Study Guide for Book Clubs: The Nickel Boys: Study Guides for Book Clubs, #45

By Kathryn Cope

An essential tool for all reading groups!

 

No reading group should be without this book club companion to Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Nickel Boys.

 

This comprehensive guide includes background to the novel, a full plot summary, discussion of themes & symbols, detailed character notes, 30+ thought-provoking discussion questions, and even a quick quiz.

 

Study Guides for Book Clubs are designed to help you get the absolute best from your book club meetings. They enable reading group members to appreciate their chosen book in greater depth than ever before.

 

Please be aware that this is a companion guide and does not contain the full text of the novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kathryn Cope
• Release date: Aug 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393395553

Kathryn Cope

Kathryn Cope graduated in English Literature from Manchester University and obtained her master’s degree in contemporary fiction from the University of York. She is the author of Study Guides for Book Clubs and the HarperCollins Offical Book Club Guide series. She lives in the Staffordshire Moorlands with her husband, son and dog.

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Introduction

There are few things more rewarding than getting together with a group of like-minded people and discussing a good book. Book club meetings, at their best, are vibrant, passionate affairs. Each member will bring along a different perspective, and ideally, there will be heated debate.

Nevertheless, a surprising number of book club members report that their meetings have been a disappointment. Even when their group enjoyed the book in question, they could think of astonishingly little to say about it and soon wandered off-topic altogether. Failing to find interesting discussion angles for a book is the single most common reason for book group meetings to fall flat. Most groups only meet once a month, and a lacklustre meeting is frustrating for everyone.

Study Guides for Book Clubs were born out of a passion for reading groups. Packed with information, they take the hard work out of preparing for a meeting and ensure that your book group discussions never run dry. How you choose to use the guides is entirely up to you. The ‘Background’, ‘Style’, and ‘Setting’ chapters provide useful context which may be worthwhile to share with your group early on. The all-important list of discussion questions, which will probably form the core of your meeting, can be found towards the end of this guide. To support your responses to the discussion questions, you will find it helpful to refer to the Themes & Symbols, and Character sections.

A detailed plot synopsis is provided as an aide-memoire to recap on the finer points of the story. There is also a quick quiz—a fun way to test your knowledge and bring your discussion to a close. Finally, if this was a book that you enjoyed, the guide concludes with a list of further reads similar in style or subject matter.

This guide contains spoilers. Please do not be tempted to read it before you have finished the original novel as plot surprises will be well and truly ruined.

Kathryn Cope, 2020

Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead was born in 1969. One of four siblings, he grew up in Manhattan. His parents ran an executive recruiting company and sent their children to private schools with a mostly white studentship. After graduating from Harvard in 1991, Whitehead worked as a freelance journalist before becoming an author.

As a novelist, Colson Whitehead is known for his versatility, experimenting with different styles and genres. A recurring theme in his work, however, is the USA’s attitude towards race. His first novel, The Intuitionist (published in 1999) imagined the life of the first black female elevator inspector in an alternative version of New York. Later novels included a coming-of-age novel set in the 1980s (Sag Harbor), and a post-apocalyptic zombie thriller (Zone One).

Whitehead’s emergence as a bright new literary talent was officially acknowledged in 2002 when he was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship grant. Otherwise known as the ‘Genius Grant’, the award was set up to encourage and reward exceptional originality, insight, and potential within the creative arts. More mainstream recognition came with the release of The Underground Railroad in 2016. Selected by Oprah Winfrey for her Book Club, the novel was a refreshingly original take on a runaway slave narrative. Merging various eras of American history, it reimagined the underground railroad as a literal subterranean railway. As well as receiving Oprah’s approval, The Underground Railroad won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

In The Nickel Boys (2019), the author continues his exploration of African American history —this time surprising his readers with a realist storyline. The story about a reform school for boys in the 1960s won Whitehead a second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction—an honour only shared by three other writers in the history of the award.

Colson Whitehead is married to literary agent Julie Barer and has two children. They live in New York City, with a second home in East Hampton, Long Island.

Background to The Nickel Boys

THE JIM CROW ERA

The ‘Jim Crow Laws’ were introduced in the Southern United States in 1877. In theory, they gave black Americans a separate but equal status. In practice, they ensured that the oppression of African Americans continued once slavery was made illegal.

Under Jim Crow, all public facilities were racially segregated. Black Americans could not eat in the same restaurants or drink from the same drinking fountains as whites. They were denied the front seats on public transport and allocated separate schools and workplaces. This segregation even applied to cemeteries.

Despite the separate but equal pledge, black citizens were provided with poorly funded and inferior facilities in almost every area. The inevitable consequence was that they were economically and socially disadvantaged. African Americans were also expected to defer to the superiority of whites by stepping off the sidewalk to allow them to pass.

One of the most insidious effects of Jim Crow was African Americans’ lack of access to a decent education. Ensuring that black Americans remained largely uneducated meant that there was little chance of the younger generation rising above their station. In The Nickel Boys, Whitehead focuses on this issue through Elwood’s thwarted attempts to better himself. His hopes of eventually going to college are partly inspired by the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954. This landmark ruling by the Supreme Court declared that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional.

While the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education was welcomed by the Civil Rights Movement, ensuring its implementation was another matter. In the South, there was widespread opposition to integrated schools, and many states participated in a response of Massive Resistance. Some states made half-hearted moves towards desegregation while others defied it altogether. Florida largely fell into the latter category, and segregation in schools continued. This phenomenon is illustrated in The Nickel Boys as both Elwood’s high school and the Nickel Academy are segregated institutions.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The Nickel Boys is set against the backdrop of the U.S. civil rights protests of the early 1960s.  The Civil Rights Movement aimed to end racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans. One of the movement’s most famous figureheads was the African American minister and activist, Martin Luther King Jr. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, he sought to advance black civil rights by nonviolent means. His methods included protests, boycotts and civil disobedience. King led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycotts after Rosa Parks was famously arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. He also coordinated the 1963 protests in Alabama and, in the same year, the March on Washington where he gave his memorable I Have a Dream speech.

By the time Elwood is a teenager, the Civil Rights Movement is reaching its peak. A positive thinker by nature, Elwood is hopeful that the movement will succeed in its aims and wants to contribute to it. He is inspired by Martin Luther King, the images of protestors in Life magazine, and by his history teacher, Mr Hill.

Mr Hill’s character highlights the role of Freedom Riders in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1961, this group of activists travelled in buses across the Southern states protesting against segregation. Their activities included asserting their right to use whites-only facilities such as lunch counters, restrooms and bus terminals. Mr Hill’s experience of being imprisoned and attacked with a tire iron reflects that of many