Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys ending captures the dissonance between what reformation institutions should offer vis-à-vis the reality. The concluding chapters decorously wrap up the plot and theme, effectively capturing the undisclosed social injustices committed on juveniles. A couple of quotes from the final chapters, as illustrated below, illustrate the artistic relation between injustice and perseverance.
For instance, the remark, “That’s what the school did to a boy… It didn’t stop when you got out” illustrates the unsurprising realization that boys coming out of the rehabilitation school cannot correctly integrate with society, contrary to typical expectations (p.154). While the observation is undeniably counterintuitive, Whitehead paints it as the very design of most facilities, even at present. Thus, the novel offers a heart-breaking closure to the Curtis and Turner experience with Black indignation in Juvenile facilities by exposing the elusive promise of racial equality.
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Similarly, the novel’s ending has chapters alternating between Elwood’s last days at the academy and his later years, which delivers just the right distillation of the story preceding him and Turner. It as well shines an unforgiving light on the controversial subject of racial terrorism. What is more, is that Whitehead poignantly hits on the institutionalized vice of inequity while the nation still pays lip service to its commitment to social justice. Essentially, the observation, “Perhaps Nickel was the very afterlife that awaited him, with a White House down the hill and an eternity of oatmeal and the infinite brotherhood of broken boys,” is an illustration of the systemic rot that cast disillusionment on the youth it pledged to mold into responsible people (p.177). No wonder the author muses, “The boys could have been many things had they not been ruined by that place” (p.155). The boys were denied their fundamental rights in broad daylight.
The concluding chapters and the epilogue illustrate the unfailing hope and struggle against injustice portrayed by the disadvantaged in society. In the novel, the hope is mostly sustained by Martin Luther King’s philosophy of good trumping over evil. Whitehead writes, “We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful,” to reflect the persistent hope in Turner and Elwood to survive the emotional and psycho-social onslaught by the system (p.169). In the epilogue, Turner resolves that “What happens will happen” when deciding to follow Elwood’s grave, which shows the determination despite the unnerving hardships.
In conclusion, the novel’s ending is a thoughtful culmination of small boys' resilient struggle in correctional schools that turn into torturous prisons. Whitehead successfully conveys the social satire in fiction to capture the evils still present in society today.
References
Whitehead, C. (2019). Nickel Boys. New York: Double Day.
