that characters like Jaimie, who struggle to discover their own ethnic identities, endure in The Nickel Boys. Jaimie has bounced around at Nickel Academy frequently because

Most of the boys that were sent here committed minor crimes or were orphans. At this school, the boys would be taken to the White House, also mentioned in The Nickel Boys, to receive brutal beatings and sexual assaults by the guards. Cooper, a survivor, talks about the beatings he endured as a white man at Florida’s Dozier School for Boys. “Cooper passed out, but a boy in the next room later told him he counted 135 lashes” (Allen). Cooper went through direct beatings and experienced everything firsthand. Even as the state police investigated the allegations of torture and death from this school, there was not enough evidence to support these allegations.He was taken out of bed in the middle of the night and was taken to the White House where they threw him on a bed and beat him with a leather strap. “The beating room had a bloody mattress and a naked pillow that was covered instead by the overlapping stains from all the mouths that had bit into it” (Whitehead 69). The evil actions committed against students as depicted in Whitehead’s novel are very similar to the actions described by Cooper in Florida’s Dozier School for Boys. These punishments went beyond the limit of discipline and how they became a product of racism and

An oppressive environment causes innocent people to become turned into monsters. The Nickel Boys demonstrates the systematic abuse these young boys endured at Nickel Academy. Most of these boys, especially the Black students, were beaten to death on a daily basis and experienced brutal punishments for disobeying their teachers and guards. None of these boys got to truly know themselves, like Jaimie, who was not even given the chance to discover his own identity for what he chose it to be. Even though many thought racism to be over following the Civil Rights movement, that was far from the truth. It was only hidden behind the smiles on peoples’ faces; exactly how it was at Nickel