'Trauma And Repression In The Nickel Boys'

Historical records show that nearly 100 boys from the dozier school for boys died between 1900 and 1973. Most of these boys were found in unmarked graves, meant to cover up the reputation of the school. Throughout this essay, I will discuss the novel, “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead. Trauma and repression is a major topic of this novel. The reader will most likely think this because of how Whitehead connects the novel to the real story of the Dozier School For Boys reform school. Whitehead makes this connection to the real story by taking aspects and situations relating to trauma and repression and tying it into characters in the novel. In the novel “The Nickel Boys”, trauma and repression is a main theme because of the way Whitehead

To support my argument, some of the experiences and abuse nature the boys at this school had to go through regardless of what they might have done is unacceptable. No child should be treated with such consequences for things like stealing a car, or getting into fights. To expand off of my argument, an example of someone being treated with severe abuse as a consequence is when Elwood had tried to stop Black Mike from bullying Corey. With Elwood trying to stop the situation, Black Mike punched Elwood when they got caught by Phil, one of the white housemen. Because of this scuffle Elwood had gotten into, he received his first sense of consequence in the white house at the Nickel Academy. “Then it was Elwood's time. The two cells faced each other, separated by the hallway. The beating room had a bloody mattress and a naked pillow” (Pg 68-69). “The beating room had a bloody mattress and a naked pillow” proves the abuse that Elwood goes through at the Nickel Academy because he knew what was about to come. No person should have to face that amount of fear knowing they are about to be beaten endlessly. A second example of trauma and repression being shown in the novel is when Elwood was listening to Black Mike and Phil in the white house. He had to overhear Black Mike, who came off as a very tough person, brutally screaming over the sound of the

The events these boys face will hurt and haunt them for their whole life, it is something they will never escape, and something they are going to have to deal with forever. To begin, Elwood and Turner escape the school, and have been biking for some time. They notice a service van behind them and jump off the bikes and start running. Hennepin and Harper start shooting at them and they are running for their lives. Elwood had unfortunately been shot and killed while Turner kept running. “Turner kept running. He asked himself later if he heard Elwood cry out or make any kind of sound but never did figure it out” (Pg 201). Elwood’s death would have been a very traumatic and shocking thing for Turner to go through because the two both had so much hope of making it to town together and living a normal life, but only one of them made it. This situation leaves Turner with a very intense feeling of loneliness and despair. To add to the effects that the students are left with after leaving the Nickel Academy, Turner and Elwood have been hot at, resulting in Elwood being killed, something that will never leave Turner's mind for the rest of his life. “Elwoods death made the papers. He was a local boy, you can’t escape the long arm of the law, that bullshit” (Pg 202). “Elwoods death made the papers” (Pg 202), shows the effects that Elwoods death will have on