ipl-logo

Segregation In The Nickel Boys

497 Words2 Pages

In the mid-1900s, segregation was a controversy going on in the world. With Martin Luther King Jr. becoming more popular while fighting against segregation, young Elwood is influenced by his impactful speeches. Throughout the novel The Nickel Boys, Elwood learns more about himself and overcomes his fears which leads him to take a call to action. Overcoming the pressure of society today is the biggest step to having a meaningful life. One's life will never be lived to the fullest if action is never taken. In order to live a meaningful life, one must learn to overcome societal pressures. In The Nickel Boys, Elwood wants justice. While at Nickel, Elwood is brought to the white house and is beaten multiple times for standing up for someone. Just like Elwood, if one wants to make a difference in their life, they need to take action for change to happen. “If it is true for you, it is true for someone else, and you are no longer alone.” In reality, there will always be someone else going through the same issues. By Elwood getting his …show more content…

If one doesn’t try to make a life for themself, then nothing good will come from it. Nobody would ever get anywhere in life if they don’t fight for it. If MLK never fought against segregation, who knows what the world would be like today. While at Nickel, Elwood fought to get the truth about Nickel out for the world to hear. “All the men on the website were white. Who spoke for the black boys? It was time someone did.” Even if just one person speaks up and calls to action, it is still a start. Support from others can also significantly help someone keep fighting. Having a support system is a big part for people to keep people trying hard. Working hard to make a life for oneself is necessary for everyone since one won’t get anywhere in life if they don’t do anything about it. By taking action, one is willing to fight for better results and most importantly, for a better

Show More
Related

  • Stereotypes Of Oppression In 'Nickel Boys'

    901 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Brief Biography Of John Lewis Civil Rights Activist

    1778 Words  | 8 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr. became a role model for John when he heard him for the first time giving a sermon on the radio. The implication here is that John had been someone working towards being a Civil Rights activist for African Americans, without even knowing in the beginning. He did what he thought was best, not always or just for him, but also for the people around him. Lives would be altered if John Lewis did not take the difficult and important steps he did in his life that were encouraged to take by his feeling of

    Read More

  • Jackson As A Son In Emancipation Day By Wayne Boyd

    1073 Words  | 5 Pages

    The 1940’s was defined as a time of segregation, meaning that growing up as a person of colour during the 1940’s was extremely difficult. However, the book Emancipation Day written by Wayne Grady ,sheds light on the perspective of a light skinned young man named Jackson Lewis who is born into an African American family that is black. Throughout the novel, William Henry who is the father of Jackson Lewis, is in extreme disbelief that Jackson is his son. The author conveys the development of William’s character by attempting to get him to accept that Jackson is his child despite the fact that his skin tone differs from his own. We see his growth when we see him try to stop isolating him since Jackson is born to William trying to help Jackson

    Read More

  • Dozier School For Boys Essay

    1379 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Nickel Boys, written by Colson Whitehead, is a work of historical fiction that explores the lingering effects of slavery. Elwood Curtis, a black teenager growing up in 1960s Florida, is wrongfully condemned to Nickel Academy, a juvenile reformatory, and finds himself confined to a nightmarish chamber of horrors. The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a reform school that was ultimately subject to an investigation and shut down, served as the inspiration for Nickel Academy. Throughout the novel, readers are guided through the inner workings of an institution that should have acted as a rehabilitation for troubled adolescents but instead was a site of egregious injustice. By basing The Nickel Boys on a real historical event, Whitehead effectively

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of MLK Jr.'s Speech

    308 Words  | 2 Pages

    MLK Jr. in this speech tells his audience of the grave injustice that is happening all around him. Instead of involving himself in a violent movement to stir up large amounts of hate, he instead leads a nonviolent movement where he and his followers protest nonviolently in the streets and local shops. They were bombarded by water hoses and attack dogs because of their protest, but continued to press on regardless of the peril that they put themselves in. They were fighting, in MLK Jr.’s mind, an “illegal unconstitutional junction” that the government had set up to persecute the black community in America (MLK Jr. 216). He compares their situation to Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan, where the Samaritan was not expected to help the dying man out, but did so anyways out of the compassion in his heart, spending his own money to put the man into a good inn.

    Read More

  • Hierarchy In The Nickel Boys

    1707 Words  | 7 Pages

    Characterization is one of the most important aspects in a story. Sometimes, characters can overpower, or accept this power that has overcome them. In literature, hierarchy is one of the structures mentioned. According to “The Nickel Boys,” by Colson Whitehead, the characters in this book demonstrate an act of hierarchy, whether it’s a challenge or a surrender to fate, specifically one of the main characters; Elwood Curtis. Times where there is an acceptance to hierarchy is an understatement during Part 1.

    Read More

  • Social Hierarchy In The Nickel Boys

    1679 Words  | 7 Pages

    Colson Whitehead's novel, The Nickel Boys, is a powerful and heartbreaking story about the atrocities that took place at a reform school in Florida during the Civil Rights era. The novel follows the lives of two African American boys, Elwood Curtis and Turner, as they navigate the brutal and unjust social hierarchy at the Nickel Academy. Harriet and Jaimie are two characters in the novel who also respond distinctly to the social hierarchy, and their responses contribute to the reader's understanding of the text as a whole. Throughout the novel, the characters' reactions to the hierarchy they are placed in reflect the larger societal issues of racism, inequality, and corruption. Some characters resist the system, while others adapt to it in

    Read More

  • Senor Noboa By Cesar Chavez: How Words Inspire Change

    1127 Words  | 5 Pages

    MLK has also said, “Lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity” (P.17) This shows that the blacks who, because of racism, cannot find jobs to make money, while all the whites around them are living great lives with wealth and happiness, even though it is a free country and everybody should be equal in wealth, and prosperity, and happiness. These main goals are almost the same as the ones in the declaration of independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of

    Read More

  • The Social Hierarchy In Part I Of Nickel Boys By Elwood Curtiss?

    246 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Part I of The Nickel Boys, Elwood Curtis is under the rule of the social hierarchy and doesn’t know how to stand up for himself, but finds a spark of advocacy. When Elwood goes to his history class, the other students and him look at all the demeaning slurs in the book, “but as the school year went on, the students of Lincoln High School stopped noticing the curses… Why hadn’t anyone told them to do this before” (Whitehead 29). Although the clear social status was brought on by Mr. Hill, Elwood illustrated just how hurtful the social hierarchy can be. It hurt at first, however over time the terms became so prevalent that they were meaningless.

    Read More

  • Moving Up The Truth About Getting Ahead In America Summary

    1274 Words  | 6 Pages

    Hard work is essential, ultimately, helping us to

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of John Lewis Speech

    1298 Words  | 6 Pages

    John Lewis, in his speech “You must find a way to get into trouble, good trouble” (2014), argues that others shouldn’t stand in the shadows, that they should go out and make their voices heard. Lewis supports his argument by using historically accurate evidence such as referring to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. and their advocacy for civil rights; he also uses personal experiences to further his argument. Lewis’s purpose was to empower others to make their voices heard in order to effect change. Lewis speaks in a calm, relaxed, but serious tone for the graduating class of 2014 from Emory University. His speech came in the same year that Eric Garner and Micheal Brown were murdered after being racially profiled, giving his speech a particular

    Read More

  • Elwood's Transformation In The Nickil Boys

    1161 Words  | 5 Pages

    Elwood is the leading character of the book as he discovers what life is like on campus and what all happens behind closed doors. Both Elwood and Turner are black and face lots of racism. The Nickel Boys is based on a real reform school

    Read More

  • Nickil Boys Quotes

    957 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Racial Segregation In Richard Wright's Black Boy

    515 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racial segregation affected many lives in a negative way during the 1900s. Black children had it especially hard because growing up was difficult to adapting to whites and the way they want them to act. In Black Boy, Richard Wright shows his struggles with his own identity because discrimination strips him of being the man he wants to be. Richard undergoes many changes as an individual because of the experience he has growing up in the south and learning how to act around whites.

    Read More

  • Black Lives Matter Persuasive Speech

    1502 Words  | 7 Pages

    The title of the article I chose to address is titled “The rise of Black Lives Matter: Trying to break the cycle of violence and silence”. This article extend beyond the idea of Black Lives Matter and wants the reader to be informed on what it is like to be black in america. The author includes a wide amount of information to help the reader understand why this cry for help was even created and why they want to stand up and make a change in our society. The purpose of this piece is to inform the general audience as to what Black Lives Matter really is and explain how they hope to rise as a movement. All though there may be issues within the group and outside forces that are wanting to go against them they will still not be silenced.

    Read More

More about Segregation In The Nickel Boys

Open Document